Delophont Announced as NCAA Woman of the Year Nominee
6/22/2016 2:30:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.- Kent State track and field's Dior Delophont (Nancy, France) has been nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, as announced by the NCAA on Tuesday, June 21.
Delophont, a recent graduate, is one of 571 student-athletes from all three divisions within the NCAA to be nominated for the award. Of those 571 nominees, 231 represent Division I institutions.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.
During her career at Kent State, Delophont garnered All-American honors eight times, including four All-American First Team performances. Delophont's best finish at an NCAA Championship came in the 2014 indoor season when Delophont finished third in the high jump.
Delophont will go down as one of the most decorated athletes in Mid-American Conference history, as she captured 12 individual MAC Championships and five MAC Championship Women's Most Valuable Performer awards. Her 25 top-eight finishes at the conference championships gave Delophont a total of 200 points scored, leading Kent State's women's program to a sweep of the indoor and outdoor championships in 2013 and 2014.
Delophont's level of commitment to athletics is rivaled only by her level of commitment to academics. A fashion design major, Delophont carried a 3.84 grade point average over her four years at Kent State, graduating magna cum laude in the spring of 2016. Delophont's academic excellence is lauded by her 2015 CoSIDA Academic All-America selection, two Academic All-District selections, two MAC Distinguished Scholar Athlete selections and six Academic All-MAC selections.
In the midst of training for MAC Indoor Championships earlier this year, Delophont worked tirelessly designing her senior collection which, when finished, led to her selection to participate in the 2016 Mercedez-Benz China Fashion Week. Delophont was one of six KSU students to travel Beijing to show off their designs amongst some of leading designers in the fashion industry.
Being an international student, Delophont used her experiences to mentor students in the International-Student Orientation Program. Delophont was also selected to be a senior speaker for the Kent State School of Fashion, promoting the program to incoming freshmen and prospective students.
In the community, Delophont volunteered her services in the Running with the Flashes program, aimed at getting elementary students involved in athletic activities.
Delophont's career accomplishments culminated with the Janet H. Bachna Award, given to a Kent State student-athlete that displays athletic, academic and leadership excellence. Delophont was presented the award at the 2016 Judith K. Devine Athletic Academic Honors Dinner, where she spoke about her experiences at Kent State and what it has meant to be part of the Flash family.
As the next step in the selection process, the Mid-American Conference will select two candidates from the conference to move forward in the process. From there, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee will select the top-10 nominees from each division
From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses from among those nine to determine the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year, set to be announced on Sunday, Oct. 16 in Indianapolis.
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