Racasan Named C-USA Woman of the Year Honoree
7/30/2019 11:23:00 AM | Women's Cross Country, Women's Track & Field
HOUSTON – Rice track and field graduate Elsa Racasan was named the 2019 Conference USA honoree for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, announced this week. The award recognizes not only the athletic accomplishments of outstanding young women, but also their academic achievements, community service and leadership.
A recipient of the Jim Castaneda Postgraduate Scholarship back in June, Racasan graduated in May with a 4.1 GPA in Kinesiology (minor in Business) and was accepted to Rice's MBA program. Racasan is a three-time top 10 finisher at the C-USA Cross Country Championships and finished third at the 2017 C-USA Indoor Championships in both the mile and 3000m. In total, Racasan has six top-five finishes at C-USA Indoor Conference Championships and three top-five finishes at C-USA Outdoor Championships.
Racasan is a six-time winner of Rice's President's Honor Roll, a four-time winner of the C-USA Academic Medal, a two-time recipient of the Rice Scholar Athlete award, a two-time C-USA Scholar Athlete of the Year recipient, twice named to the C-USA All-Academic Team and once named to the CoSIDA First Team Academic All-America squad.
For two years, Racasan served as a teaching assistant and co-directed the Athletics Peer Academics Advising program. In addition, Racasan volunteers her time with a diverse group of non-profit organizations, which includes Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
"This is a tremendous honor for Elsa and for Rice University," Rice women's T&F Head Coach Jim Bevan said. "I'm so proud of Elsa. She's a wonderful person and has all of the attributes you would want in a true student-athlete. This is truly a tribute to one of the finest student-athletes I have ever coached."
Racasan joins former Owls Becky Wade (2012) and Lennie Waite (2009) as Rice athletes to represent C-USA for the NCAA Women of the Year awards.
NCAA member schools nominated 585 women for the national award, the most in the program's 29-year history. Nationally, 149 conference-level honorees are nominated for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year.
Conference-level nominations will be forwarded to the NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee, which will choose the top 10 honorees in each of the three NCAA divisions. The NCAA will announce the Top 30 honorees on NCAA.org in early September.
From among the top 30 candidates, the selection committee determines the top three finalists in each division. The NCAA Committee of Women's Athletics will select the 2019 NCAA Women of the Year from the nine finalists. The 2019 NCAA Women of the Year will be announced at an awards dinner in Indianapolis on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019.
-RiceOwls.com-
A recipient of the Jim Castaneda Postgraduate Scholarship back in June, Racasan graduated in May with a 4.1 GPA in Kinesiology (minor in Business) and was accepted to Rice's MBA program. Racasan is a three-time top 10 finisher at the C-USA Cross Country Championships and finished third at the 2017 C-USA Indoor Championships in both the mile and 3000m. In total, Racasan has six top-five finishes at C-USA Indoor Conference Championships and three top-five finishes at C-USA Outdoor Championships.
Racasan is a six-time winner of Rice's President's Honor Roll, a four-time winner of the C-USA Academic Medal, a two-time recipient of the Rice Scholar Athlete award, a two-time C-USA Scholar Athlete of the Year recipient, twice named to the C-USA All-Academic Team and once named to the CoSIDA First Team Academic All-America squad.
For two years, Racasan served as a teaching assistant and co-directed the Athletics Peer Academics Advising program. In addition, Racasan volunteers her time with a diverse group of non-profit organizations, which includes Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
"This is a tremendous honor for Elsa and for Rice University," Rice women's T&F Head Coach Jim Bevan said. "I'm so proud of Elsa. She's a wonderful person and has all of the attributes you would want in a true student-athlete. This is truly a tribute to one of the finest student-athletes I have ever coached."
Racasan joins former Owls Becky Wade (2012) and Lennie Waite (2009) as Rice athletes to represent C-USA for the NCAA Women of the Year awards.
NCAA member schools nominated 585 women for the national award, the most in the program's 29-year history. Nationally, 149 conference-level honorees are nominated for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year.
Conference-level nominations will be forwarded to the NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee, which will choose the top 10 honorees in each of the three NCAA divisions. The NCAA will announce the Top 30 honorees on NCAA.org in early September.
From among the top 30 candidates, the selection committee determines the top three finalists in each division. The NCAA Committee of Women's Athletics will select the 2019 NCAA Women of the Year from the nine finalists. The 2019 NCAA Women of the Year will be announced at an awards dinner in Indianapolis on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019.
-RiceOwls.com-
Players Mentioned
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