Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Two student-athletes have been nominated by their institutions to represent the American Rivers Conference as its NCAA Woman of the Year nominee. Central's Mariah Fritz (Sr., Tama, Iowa/East Marshall) and Wartburg's Adrienne Boettger (Sr., Cedar Falls, Iowa/Cedar Falls) are this year's institutional nominees.
2019 marks the 29th year of the Woman of the Year Award program. The award honors graduating student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership.
A record 585 female college athletes have been nominated by NCAA member schools for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year award. The nominees competed in 23 different sports across all three NCAA divisions, including 262 nominees from Division I, 131 from Division II and 192 from Division III. Multisport student-athletes account for 144 of the nominees.
Next, The A-R-C's NCAA Woman of the Year representative will be selected by a vote from the conference's faculty athletic representatives (FAR) who make up the FAR executive committee. The American Rivers representative will be announced in late July. Then, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division.
The 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced on October 20 in Indianapolis, Indiana. More information on the award and a comprehensive list of this years nominees can be found here.
Mariah Fritz, Central College - Softball
Fritz is an integrated studies (biology, chemistry, and psychology) major with a 3.80 GPA. She was the American Rivers Conference co-pitcher of the year and a two-time league pitcher of the week. She also received academic all-league honors as well as 2018 CoSIDA academic all-district recognition and received the Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete Award.
Fritz concluded her senior season with a 20-9 mark and two saves in 32 appearances. She threw 172.0 innings and posted a 3.58 earned run average. Fritz helped lead Central to a 27-10 record, the program's 13th conference title and a record 30th NCAA Division III tournament berth. She recorded all 12 of Central's league victories. Fritz was a second-team NFCA Division III All-Midwest Region pick.
Adrienne Boettger, Wartburg College - Basketball
Boettger is an elementary education major with a 3.65 GPA. Boettger was a member of the women's basketball program during her career at Wartburg. She helped the Knights make four-straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including two trips to the Final Four. The 2018-19 season marked the third consecutive year Wartburg claimed the regular season and conference tournament championships
Boettger was named First-team All-Conference, D3hoops.com Third-team All-Region, and a WBCA All-American this season. She was named Academic All-Conference three times.
Boettger finished her career as Wartburg's all-time leader in field goal percentage (.629) and set the program's single season record this year at .688.
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