INDIANAPOLIS – Peyton Barnes was named to the national Top 30 honoree list for the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year Award, the association revealed on Monday (Oct. 23).
 
Barnes joins 30 national honorees across all three divisions for the NCAA Woman of the Year recognition. She will be recognized at the 2024 NCAA Convention in Phoenix this January.
 
Barnes, from Waldorf, Md., was a four-year member of the Fairmont State Acrobatics & Tumbling team and was named the MEC Specialist of the Year following her senior season in the spring of 2023. She was also recognized nationally by the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association (NCATA) as the 2023 recipient of the Colleen Kausrud Leadership Award, recognizing the senior Acrobatics & Tumbling student-athlete that exemplifies leadership throughout her career.
 
In addition to earning all-conference recognition for her performance on the mat, Barnes was also a triple major at Fairmont State and earned degrees in National Security and Intelligence, Political Science and Criminal Justice. She graduated Summa Cum Laude. She was a three-time member of the NCATA All-Academic Team, was named to the NCATA Academic Honor Roll, and was a member of the MEC All-Academic Team four times during her career.
 
She also earned the 2023 Jasper H. Colebank Award, recognizing the top senior student-athlete at Fairmont State. She helped Fairmont State to two MEC Regular Season and Tournament Championships and was an eight-time conference champion in individual events. She was also a member of the student-athlete advisory committee (SAAC) as a Fairmont State and Mountain East Conference representative.
 
Established in 1991, the award is rooted in Title IX and recognizes female student-athletes who have completed their undergraduate studies and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers.

Selected from a record-breaking 619 nominees submitted by member schools — a group that was then narrowed to 164 nominees at the conference level — the Top 30 honorees include 10 from each of the three NCAA divisions. Each honoree has demonstrated excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership. The honorees represent 15 sports, including two student-athletes representing NCAA Emerging Sports for Women. They have a variety of majors, including national security and intelligence, neuroscience, economics, civil engineering, education, nursing, computer science and business management.

"We are thrilled to celebrate 30 incredible student-athletes who surpassed the standard of excellence on their campus, in their community and on their teams," said Renie Shields, chair of the Woman of the Year Selection Committee and senior associate athletics director/senior woman administrator at Saint Joseph's. "This decorated and diverse group represent the thousands of women competing in college sports each year and are contributing to the ongoing growth of women sports."

The selection committee will determine three honorees from each NCAA division, for a total of nine finalists. From those finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will choose the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The NCAA Woman of the Year will be named, and the Top 30 will be celebrated at the NCAA Convention in January. Below is a list of the Top 30.
 

NOMINEE NAME	SCHOOL NAME	CONFERENCE NAME	SPORT(S)
Vanessa Aniteye	Seattle Pacific University	Great Northwest Athletic Conference	Indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
Peyton Barnes	Fairmont State University	Mountain East Conference	Acrobatics and tumbling
Hannah Beatus	Grand Valley State University	Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference	Softball
Aliyah A. Boston	University of South Carolina, Columbia	Southeastern Conference	Basketball
Kendis Butler	Penn State Harrisburg	United East Conference	Basketball
Ann Carozza	West Chester University of Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference	Swimming and diving
Camryn DeBose	University of New Haven	Northeast-10 Conference	Basketball
Anjali Devireddy	Johns Hopkins University	Centennial Conference	Tennis
Callie Dickinson	University of Georgia	Southeastern Conference	Swimming and diving
Audrey Ernst	Arizona State University	Pac-12 Conference	Triathlon
Logan Eggleston	University of Texas at Austin	Big 12 Conference	Volleyball
Grace Forbes	Rice University	Conference USA	Cross country, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
Divonne Franklin	Pennsylvania Western University, California	Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference	Indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
Kristen Hayden	Indiana University, Bloomington	Big Ten Conference	Swimming and diving
Sophie Jaques	The Ohio State University	Western Collegiate Hockey Association	Ice hockey
Amanda Montplaisir	Minnesota State University, Mankato	Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference	Cross country, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
Elise Morris	Middlebury College	New England Small College Athletic Conference	Soccer
Tess Muneses	Washington and Lee University	Old Dominion Athletic Conference	Field hockey
Birgen Nelson	Gustavus Adolphus College	Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference	Indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
Kristen Palmer	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference	Fencing
Charlotte Richards	University of Missouri-St. Louis	Great Lakes Valley Conference	Volleyball
Karson MacKenzie Saunders	Union College (New York)	Liberty League	Softball
Jill Schmitmeyer	University of Findlay	Great Midwest Athletic Conference	Golf
Delaney Schnell	University of Arizona	Pac-12 Conference	Swimming and diving
Myah Selland	South Dakota State University	The Summit League	Basketball
Ellie Shahbo	Harvard University	The Ivy League	Field hockey
Sophia Glory Slovenski	University of Southern Maine	Little East Conference	Indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
Annika Urban	Emory University	University Athletic Association	Cross country, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
Anika Washburn	Case Western Reserve University	University Athletic Association	Soccer
Madi Wulfekotter	University of Central Missouri	Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association	Indoor track and field, outdoor track and field