Utter Nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year Award

PARK CITY, UT - MARCH 10: competes in the Giant Slalom race during the Division I Men’s and Women’s Skiing Championships held at the Park City Mountain Resort on March10, 2022 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Brett Wilhelm/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Hannah Utter competing at the 2022 NCAA Championship

Photo by: NCAA

Utter Nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year Award

7/15/2022 4:16:00 PM | Skiing

The fifth-year senior was an All-American in the slalom this past winter

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — On Thursday, the NCAA announced the 577 graduating student-athletes who were nominated from member schools for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year Award, and Dartmouth skier Hannah Utter '21 was among the elite group.

Utter finally got the opportunity to shine for the Big Green after suffering through injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic, earning All-America honors in the slalom this past winter. The native of Waitsfield, Vermont, also won a pair of carnival races — the slalom at the University of Vermont and the giant slalom at the East Regionals hosted by the University of New Hampshire — helping her earn a spot on the All-East First Team and enter the NCAA Championship as the third-ranked women's skier in the East.

A fifth-year senior with a 3.82 GPA as a psychology major with a minor in neuroscience, Utter was named to the USCSCA National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team three times throughout her career. She was also active in a number of community activities, including founding a mentorship program (Female Athlete Support Team, or FAST) that connects female Dartmouth athletes with adolescents regarding eating disorders in athletic communities. Other organizations she was involved with were the Ford Sayre Mentorship Program, Green Mountain Valley School Mentorship of Rising Elite Athletes and 2,000 Miles for Racial Justice.

As 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year program is an important opportunity to honor and reflect on the impact of women on intercollegiate sports. Established in 1991, the award recognizes female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers. This year's nominees represent all three NCAA divisions, including 248 from Division I, 127 from Division II and 202 from Division III. Of the 577 nominations, 23 sports are represented, with 125 student-athletes competing in multiple sports.

The conference offices will next select up to two student-athletes from their member school nominations. (If two are chosen, one must be an international student-athlete or student-athlete of color.) Nominees who compete in a sport that is not sponsored by their school's primary conference (such as Utter), as well as associate conference nominees and independent nominees, will be picked to advance by a selection committee. The Woman of the Year Selection Committee will then select 10 student-athletes from each division, determining the Top 30 honorees.

Of the Top 30, the Woman of the Year Selection Committee will announce nine finalists, three from each NCAA division. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will review the finalists and name the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year.

For the first time in the award's history, the Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the Woman of the Year will be named at the NCAA Convention. The 2023 Convention will take place in January in San Antonio.

Notes: The most recent Dartmouth athlete to be selected for the Top 30 was cross country and track and field runner Abbey D'Agostino '14 in 2014, and only three other Ivy League athletes since have earned the honor … prior to D'Agostino, Alexi Pappas '12 of the track and field team was one of the nine finalists for the award in 2012 and Courtney Hammond '11 — an alpine skier like Utter — advanced to the Top 30 in 2011.