NCAA Woman of the Year: Minnesota Swimmer Jessica Plant Represents The Big Ten!

I always love it when a Gopher athlete is honored for being awesome, both in athletic competition and in the classroom/in the world as well. Minnesota Swimming star Jessica Plant's successes in sports and in life have earned her the honor of being named one of the two Big Ten nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year!

Jessica Plant of the University of Minnesota has been selected as the Big Ten Conference honoree for the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year.

Now in its 25th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award recognizes graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.

Here are some of the reasons Jessica Plant is up for the award:

Plant, a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was a member of the Golden Gophers' senior class that won an unprecedented four-straight Big Ten titles (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015). She was a part of the 800 freestyle relay team that won the Big Ten title in 2014, is a three-time First Team All-American and has been named to All-Big Ten First and Second Teams during her career.

Out of the pool, Plant was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist, a three-time Academic All-American, and a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. She was awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor, received the Big Ten's Wayne Duke Scholarship award and was announced as a recipient of the Big Ten Conference postgraduate scholarship. Plant completed her undergraduate career with a perfect 4.0 GPA and earned degrees in both art history and classical civilizations. Plant plans to pursue graduate work at Cornell University in art history and archaeology in the fall.

The top 30 honorees will be announced in September with the final 9 announcement coming a few weeks after that. We're proud to have Jessica representing the maroon and gold and wish her the best of luck in her graduate program at Cornell!

GO GOPHERS!