SEATTLE – All-GNAC to All-American. School records to conference records. Athlete of the Year to Award for Excellence. And of course ...

... Mom.
 
Vanessa Aniteye's name is attached to all of those honors – each of them significant in their own way.
 
 

Now, the former Seattle Pacific star sprinter and national 800-meter champion is part of a group of elite-level achievers who are up for an award that stands above even all of those.
 
Aniteye and 29 others were announced as finalists on Monday for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
 
The award was established in 1991. It recognizes female student-athletes who have completed their undergraduate studies and have distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics, and in academics throughout their college careers.
 
 

"She is a very deserving candidate for this award," SPU head coach and program director Karl Lerum said "She has a lot of student-athlete experience and a lot of real life experience that has taken her to this point. To me, that speaks to her ability, her character, and her determination. I'm excited for her."
 
Aniteye's nomination was submitted by Seattle Pacific to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference office. Each of the other nine schools also submitted one name, and from that group of 10, Aniteye and Alaska Anchorage volleyball star Eve Stephens were sent on to the NCAA to be considered.
 
That list of 164 was narrowed down to the final group of 30, with 10 from each of the NCAA's three divisions. From there, three finalists from each division will be selected – nine in all – and the winner will come from among those nine.
 
All 30 will gather in  in January at the NCAA Convention in Phoenix for the formal ceremony and announcement of the winner.
 
"We are thrilled to celebrate 30 incredible student-athletes who surpassed the standard of excellence on their campus, in their community and on their teams," said Renie Shields, chair of the Woman of the Year Selection Committee and senior associate athletics director/senior woman administrator at Saint Joseph's. "This decorated and diverse group represent the thousands of women competing in college sports each year and are contributing to the ongoing growth of women sports."
 
Aniteye is the second Seattle Pacific athlete to be named a top-30 finalist. Former track and cross country star Jessica Pixler was part of that group for the 2011 award.
 
FROM ANCHORAGE TO SEATTLE
For the first three years of her college career (2017-19), Aniteye raced at Alaska Anchorage. She won the GNAC outdoor 400-meter dash title all three years, and went to the NCAAs in both that event and in the 4-by-400 relay all three years. She earned one first-team and two second-team All-American awards for the relay. Indoors, she won the GNAC 400 dash title twice and was part of three All-American relays at NCAAs.
 
In 2020, Aniteye gave birth to son Josiah and stepped away from competing. She eventually left Anchorage, but still had one year of eligibility remaining for both indoors and outdoors. Aniteye enrolled at Seattle Pacific in the fall of 2021, and in consultation with head coach and program director Karl Lerum decided to use her outdoor season in the spring of 2022 and save her indoor season for the winter of 2023.

"It wasn't until I embraed the joys and challenges of motherhood that running took on a while new meaning," Aniteye said in a personal statement in support of her application for the award. "Recognizing that my journey as a mother and an athlete could inspire others, particularly women, to fearlessly pursue their dreams, I shattered the notion that motherhood and sports are mutually exclusive. While my personal journey showcases individual achievements, I remain committed to highlighting and dismantling the barriers that hinder coming motherhood and sports, some of which I faced myself."
 
 

Aniteye immediately began making her mark. In her Falcon debut, she won the 800 and was on two winning relays. Just three weeks later, she ran the first of her three school record-breaking performances in the 400 dash, this one at the West Coast Relays in Fresno, California. She broke it again in the NCAA preliminaries, then came back the next day in the finals an rewrote it one final time, going 53.64 to become the first and only Falcon to go below 54 seconds, giving her an All-American sixth-place finish.
 
Looking ahead to her final indoor season in the winter of 2023, Aniteye and the SPU coaches decided to shift to the 800. Toward that end, she turned out for cross country in the fall of 2022 for the first time, and by the end of the season, was coming across the finish line as Seattle Pacific's No. 2 or 3 scorer.
 
Last winter, the 800 was her sole focus, and whether she was a heat winner or the overall winner, Aniteye was first across the finish line all eight times she ran it. The last of those was at the NCAA indoor finals on March 11 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She took control heading into the last of the four 200-meter laps, and fended off Colorado State Pueblo's Helen Braybrook by two-tenths of a second with a school-record time of 2:06.84.
 
 
ANITEYE'S AWARDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• 2023 NCAA indoor 800-meter champion.
• 9-time USTFCCCA All-American (5 first-team)
• 11-time USTFCCCA All-West Region
• 2023 West Region Indoor Female Track Athlete of the Year
• 2023 GNAC Indoor Female Athlete of the Year
• 13-time All-GNAC
• SPU records in outdoor 400 dash (53.64), 4x100 relay (45.88) and indoor 800 (2:06.84).
• 5-time GNAC All-Academic
• 2023 CSC Academic All-District
• 2023 USTFCCCA All-Academic
• 2023 SPU Ron Grady Athlete of the Year.
• 2023 Falcon Award for Excellence
• Helped Germany earn silver medal in 4x400 relay at U20 European Championships in 2020.

 
WOMEN OF THE YEAR FUN FACTS

• This is the 33^rd year of the Woman of the Year celebration.
• The award is built on four pillars: Academics, Athletics, Service, and Leadership.
• The average GPA of the top 30 honorees is 3.88.
• A total of 15 sports are represented by the top 30.