COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Fresno State track and field thrower Amelia DiPaola and San José State golfer Kajsa Arwefjäll have been selected as the Mountain West nominees for the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

Since its establishment in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized excellence in academics, athletics, community service, and leadership in graduating female student-athletes. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have earned her undergraduate degree by the summer of 2024.

DiPaola earned All-America Honorable Mention as a fifth-year senior in 2024, finishing 21st in the hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Fresno State’s first NCAA qualifier in the hammer since 2014, DiPaola competed in the NCAA West Preliminary Round four times in her outdoor career.

A two-time All-Mountain West performer in the hammer, DiPaola finished third in the event at the 2024 MW Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the second time in her career (2022). She also scored for the Bulldogs in the shot put at the 2024 MW meet, placing sixth. DiPaola posted a personal-best hammer throw of 62.89 meters at the Fresno State Invitational in the spring, moving her up to No. 5 in program history, and entered the Bulldogs’ top 10 list in the shot put in her final season with a heave of 15.02 meters at the Triton Invitational. During her final indoor season, DiPaola scored in a pair of events at the 2024 MW Indoor Track and Field Championships, placing fifth in the shot put and eighth in the weight throw.

DiPaola was a five-time Academic All-Mountain West performer and Mountain West Scholar-Athlete and a two-time College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District selection. She also earned All-Academic Athlete honors from the USTFCCCA four times in her career and graduated magna cum laude in May with a 3.84 GPA in animal science. She has been accepted into veterinary school.

The Fremont, California, native was extremely active in her community, highlighted by winning Fresno State’s Community Service Award and serving on the Bulldogs’ Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, for which she was MW representative in 2021-22, president in 2022-23 and community service chair in 2023-24. DiPaola also volunteered at Fresno Bully Rescue and with the United States Twirling Association West Region and National Championships and served as a baton twirling coach and ice hockey coach.

Arwefjäll capped off her five-year SJSU career with her second straight second-team All-America citation and first career individual MW title, a three-stroke win at the 2024 MW Women’s Golf Championship. Arwefjäll, who was also named the MW Player of the Year for the second straight season in 2024, was a five-time All-MW performer, earning first-team recognition in each of her final four seasons. She made four NCAA Championship appearances in her career and was an All-America Honorable Mention in 2021-22.

The Hollviken, Sweden, native has also competed on the national and international stages. In addition to playing in the 2023 and 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateurs, Arwefjäll represented Sweden at the 2023 World Amateur Team Championships. She also played in the 2023 Women’s Amateur Championship, the 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup and the 2021 Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship and European Ladies Amateur Championship.

In the classroom, Arwefjäll graduated summa cum laude in May with a 3.861 GPA in business administration/international business. She earned WGCA Scholastic All-American, Academic All-Mountain West and MW Scholar-Athlete honors in each of her five seasons and was a CSC Academic All-District selection in 2024.

Arwefjäll used golf to contribute to the community throughout her career, including five years of teaching the sport at clinics for First Tee in the Bay Area. She also volunteered for four years with the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, an after-school sports program for girls in the community, worked a children’s clinic at the 2023 ANNIKA Intercollegiate, and worked a breast cancer awareness golf clinic. Additionally, Arwefjäll helped collect feminine products for three years as part of the San José State SAAC’s annual feminine product and sports bra drive and read at elementary schools.

A record 627 nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year were submitted by schools this year. Conference offices could nominate up to two student-athletes from among their school nominations if at least one was an international student-athlete or student-athlete of color.

The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the Top 30 honorees – 10 from each division – from the conference-level nominees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in the fall. The selection committee will then determine the top three honorees in each division from the Top 30 to comprise the group of nine finalists, later in the fall. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will choose the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year. The honorees will be celebrated at the Woman of the Year Award Presentation at the NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, in January.

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