The College of Wooster's Isabelle Hoover is the latest Fighting Scot to be selected for the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. The Fighting Scots' distance ace, who is the first Wooster cross country student-athlete to win the scholarship, was among the 21 female fall sport student-athletes chosen for the one-time, non-renewable $10,000 award.
"Isabelle has amazed me with her ability to balance her training and team responsibilities with her commitment to reaching her highest potential academically," shared Dennis Rice, Wooster's head cross country and track & field coach. "She shows great passion for track and cross country with dedication to training and competition as she pursues academic excellence. The challenges Isabelle faces in track and cross country has helped develop her ability to handle her overall academic workload with confidence and enthusiasm."
"It is an incredible honor to receive this scholarship from the NCAA," added Hoover. "I am thoroughly indebted to the efforts of Dr. (Shelley) Judge, who aided in my nomination and the completion of my application, as well as to Dr. (Kara) Morrow and Dr. (Monica) Florence, who generously wrote me letters of recommendation. I am also extremely thankful for the support of Coach Rice, with whom I have worked both on and off the track and cross country course for the past five years, and Coach (Ellie) Jindra, whom I have loved getting to know these last few years. Finally, I would like to thank my family and teammates for their steadfast love and encouragement. This honor would certainly have been impossible without the help, sacrifices, and guidance of those I mentioned."
In cross country, Hoover repeated as a first-team All-NCAC performer this fall. The fifth-year senior's fourth-place finish at the NCAC Cross Country Championships marked the highest finish by a Scot since five-time All-American Katie Wieferich was the 2006 conference champion. Hoover debuted at the conference championships with second-team All-NCAC honors, thanks to a 14th-place time of 23:26.1 as a first-year in 2018. She improved to 10th-place as a sophomore, then cracked the top-seven in 2021 for an elevation to first-team all-conference. In 2021, Hoover helped the cross country team to a third-place conference finish, marking the program's highest since 1998. She was an all-region harrier at the 2019 NCAA Div. III Great Lakes Regional Championships, earned two All-Ohio awards in cross country, and was a five-time NCAC Athlete of the Week.
Hoover's distinguished track and field portfolio is headlined by 2022 NCAC Indoor Track & Field Distance Athlete of the Year honors. She helped the Scots to a runner-up team finish at the 2022 NCAC Indoor Track & Field Championships, which marked the program's highest finish since 1997. Hoover swept the 3,000 (10:32.11) and 5,000 meters (17:47.61) titles at the 2022 indoor meet, and she is a four-time conference champion and is the two-time reigning 10,000 meters outdoor champion. In all, Hoover has six All-NCAC and one All-Ohio honors in track and field and is a five-time NCAC Athlete of the Week for middle-distance and distance events.
Elsewhere, the art history and classical languages major was voted to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® Team for the 2021-22 academic year, is a five-time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic qualifier, and is a three-time member of the NCAC Academic Honor Roll.
The accomplished researcher's paper titled "Homer's Song of Sympathy: Andromache and Her Portrayal in the Iliad" was selected for the Eta Sigma Phi Convention in 2021 and was published in University of Chicago's Animus Classics Journal. She also had papers selected for the Eta Sigma Phi Undergraduate Research Conference and the Ohio Classical Conference.
Hoover spent last summer as an intern in the registrar's office at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She aided with the filing and archiving of insurance paperwork, shipping paperwork, condition reports, and other legal documents. Other key duties of Hoover's internship included budgeting, planning, installation, and deinstallation of special exhibitions and uploading information into systems for the museum. Hoover also held a summer-long internship with the Toledo Museum of Art, where she aided with a full collection inventory, implemented a new barcoding system, and digitized museum files.
On campus, Hoover is a peer tutor, working with Greek and Latin courses. She previously severed as a research assistant, departmental assistant, and teaching assistant within the Classical Studies Department, was a research assistant to an art history professor, was a health coach in the community with the College's Wooster Community Care Network, and was a violinist with the Wooster Symphony Orchestra. She has been a member of Eta Sigma Phi since 2019, holding officer positions for two academic years.
Hoover is planning to pursue a master's of philosophy in art history and architecture at the University of Cambridge.
Wooster now has 27 all-time NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients, with 14 of them coming in the last 10 academic years. Wooster led the entire NCAA with four selections during the 2021-22 academic year and has finished in the top-five nationally for most selections three times since the 2017-18 academic year.