Amanda Laytham, a recent graduate of Ithaca College who earned seven all-America honors in cross country and track and field, has been named the NCAA Woman of the Year for New York State.
Laytham is one of 52 finalists -- representing each state as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico -- for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, which honors outstanding female student-athletes who have excelled in academics, athletics, and community leadership, and have completed their collegiate athletic eligibility.
The award encompasses athletes from Division I, II, and III schools; Laytham is one of just 11 state-wide winners from Division III schools. The NCAA Woman of the Year will be selected from 10 finalists (who will be announced September 15). The national winner will be announced on October 31 at the NCAA Woman of the Year dinner in Indianapolis.
Laytham's spectacular athletic and academic career featured three selections as an academic all-American and Ithaca's Iris Carnell Senior Athlete of the Year Award (named for an Ithaca coach and administrator and awarded to the top senior female athlete in the senior class). She earned a school-record seven-all-America honors in her career (one in cross country, five in indoor track and field, one in outdoor track and field), with a top finish of second (in the indoor 1,500-meter run in 2002). Laytham was one of nine athletes to be named a New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association (NYSWCAA) Scholar-Athlete last spring and received an NCAA postgraduate scholarship. A third-team academic all-American as a sophomore and a first-team selection as a junior and senior, she is just the third Ithaca athlete to be named to three academic all-America teams. Laytham received the ECAC Robbins Scholar-Athlete award and was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and the Student Athlete Advisory Council. Laytham graduated summa cum laude in May with a major in exercise science and minors in coaching, nutrition promotion, and health.
Laytham is the second Ithaca athlete in the past seven years to receive the Woman of the Year award from the NCAA. Heidi Nichols, who earned all-America honors in volleyball and track and field, was selected in 1998.
Contributed by Michael Warwick
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20040916151329570