Smith won the award under the following criteria:
Selection Criteria
- Student-athlete must be at least a sophomore academically and in his or her second year of competition at their current institution in any sport.
- Student-athlete is an active member on the roster, eligible for the championship, and a member of the designated squad at the championship site. For team sports: If they are injured during the course of one of the playoff games, they must have played in more than 90 percent of the team's regular season games. For individual/team sports, the student-athlete must be physically able to compete at the finals site,
- Only undergraduate GPA is applicable. If the student-athlete has graduated and is in graduate school, he or she is still eligible for the award but consideration will be based strictly on an undergraduate GPA. Graduate students must be in good academic standing with the university
- Each student-athlete is only eligible to win the award once per academic year, even if he or she participates in more than one sport.
- Credits completed shall only consist of those credits accumulated at the current institution and shall not include any transfer or AP credits
- For team sports, the award winner will be the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at the championship.
- For individual sports, the award winner will be the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA on the top two team finishers.
Congrats to Kayla.