Recent San José State graduate and gymnast Stephanie Relova has been named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation honoree for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
Relova was selected for the conference-level recognition because of her outstanding achievements during her collegiate career. Nationally, 148 conference-level honorees are nominated for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year from a pool of 585 school nominees who represent 20 sports in all three divisions. Relova is one of 64 who competed in Division I.
The Top 30 honorees, comprising of 10 women from each division, will be named by the Woman of the Year selection committee in September. The selection committee will then narrow the pool to nine finalists, three from each division in early October. The 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year will be selected from those finalists by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics and celebrated at the annual banquet on October 20 in Indianapolis.
Relova was a member of the Spartan women's gymnastics team the past four seasons. She was a first team All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation honoree on bars in 2019 and a second team All-MPSF pick on beam. Relova helped the Spartans to back-to-back MPSF titles in 2017 and 2018.
Academically, Relova was the national runner-up for the 2019 Arthur Ashe Jr., Sports Scholar Female Scholar Athlete of the Year. She was named the top female gymnast scholar-athlete and is a three-time Arthur Ashe Jr., Sports Scholar. She is a three-time MPSF Scholar Athlete and NACGC/W Scholastic All-American.
Relova graduated summa cum laude this past May with a degree in business administration/management. She was a part of the 2019 Gary Sbona Honors Program in the School of Business and named the "Best and Brightest" by two of her professors. Relova was a three-time San José State President's Scholar.
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.