Cedarville graduate Rachel Sweeney-Bredeson has been named a conference-level nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Each school in the nation submitted a nominee and that list was pared to one from each conference, with Sweeney-Bredeson standing as the conference's best.

A cross country and track & field standout at Cedarville, Sweeney-Bredeson posted a perfect 4.0 GPA in her pharmacy studies at CU as both an undergrad and graduate student. Her academic honors include Great Midwest Elite 25 Awards for both indoor and outdoor track & field and also an NCAA Elite 90 winner for having the top GPA at the national meet. She placed sixth in the nation in the steeplechase this year to earn All-American honors after placing third at the Great Midwest championships. The team captain for Cedarville in both cross country and track & field, Sweeney-Bredeson is also president of the Student National Pharmacist Association and chair of the Student College of Clinical Pharmacy Central Nervous System PRN. 

The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, now will choose 10 nominees from each division for the national Top 30 honorees. The Top 30 honorees, chosen from the 156 conference-level nominees, will be announced in October. From there, the selection committee will narrow the pool to three finalists from each division, for a total of nine student-athletes — one of whom will be named the 2022 Woman of the Year.

At January's NCAA Convention in San Antonio, the national Top 30 honorees will be celebrated, and the NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced, as selected by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics.

Rooted in Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991.