GAMBIER, Ohio – A total of 429 female student-athletes, spanning NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, were nominated for the 22nd annual NCAA Woman of the Year award. Over the last few months, that group was whittled down to the best 30 nominees, one being Alisa Vereshchagin, a recent Kenyon College graduate and former Ladies swimmer.

For Vereshchagin, the path to a top-30 spot began in June, when she was put forth as Kenyon's nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, which honors female student-athletes who have completed their eligibility, demonstrated academic and athletics excellence, and engaged in community service and leadership opportunities. The next step for Vereshchagin was collecting the North Coast Athletic Conference's Pam Smith award, which gave her the go-ahead as the conference's nominee.

After earning votes from both the College and the conference, Vereshchagin moved on to the national level and cleared the first hurdle by making the top 30, a group composed of 10 honorees from each NCAA division. She can now look forward to September, when that group of 30 will be pared down to three finalists from each division. The entire process will conclude on October 14, when the NCAA will hold a ceremony in Indianapolis to announce its sole winner of the 2012 Woman of the Year award.

Prior to clearing all the criteria, Vereshchagin proved herself in the pool. This past season she was the national champion in the 100-yard breaststroke. At the national meet, she totaled four top-three finishes and collected six All-America certificates. That brought her career totals to a pair of national event titles and 19 All-America awards.

She was the Ladies' 2012 team captain and at the NCAC Championship meet she won four events and was crowned the conference's Swimmer of the Year. She was also recognized as Kenyon's 2012 Senior Athlete of the Year and as the swim team's Shawn M. Kelly Memorial award-winner, given to the individual who takes the sport to the highest team level by inspired performance as a member of relay teams.

In the classroom, Vereshchagin posted a 3.79 grade point average as a double major in biology and modern languages and literature. She was a four-year member of Kenyon's Merit List and a four-year recipient of Kenyon's Distinguished Academic Scholarship. She earned Kenyon's Russian Prize in 2011 and was named the Critical Language Scholar in Russian by the U.S. Department of State and American Councils for International Education, which granted her a fully-funded scholarship for study in Vladmir, Russia, in 2011. Her collegiate academic accomplishments were topped off with a spot on the 2012 Capital One Academic All-America Team, as well as an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

Vereshchagin also devoted a great deal of her time to community service, contributing to the Humane Society of Knox County, the Special Olympics and the Girls and Women in Sports Day at Kenyon. She served as an apprentice teacher of both Russian and Spanish languages at Kenyon and devoted time to tutoring third- and fourth-grade students in reading, writing, spelling, and typing.