Alumna Isabelle Hoover, a NCAA Woman of the Year nominee from the North Coast Athletic Conference and The College of Wooster, was named the Division III Commissioner's Association (D3CA) Region VII Women's Sport Student-Athlete of the Year on Monday, as announced by the organization. Hoover, and the other nine regional winners, are now on the ballot for the D3CA Women's Sport Student-Athlete of the Year.
The accomplished scholar was regularly in publication or chosen for academic presentations during her time at Wooster. Her 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 by the University of Chicago in its Animus Classics Journal. Hoover's papers were selected for the Eta Sigma Phi Undergraduate Research Conference and the Ohio Classical Conference.
The art history and classical languages alumna, who earned a prestigious $10,000 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, gained significant and relevant field experience throughout her undergraduate career. She spent a summer as an intern in the registrar's office at The Metropolitan Museum of Art - the largest art museum in the Americas. There, Hoover aided with filing and archiving of insurance, shipping, and condition paperwork and other key legal documents. Hoover's internship included hands-on experience in budgeting, planning, installation, and deinstallation of special exhibitions and uploading information into systems for the museum. Previously, Hoover gained practical knowledge in the field at the Toledo Museum of Art where she aided with a full collection inventory, implemented a new barcoding system, and digitized museum files.
Other academic highlights of note include Hoover's time as a peer tutor for Greek and Latin courses on campus. She was a research assistant, departmental assistant, and teaching assistant within the Classic Studies Department, a research assistant for an art history professor, a health coach through the College's Wooster Community Care Network, and was a violinist with the Wooster Symphony Orchestra. Hoover was actively involved with the campus Eta Sigma Phi chapter and was an officer for two years.
NCAC Distance Athlete of the Year honors in 2022 headlined Hoover's decorated cross country and track & field awards portfolio. The four-time NCAC champion earned the conference's top distance honor following a distance sweep in the 3,000 (10:32.11) and 5,000 meters (17:47.61) at the 2022 indoor conference championships. The distance ace was the NCAC 10,000 meters champion in 2021 (38:00.59) and 2022 (36:51.49). Overall, Hoover earned 10 all-conference honors, including a pair of first-team certificates as a top-seven cross country finisher. Her fourth-place NCAC time of 23:54.9 in 2022 marked Wooster's highest finish since W Association Hall of Famer and five-time All-American Katie Wieferich won the individual title in 2006. Hoover helped Wooster to its first runner-up NCAC indoor track & field finish since 1997 in 2022 and its highest NCAC cross country finish since 1998 in 2021. She was a 10-time NCAC Athlete of the Week honoree. Elsewhere, Hoover was a two-time College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® honoree and a four-time member of the NCAC Academic Honor Roll.
Hoover will begin pursuit of a master's of philosophy in art history and architecture at the University of Cambridge this fall.
Conferences were permitted to submit two nominations per gender for the D3CA awards if at least one of the nominations was an international student or ethnic minority. The NCAC nominated its two nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year on the women's side.
Nominees must be graduating seniors and selection criteria includes considerations based on academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership, and a personal statement submitted by each nominee. Voting was conducted by the commissioners within each of the 10 regions, with the top male and female honoree recognized as finalists for the committee to select the D3CA Men's Sport and Women's Sport Student-Athlete of the Year, which will be announced in the coming weeks. Hoover is Wooster's first regional winner of this award, which is in its second year.