DENVER – University of Denver senior
Lynnzee Brown (Kansas City, Mo.) has been nominated for the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year award, the NCAA announced on July 15.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award is rooted in Title IX and recognizes graduating female college athletes who have distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
Brown is one of 535 nominees from all three NCAA divisions combined. Including Brown, a total of 251 nominees are from Division I programs, and seven are gymnasts from Division I and II teams.
Conferences will select up to two nominees from their pool of member school nominees. The NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee will then choose 10 women from each division to make the Top 30. Three finalists from each division will be announced in the fall with the winner chosen later in the fall.
After sustaining a season-ending Achilles injury in 2020, Brown returned stronger than ever in 2021 with one of the best seasons in DU history. She set numerous program records including the highest all-around score (39.825) and became the first Denver gymnast to finish the season ranked in the top three in the all-around and on two events. Her tie for the No. 2 final national all-around ranking is the highest in school history for any point in the season.
Brown helped lead Denver to its first-ever Big 12 Championship in 2021, collecting the conference all-around, bars and floor titles along the way. In the postseason, she scored three perfect 10.0s including one on both bars and floor in the NCAA Regional Final on April 3. She represented DU as an individual all-around qualifier at the NCAA National Championships, placing in the top 10 on bars, beam and floor, and becoming the first in program history to earn three scores of at least 9.900 in a single NCAA Nationals meet.
Among the accolades she earned in 2021 were Big 12 co-Gymnast of the Year, Region 2 Gymnast of the Year and seven All-American honors – four in the regular season and three in the postseason. She was also a finalist for the prestigious AAI Award and Honda Sport Award for Gymnastics.
Brown will return to the University of Denver for the 2021-22 academic year as a graduate student. She will compete for the gymnastics team after the NCAA granted 2020-21 fall and winter sports student-athletes a fifth-year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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