The Big 12 Conference has nominated Amy Cashin (West Virginia) and Vanessa Shippy (Oklahoma State) for 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership. A total of 154 female student-athletes have been named candidates by conferences and independent schools.
The selection committee will choose the top 10 honorees in each division. From those 30 candidates, the top three in each division will be determined. The Committee on Women’s Athletics will then select the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year with the winner announced at a ceremony on October 28 in Indianapolis. Former Texas Tech track and field student-athlete Ifeatu Okafor earned the prestigious honor in 2013.
Shippy was tabbed the 2018 Big 12 Softball Player of the Year and earned All-Big 12 First Team honors for a third-consecutive season. Additionally, Shippy became just the second three-time NFCA All-American in OSU history.
The senior from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, earned Senior CLASS First Team All-American accolades and was named a top-10 finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. Shippy ranked among the top-five players nationally in batting average (.417), on-base percentage (.613), runs (73) and walks (57).
Academically, Shippy earned a 3.895 grade-point average and was tabbed the Big 12 Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year for a second-consecutive season. She was also a three-time Google Cloud Academic All-American selection.
A native of Werribee, Victoria, Australia, Cashin earned All-Big 12 and All-Mid-Atlantic Region honors in cross country before claiming Second Team All-America accolades at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships last March. Cashin placed ninth in the women's mile at the national meet, finishing in 4:43.67. She also earned Second Team All-America distinction during the outdoor season at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships, registering a 13th-place finish in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase in a school-record time of 9:58.75. In all, Cashin tallied three All-America honors in her collegiate career.
Cashin, who was named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team for cross country and track and field in 2017-18, repeated as the Big 12 Women's Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year in June, becoming the conference's first back-to-back winner in the sport. She also was named to the 2018 Google Cloud CoSIDA Women's Track and Field/Cross Country Academic All-America First Team, her second career Academic All-America honor and first appearance on the first team. Cashin graduated with a bachelor's degree in sports and exercise psychology with a double minor in psychology and athletic coaching in 2017 and holds a 4.0-grade point average (GPA) while pursuing a master's degree in counseling.