INDIANAPOLIS---Lauryn McCalley, a former diving standout at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is the 2005 NCAA Woman of the Year.

McCalley received the award – one of the most prestigious that the NCAA bestows – at the 15th annual NCAA Woman of the Year Awards Dinner tonight, October 29, at the Westin Indianapolis.  The award honors academic and athletics excellence, as well as community service and leadership.

A selection committee comprised of representatives from NCAA member schools chose 51 state winners representing the states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico from 352 nominees.  The state of Arizona did not submit any nominees.  Ten finalists were selected from the state winners.  The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics selected McCalley from the 10 finalists.

McCalley, a Moultrie, Georgia native, is the second Woman of the Year from Tennessee and the sixth swimming and diving student-athlete to be named Woman of the Year.  The 1992 Woman of the Year, Catherine Byrne, was also a member of the swimming and diving team at Tennessee.

Claiming a 3.93 grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale) in microbiology, McCalley expects to graduate in May 2006 and plans to attend the University of Georgia to become a compounding pharmacist.  McCalley was a recipient of the NCAA postgraduate scholarship and one of three finalists for the NCAA Walter Byers Scholarship.  She was also consistently named to the Tennessee Thornton Center Honor Roll, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Honor Roll, won the SEC Scholar Athlete Award, and as a senior, was named a SEC H. Boyd McWhorter Postgraduate Scholarship Recipient.  McCalley was also named one of Glamour magazine’s 2004 Top Ten College Women.

McCalley also excelled in the pool and was a member of the United States National Team from 1995-2004.  She earned all-America honors and first-team all-SEC honors throughout her collegiate career and was named the SEC Freshman Diver of the Year.  McCalley is no stranger to success, being named the Tennessee Swimmer/Diver of the Year in 2002-03 and recipient of the Tennessee No Guts No Glory Award in 2003-04, all while serving as team co-captain.

While not studying or competing, McCalley found time to serve in a leadership role as the Tennessee Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President, representing female student-athletes on the Tennessee Athletics Board and serving on the Athletes in Action Leadership Team.  She served as president of Homeless Holiday Dinners and Baskets, worked with the mentoring program at Colquitt Regional Hospital and was a member of the Read Aloud program for children.  A member of the Chi Omega Sorority, McCalley was active with the Faith Promise Church Involvement and Service and served as a mentor for the Florence-Crypton Pregnancy Agency.

“My goals have not changed since I was young, but they have deepened,” McCalley said in her personal statement on her nomination form.  “Because of being a student-athlete, these dreams have now transformed into reality.  The benefits of being a student-athlete have been manifold.  First, the discipline that diving has taught me is invaluable and has helped me achieve my goals.  Secondly, I have learned to focus under pressure, a much needed skill in life.  Lastly, I have learned the hard way Winston Churchill’s famous quote, ‘Never, never, never, never, never, never give up.’  These three life lessons learned from being a student-athlete will travel with me and help me reach my goals as I go to the University of Georgia to be a compounding pharmacist.”

Last year’s Woman of the Year was Kelly Albin, a lacrosse standout from Division II University of California, Davis.  Albin graduated magna cum laude with a degree in food science with a microbiology emphsis.  She was the third winner from UC Davis since the award’s inception in 1991.  The University of Georgia has also produced three national award winners. 

For more information about the NCAA Woman of the Year award and past winners, go to http://www.ncaa.org/awards/woty/.