Elise DeRoo ’12 nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year

Colgate’s Elise DeRoo ’12 was one of two Patriot League student-athletes to be nominated for the 2012 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

DeRoo’s nomination was based on her service, leadership, athletics and academics. DeRoo, a native of Newtown, Conn., finished an incredible four-year career at Colgate this spring. She was a dominant force in cross country for two years, capturing the women’s individual championships in 2009 and 2010 before taking third at the 2011 event.

DeRoo was also a force within the league in both the indoor and outdoor seasons of track and field during her career. She won a pair of individual titles at the 2010 indoor championship meet in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs en route to earning first-team All-League laurels. That spring she added two more victories in the 5,000 and 10,000 events at the outdoor championships. She earned another gold at the 2011 indoor championships when she set the meet record with a winning effort in the 1,000, and was part of Colgate’s record-setting foursome that took first in the distance medley relay.

After not competing at the league’s 2012 indoor track and field championships, DeRoo returned in the spring to take fourth place at the league meet with a personal best in the 10,000 while adding a fifth-place finish in the 5,000-meter run.

DeRoo excelled in the classroom as well as in competition, graduating with a 3.97 grade-point average with a degree in molecular biology. She was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year five times, including twice in cross country (2010, 2011), twice in indoor track and field (2010, 2011) and once in outdoor (2010).

A member Colgate’s Dean’s List all four years, she earned the school’s Mitchell Memorial Award as the graduating student-athlete with the highest GPA. DeRoo plans to spend next year working in a vascular surgery lab at the University of Michigan before attending medical school. Navy’s Jess Palacio was also nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year award by the Patriot League on Thursday. The winner of the award will be named in October.

Original source here.