The University of Louisville’s Makenli Forrest and Meghan Schneider have been selected as nominees for the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
Forrest (Track and Field) and Schneider (Field Hockey) are among 535 student-athletes across the nation who have been nominated by NCAA member schools for the award which honors the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of outstanding female college athletes.
Makenli Forrest
Forrest (Ellenwood, Georgia) registered a Louisville school-record mark of 23.26 meters (76-3.75) to claim the gold medal on the opening day of the 2021 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships with the top collegiate throw of the year. Forrest took the gold medal in the weight throw at the 2021 ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships. She was named the ACC Indoor Track and Field Scholar Athlete of the Year and ACC Women’s Field Performer of the Year. Forrest was also a 2021 ACC Postgraduate Scholar.
In addition to this season’s success, she was the 2019 NCAA runner-up in the weight throw and an all-American in the hammer throw. She qualified for the 2020 NCAA Indoor Championships before the season was cancelled due to the spread of COVID-19. She is also a member of Louisville’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee serving as an ACC Representative and is a three-time All-ACC Academic Team selection.
Forrest earned her bachelor’s degree in health and human performance – exercise with a minor in sport administration in May 2021.
Meghan Schneider
Schneider (San Diego) has collected numerous athletic and academic honors after a career-best season in which she helped the Cardinals to their first-ever NCAA final four and the ACC regular season title. The senior defender finished her collegiate career with a 4.0 GPA while majoring in biology with a concentration in genetics subcellular and a minor in Spanish. The 2020-21 NFHCA Scholar-Athlete of the Year was also the recipient of the Elite 90 Award for the NCAA Field Hockey Championship and was a finalist for the Honda Award. Additionally, she earned CoSIDA Academic At-Large All-District honors.
The three-year starter and team co-captain earned NFHCA All-America third team honors and is a two-time West Region selection (2019, 2020). She is a four-time NFHCA National Scholar of Distinction, a two-time All-ACC Academic Team selection and has been a member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll in each of her seasons at Louisville.
Schneider earned her bachelor’s degree in biology, with a minor in Spanish in May 2021.
About the NCAA Woman of the Year
Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award has honored the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of outstanding female college athletes.
Following university nominations, conference offices will then select their nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year. Each conference nominee will be notified by the NCAA, and all conference-round nominees will be announced on ncaa.org in August.
Conference nominations are forwarded to the NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee, which identifies the top 10 honorees in each of the three NCAA divisions. From those 30 honorees, the selection committee then determines the three finalists in each division for a total of nine finalists.
The Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year from the nine finalists. At an award ceremony Oct. 17 in Indianapolis, the Top 30 honorees will be celebrated, and the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named.
