October 9, 2006
Release courtesy of Larry Happel, Central College sports information director

PELLA, IOWA . . . Central College’s Katie Pederson of Lake Mills, a May graduate, is among 30 student-athletes nationwide named as conference nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

Pederson, selected as the nominee for the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, is one of 10 student-athletes representing Division III conferences. She was the 2005 Iowa Conference volleyball MVP and the 2006 Iowa Conference indoor and outdoor high jump champion.

It marks the fifth time in the 13-year history of the award—and the fourth time in the past six years—that a Central student-athlete has been Iowa’s lone finalist. Prior to this year, nominees were selected on a statewide basis rather than through conferences.

Pederson, who is attending graduate school at Loyola University, will be recognized at a dinner in Indianapolis, Ind. October 28, along with the other conference finalists.

The NCAA Woman of the Year Award honors student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership.

A sociology major with a minor in Spanish, Pederson graduated with a 3.75 grade point average. She produced a senior honors project in sociological research, received the Gordon De Jong Outstanding Senior Sociology Student Award and was runner-up in the Annie Dillard Personal Essay Writing Contest. A three-time academic all-conference honoree in both volleyball and track and field as well as a Central team co-captain in both sports, Pederson served as president of Central’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council, was a student representative to the Central board of trustees, co-chaired the senior class challenge fundraising campaign and was a resident advisor. She also volunteered for the Literacy Army in the Pella elementary schools and helped teach English to a family of Mexican immigrants in Ottumwa. Pederson helped lead the Dutch to four Iowa Conference volleyball crowns and was a three-time NCAA Division III tourney participant. In track and field she was a provisional national meet qualifier in the high jump.

Previous Central College graduates who were finalists for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award were Emilie Hanson (women’s basketball, 1995), Candace Wilson (volleyball, 2001), Angie Nielsen (volleyball, 2002) and Raegan Schultz (women’s track and field/volleyball, 2004).

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