COLUMBIA, Mo. - A mere week after closing their Mizzou Track & Field careers, Kearsten Peoples and Jill Rushin continue to add to their already-impressive resumes, as they were both nominated for the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year award. In its 25th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year award has had a record high nominations for 2015, with a total of 480 individuals spanning all three divisions.
The nomination process starts with the NCAA member schools, who enter their top graduating female student-athletes. Each conference then chooses two to move into the top 30, and then the selection committee picks the final nine finalists (three from each division). Those nine finalists will be honored, and the winner named, at the October 18 award ceremony in Indianapolis, Ind.
Throughout their tenures as Tigers, both Peoples and Rushin have re-written the Mizzou history books in the throwing events, with Peoples earning a spot at the top of the record board for each of her five events during the indoor and outdoor seasons - the indoor shot put, outdoor shot put, weight throw, hammer, and discus. Rushin was not far behind, hitting the second-best marks in school history for each of her three events - the indoor shot put, outdoor shot put, and discus.
Both are multiple-time All-Americans, including a National Championship title by Peoples during the 2015 indoor season, where she earned the first win for the Tigers at the NCAA Championships since 2001. She entered the meet already in the NCAA record books after she hit the No. 7 mark in collegiate history for the women's weight throw during the final home meet of the season, surpassing her own school record with a toss of 22.84m (74-11.25). Although her title-winning throw of 22.71m (74-6.25) was just off of that PR, it was still good for the No. 8 mark in NCAA Championship meet history.
That title was the cherry-on-top, so to speak, to a career which tallied a total of nine All-American honors, the latest of which came this past outdoor season where Peoples placed eighth in the hammer throw. She also earned 11 all-conference honors, including five championship titles, from both the Big 12 and SEC.
Rushin is also no stranger to the podium, having earned four All-American honors, including a seventh-place finish in the shot put during the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships, and a fifth-place finish in the same event during the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships. She also holds seven All-SEC honors, including two titles in the indoor and outdoor shot put. Rushin was also named the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2014, in recognition for her outstanding work in both the classroom and community, as well as in the ring.
The nine finalists for the NCAA Woman of the Year award will be announced in September, and the winner will be chosen during the October 18 award ceremony in Indianapolis, Ind. For the latest on your Tigers, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter @MIZ_TrackField.