DENISON NAMED 2000 NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR FOR SOUTH CAROLINA

GREENVILLE, South Carolina -- Former Furman track athlete Ginger Denison has been named the 2000 NCAA Woman of the Year for the state of South Carolina, it was announced on Tuesday.

Denison will join 50 other state winners (and Puerto Rico) at an NCAA Woman of the Year Awards Banquet, to be held Sunday, October 15, at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in Indianapolis, Ind. In addition, 10 national finalists will be chosen from the pool of 51 early next month.

Official NCAA Woman of the Year activities will begin Saturday, Oct. 14, with a community outreach program in Indianapolis. At 5 p.m. there will be a social with a T-shirt exchange, followed at 7 p.m. by a reception for the honorees and their guests at the NCAA Hall of Champions. The awards dinner on Sunday, Oct. 15, will be emceed by television personalities Robin Roberts and Giselle Fernandez.

The NCAA Woman of the Year program attempts to recognize the accomplishments of outstanding women who participate in NCAA athletics. Nominees are submitted by every NCAA school, and are judged on scholarship, athletics, community service, leadership and character. Denison is the first Furman woman to earn State NCAA Woman of the Year honors.

Denison graduated Furman in May of 2000 with five all-Southern Conference citations in track, and a 3.92 grade point average in chemistry. She was the recipient of the National Truman and Goldwater Scholarships, the Dow Chemical Scholarship, the Wylie Math Scholarship and was a Rhodes Finalist and a Byers Award Finalist. In addition, she was selected to USA Today's All-Academic First Team, tutored both math and science at Furman, volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House and was a part of the FU Mini Parks Program, and the University Catholic Choir. Denison spent the last two summers doing research at Los Alamos Labs, and will begin graduate studies in environmental chemistry this fall at Indiana University.