BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Recent Illinois Wesleyan University graduate Meg Stanley is the school's nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, honoring graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.

This record pool of 543 student-athletes nominated by NCAA member schools marks the largest in the 27-year history of the award with 197 coming from Division III.  A total of 229 competed in Division I and 117 competed in Division II athletics. The nominees represent 21 different women's sports, and 122 of the nominees competed in more than one sport in college.

Stanley, a native of Leawood, Kansas and Shawnee Mission East High School, graduated last month with a 3.97 grade-point average as a history / secondary education major. She was named the Women's Division III At-Large Academic All-American of the Year and was a first-team Academic All-American ®, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Stanley became Illinois Wesleyan's first national champion after she took first in the 500-yard freestyle at the national meet on March 15. Trailing with 25 yards to go, Stanley won with a time of 4:50.76, setting a new school and College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin open record in the process. She became the first CCIW swimmer, male or female, to win a 500 free national title and was selected by the head women's swimming coaches as the 2017 CCIW Female Swimmer of the Year.
 
Stanley also claimed all-America honors in the 1,650-yard freestyle where she finished third with a time of 16:41.93 on March 18. Her time set a new school and CCIW open record.
 
During the CCIW Championships, Stanley established new meet records while taking first in both the 500 freestyle (4:52.47) and the 1,650 freestyle (16:48.04). Stanley also won the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.65) and was part of the winning 800-yard freestyle relay (7:38.45).

Stanley is a volunteer for Reading is Fundamental and Susan G. Komen activities, the local Tool Library and Bed Blitz and helped organize Student Education Association fundraisers for The Promise Council. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa honors society along with the Alpha Lambda Delta and Kappa Delta Pi honoraries.

The NCAA encourages member schools to honor their top graduating female student-athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year award.
Next, conferences assess their member school nominees and select up to two conference nominees.
The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will then choose the top 30 honorees – 10 from each division. From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses from among those nine to determine the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the annual award ceremony Oct. 22 in Indianapolis.