NCAC Ohio Woman
of the Year
Award Winners

05: Jill Boo, DEN
04: Kayla Heising, WOO*
03: Ashley Jo Rowatt, KEN *^
02: Katherine Dunne, WOO
00: Aleashia Washington, WOO
99: Dawn Reinhardt, WIT
98: Heather Heitsenrether, WOO*
93: Jennifer Carter, KEN
91: Rebecca Little, KEN*

NCAC Pennsylvania Woman
of the Year
Award Winners

98: Jennifer Erdos, ALL

* - National Finalist
^ - NCAA Woman of the Year

Edited: August 31, 2005

DENISON'S BOO NAMED 2005 NCAA OHIO WOMAN OF THE YEAR

Even though her career as a collegiate swimmer ended last March, the accolades for Jill Boo, a 2005 Denison University graduate, keep piling up. Boo has been named the Woman of the Year for the State of Ohio by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The award, presented to just one female college student in each of the 50 states along with Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., honors the most outstanding scholar-athletes who have excelled in academics, athletics and community leadership.

A 2001 graduate of Anoka High School north of Minneapolis, Boo is one of the most decorated swimmers ever to come through the Denison program. A three-time national champion in the 100-yard butterfly and an 18-time All-American, Boo helped lead the DU women's swimming and diving program to a North Coast Athletic Conference Championship (2004), as well as four-consecutive top-four showings at the NCAA Division III National Swimming and Diving Championships (2002, '03, '04 and '05). In addition, Boo has been honored as a first-team Academic All-American by ESPN The Magazine, and was one of six 2005 Denison President's Medal winners (the college's highest student honor). This year, she also was awarded the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

Chosen by a committee of representatives from NCAA member institutions, Boo is one of only six state Woman of the Year honorees from a Division III college. Twenty-nine of the state winners are from Division I universities, and 16 more hail from Division II schools. Boo’s the fourth straight state winner from the NCAC, following Wooster's Kayla Heising (2004) and Katherine Dunne (2002) and Kenyon's Ashley Rowatt (2003). She is the ninth Ohio Woman of the Year from the conference and the 10th overall state winner since the program began in 1991.

The committee will now select 10 finalists from the pool of state winners based on relative achievements in academics, athletics and service. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will then choose the national winner from among the 10 finalists. The list of finalists will be made public on Sept. 26, and the 2005 National Woman of the Year will be announced during the NCAA's annual Woman of the Year awards dinner in Indianapolis on Oct. 29.The NCAC has produced four Woman of the Year finalists and the first Woman of the Year from Division III when Rowatt received the honor in 2003.

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