Central’s Fritz is NCAA Woman of the Year nominee
Central Dutch Athletics
PELLA—Central College softball pitcher Mariah Fritz (senior, Tama, East Marshall HS) is a nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
Established in 1991, the award recognizes graduating female athletes who have distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their college careers.
Fritz, an integrated studies major, graduated with a 3.80 cumulative grade point average. She was the American Rivers Conference co-pitcher of the year and a two-time league pitcher of the week. She also received academic all-league honors as well as 2018 CoSIDA academic all-district recognition and received the Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete Award.
Central’s LeRoy Timmer Most Valuable Player Award winner, Fritz was 20-9 with two saves in 32 appearances. She threw 172.0 innings, which ranks ninth in school history, and posted a 3.58 earned run average. Fritz helped lead Central to a 27-10 mark, the program’s 13th conference title and a record 30th NCAA Division III tournament berth. She recorded all 12 of Central’s league victories.
Fritz was a second-team NFCA Division III All-Midwest Region pick.
A record 585 athletes were nominated by NCAA member schools for the Woman of the Year Award, including 192 from Division III.
An American Rivers nominee will be chosen and the Woman of the Year selection committee will then pick the top 30 honorees—10 from each division. The top three from each division will be announced in September with the winner announced at a ceremony recognizing the top 30 in Indianapolis October 20.
Seven previous Central nominees have advanced to represent the state or the conference at the national level. The most recent was women’s track and field athlete Jill Ziskovsky in 2011.
