NESCAC Nominations for NCAA Woman of the Year Award Announced

Bates' Duncan, Middlebury's Demers Selected to Represent Conference

HADLEY, Mass. – Vantiel Elizabeth Duncan (Topsham, Maine) and Anjuli Demers (Dracut, Mass.), 2010 graduates of Bates College and Middlebury College, respectively, have been nominated for the 2010 NCAA Woman of the Year Award by the NESCAC.

The NCAA Woman of the Year Award honors graduating student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership. The award has been given annually since 1991.

A member of the Bobcats' indoor and outdoor track & field teams for the past four years, Duncan is a six-time All-American and a seven-time All-NESCAC recipient. Duncan won the shot put for the third year in a row and added her first conference crown in the hammer throw at the 2010 NESCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships on April 24, then claimed both events at the New England Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships in May. Earlier this year, Duncan's three-peat performance in winning both the shot and the weight throw at the New England Indoor Track & Field Championships earned her Regional Field Athlete of the Year from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). She went on to finish second in the weight toss and seventh in the shot put at the national indoor championships. All told, Duncan has been honored as All-ECAC 11 times and All-New England on 10 occasions in addition to her All-America and All-NESCAC honors throughout her career.

Duncan was equally impressive in the classroom at Bates, as she majored in politics with minors in Chinese and music and achieved a grade point average of 3.39. She was recognized as NESCAC All-Academic four out of a possible four times, was named to the USTFCCCA Women's All-Academic Track & Field Team twice, and earned CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District I Second Team honors in 2008 and 2010. Between her academic and athletic endeavors, Duncan somehow managed to find the time to also be a leader on her campus and in the local community. Duncan served as class president, was a member of the student affairs trustees' committee, and participated in the the student organization review board over all four of her years at Bates. She also worked in a variety of offices on campus, including the registrar, student financial services, the office of advancement, admissions, and the athletics department. Duncan spun tunes at the student radio station, played in the Bates orchestra and was a member of the concert choir, tutored others in Chinese and music theory, and organized, promoted, and taught a two-day clinic for local youths on throwing techniques during her time in Lewiston. In 2009, Duncan worked for the office of Olympia Snowe, the senior U.S. Senator for Maine, and assisted U.S. Representative Arthur Davis' campaign for governor in his home state of Alabama.

A two-sport All-American, Demers played defense on the Middlebury women's soccer team for the past four years and competed in the 200- and 400-meter dash for three years on the Panthers' indoor and outdoor track & field teams, serving as a captain of all three squads during her final season. A member of Middlebury's 2006 NESCAC Women's Soccer Championship team, Demers garnered All-Conference First Team honors in each of the last three seasons. Demers closed out her career on the pitch this past fall by leading a Panther defense that recorded 11 shutouts and a 0.77 goals against average while scoring her first collegiate goal. She also snagged All-America plaudits from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) for the second time, earning a spot on the 2009 Second Team. As a short distance runner, Demers claimed All-NESCAC honors five times as part of the Panthers' 4x100- and 4x400-meter relay teams with a first-place performance in the 4x400 at this year's league meet. She picked up her second All-America honor this year in indoor track & field. Among the numerous college awards she earned while at Middlebury, Demers was selected as the A. Bayard Russ '66 Memorial Athletic Award recipient, given in honor of the senior who is most outstanding in two intercollegiate sports by best exemplifying the excellence of performance, aggressiveness, leadership, tremendous desire and team spirit.

Demers double majored in sociology and psychology and graduated from Middlebury magna cum laude this spring with a 3.67 grade point average. Her academic honors include being named to the NESCAC All-Academic team four times, as she was selected to the fall, winter, and spring teams this year, recognized as a Middlebury College Scholar five times and a member of the Dean's List twice, chosen as a Third Team honoree on the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America squad, selected as a NSCAA All-American Scholar, and inducted into Psi Chi, the Psychology National Honor Society. Demers enjoys a strong connection with her surrounding community, lending her talents as a mentor to various organizations. She has served as a high school academic tutor through the T.E.A.M. project, mentored middle school youths as part of the Ticonderoga Mentoring Program, worked as a teacher and an aide for preschool children, and was a research assistant for the Children's Memory Project. Demers also represented her teammates on the Middlebury Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and volunteered for the college's annual Girls Sports Day.

Duncan and Demers were chosen by a committee of conference administrators to represent the NESCAC from a field of talented student-athletes nominated for the Woman of the Year Award. Other nominees included Kirsten Dier (Appleton, Wis.) of Amherst and Alexandra Krieg (Wellesley, Mass.) of Middlebury.

Dier patrolled the blue line for Amherst over her four years with the Lord Jeffs and helped her squad win three conference titles and two national crowns during her tenure, culminating with the NESCAC and NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Championships this past winter. The two-year team captain was named First Team All-NESCAC in 2007 and again in 2008 and was selected as part of the NCAA All-Tournament Team in 2009 and 2010. In 2010, Dier was named as one of seven finalists for the Hockey Humanitarian Award, given annually to college hockey's finest citizen. She also earned multiple Amherst College athletics awards, including the Mossman Trophy, given annually to a member of the senior class who has brought, during their four years at Amherst, the greatest honor in athletics to the institution, the Friends of Amherst Athletics Award, and the Psi Upsilon Prize, awarded to the member of the graduating class considered preeminent in scholarship, leadership, athletics and character.

Dier was unselfish with her time while at Amherst, as she visited the Amherst Senior Center regularly, fundraised for Change for Change, tutored in the America Reads program, participated in Habitat for Humanity builds, and was a medical intern on a summer trip in Burkina Faso, West Africa. She also served as a resident advisor and was a biology teaching assistant at Amherst. Graduating with distinction with a neuroscience degree and a 3.91 GPA, Dier was recently named to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America Women's At-Large First Team and is also a recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, as she will continue her studies at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse in the physician assistant program.

Krieg led the Panther cross country team to two NCAA championships during her four seasons, finishing in the top 10 at the national meet in 2006 through 2008 with a career-best third place showing in 2007. The 2008 team captain was named to the All-NESCAC team every year during that three-year stretch, claiming First Team honors in her junior and senior seasons, and was also recognized as All-America by the USTFCCCA three times over the same period. A three sport athlete at Middlebury, Krieg also attained All-America status in indoor and outdoor track & field and owns the school record in the outdoor 5,000- and 10,000-meter events.

In the classroom, Krieg earned Dean's List honors six times, was honored as a College Scholar on five occasions, and garnered four NESCAC All-Academic awards. She recently received degrees from Middlebury in molecular biology and biochemistry along with religion with a 3.83 GPA, earning the Charles B. Allen '62 Memorial Prize for achievement in her program, the Hazeltine-Klevenow Memorial Trophy for the best combination of ability in athletics and excellence in scholarship, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She served as a teaching assistant in the fall of 2007 for a cell biology and genetics course at Middlebury, was a counselor for first year students during the 2007-08 academic year, volunteered with Project Independence in 2006, a program for the elderly of Addison County, and in 2008-09 worked on the Eddy Farm School for Horse and Rider, a volunteer apprenticeship with the non-profit equine educational center.

The 2010 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced on October 17 in Indianapolis, Ind. More information on the award and a list of previous winners can be found at www.ncaa.org.

NESCAC member institutions offer extensive and broad based intercollegiate as well as club and intramural opportunities for both men and women. The Conference sponsors 26 conference sports and with member schools sponsoring an average of nearly 30 varsity programs, the NESCAC provides more than 7,500 opportunities for participation in intercollegiate competition at the Division III level.

Founded in 1971, The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) consists of 11 liberal arts colleges and has consistently reflected its commitment to the values of athletics and academic achievement. The member colleges of the conference are Amherst College, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Connecticut College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Trinity College, Tufts University, Wesleyan University, and Williams College.