INDIANAPOLIS – Recent graduate Elizabeth Hilfrank (Norfolk, Mass./King Philip Regional) of the Gettysburg College women's cross country and track and field teams was selected as the Centennial Conference nominee for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year.
 
Hilfrank was one of 154 women selected from a record pool of 581 school nominees to advance in selection process for the NCAA Woman of the Year. The nominees represent college athletes from 18 different sports spanning all three NCAA Divisions. Of those recognized, 58 nominees competed in Division I, 34 in Division II, and 62 in Division III.
 
The Top 30 honorees, comprising 10 women from each division, will be named by the Woman of the Year selection committee in September. From there, the selection committee will narrow the pool to nine finalists — with three from each division — in early October. One of those finalists will then be named the 2018 Woman of the Year by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics.
 
The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual banquet Oct. 28 in Indianapolis.
 
Hilfrank ended her career as one of the most decorated long-distance runners in school history. She was a two-time All-Mideast Region performer in cross country, finishing 20th in 2016 and 10th in 2017. Hilfrank earned her first All-Centennial Conference award with a seventh-place finish at the championship meet in 2017 and she went on to become the program's first All-American in 36 years, grabbing the final national certificate of the national championship meet with a 40th-place finish. She also turned in the fastest 6,000-meter time in program history (21:37) at nationals.
 
On the track, Hilfrank established herself as one of the team's top performers, and she ranks third in school history in the indoor 5,000-meter run (17:59.84), seventh in the indoor 3,000-meter run (10:40.11), and 10th in the outdoor 10,000-meter run (39:09.23). She placed fifth in the 5K at the Centennial Conference Indoor Championships this past year, and she also placed sixth in the 10K at the 2015 outdoor conference meet.
 
On the academic side, Hilfrank was named to the Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team this past season, becoming just the second student-athlete from the women's cross country/track and field programs to earn the honor. She was also named CC Scholar Athlete of the Year in cross country and was twice named Academic All-District First Team.
 
A member of the Dean's Honor List in each of her eight semesters, Hilfrank graduated summa cum laude and was named Phi Beta Kappa. She was awarded the Lou Hamman Award which recognizes a senior who excelled in interdisciplinary studies as demonstrated by the completion of her capstone project, her individualized major GPA, and her participation in co-curricular activities. Hilfrank designed her own major titled "Writing and Performing Media" and she minored in Spanish.
 
Hilfrank was involved in a number of activities both on and off the Gettysburg campus. On campus, she served as sports editor of the Gettysburgian student newspaper, co-hosted a weekly radio show on WZBT, served as the Alumnae Chair of Alpha Delta Pi, interned in the Office of Communications and Marketing, and was a member of the Order of Omega and Omicron Delta Kappa leadership societies.
 
Last summer, she completed an internship with National Geographic, where she wrote and contributed articles for National Geographic Kids. During the 2017 spring semester, she studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, where she served as a writer for Uloop and a video correspondent for IES Abroad. She also interned as a staff writer for "This Week on MV" on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.
 
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.