Thursday, July 15, 2021
INDIANAPOLIS – After wrapping up a standout career at Seattle Pacific and playing a key role in the Falcons’ resurgence on the Division II women’s rowing scene, Gillian Edgar has been nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.
Edgar is among 535 total nominees for the award across all three NCAA divisions and 107 nominees from Division II. Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award is rooted in Title IX and recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their college careers.
Originally a track and field athlete at Seattle Pacific, specializing in the 800 meters, Edgar transitioned from the track to the water by her sophomore year. She was a mainstay in the Falcons’ Varsity 8+ boat for three years and helped SPU reach the NCAA Championships in 2019 for the first time in eight years. The Falcons went on to place fourth in the Varsity 8+ grand final and fourth overall.
This season, Edgar helped row the Falcons to a No. 2 national ranking and a second-place finish at the inaugural GNAC Women’s Rowing Championships. She was one of three SPU rowers named First Team All-Conference and was one of this year’s recipients of SPU’s Falcon Award for Excellence.
A Second Team All-American in 2018, Edgar was the only Division II rower invited to participate in the 2019 US Rowing Under-23 National Team Selection Camp, joining 28 other student-athletes.
A business administration major with a 3.46 grade point average, Edgar is a two-time GNAC All-Academic Team selection.
As the only nominee from a GNAC institution this year, Edgar will also be the conference’s nominee for the Woman of the Year award.
The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose 10 women from each division to make up the top-30. The committee will then determine the top three honorees in each division from the top-30 with the nine finalists to be announced this fall. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will choose the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year later this fall.