Recent Salisbury University graduate Arielle Johnston was announced as a nominee for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year award.

From a program-record pool of 605 school nominees, 161 college athletes have been named conference-level nominees for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

The nominees represent student-athletes from 21 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those nominated, 59 nominees competed in Division I, 39 in Division II and 63 in Division III.

The awards continue to roll in for the All-American. Johnston collected College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America First Team honors, the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) National Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the NCAA Elite 90 award for field hockey, earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, and was a finalist for the Division III Honda Athlete of the Year. In addition, Johnston earned spots on the NFHCA National Academic Squad and Scholars of Distinction list throughout her four years at SU.

The Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) Player of the Year in 2019, Johnston was honored as a first-team NFHCA All-American this past fall. She is also a two-time NFHCA All-Region honoree and a three-time All-CAC First Team selection. 

Johnston graduated in May with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average as a community health major with a minor in psychology and Spanish. She plans on enrolling in the Applied Health Physiology graduate program at SU.

The NCAA Woman of the Year program is rooted in Title IX and has recognized graduating female college athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991.

Conferences can recognize two nominees if at least one is a woman of color or international student-athlete. All nominees who compete in a sport not sponsored by their school's primary conference, as well as associate conference nominees and independent nominees, were placed in a separate pool to be considered by a selection committee. Four nominees from the pool were selected to move forward in the process with the conference nominees.

The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will now choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division — from the conference-level nominees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in September. From there, the selection committee will narrow the pool to three finalists from each division. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2020 Woman of the Year from the nine finalists.

The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named this fall.