BANNER ELK, N.C. – Lees-McRae softball recent graduate
Julie Gast has been nominated for the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year award after a standout career in Banner Elk. Gast joins five Conference Carolinas student-athletes as announced by the conference on Monday morning.
Gast graduated from Lees-McRae with a degree in Pre-Physical Therapy with a minor in athletic coaching and was the 2023 Conference Carolinas softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Murphy Osborne Award Finalist, and a Herff Jones Female Athlete of the Year nominee. Gast is the second consecutive student-athlete from Lees-McRae to be recognized as a NCAA Woman of the Year with women's basketball standout Destiny Johnson being nominated in 2022.
The Taylorsville, North Carolina native led the Bobcats to a program record in wins with 32 this season. Gast ended her five-year career as the all-time leader in runs scored, hits, doubles, runs batted in, and assists. In addition to her prowess in the classroom and on the field, Gast also volunteered in numerous capacities including being involved in SAAC, Student-Athlete Leadership Team (SALT), Habitat for Humanity, Beech Humanity Trunk or Treat and a peer ally mental health ambassador. She finishes her career as a .314 hitter with 124 runs and 104 RBIs with 46 doubles and 12 home runs.
To be eligible for the award, nominees must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport, have earned her undergraduate degree no later than the summer 2023 term and have a minimum cumulative undergraduate grade-point average of 2.50 on a 4.0 score.
In 2023, a record-breaking 619 female student-athletes were nominated by NCAA member schools and the nominees represented 24 different sports with 264 nominees in Division I, 128 in Division II and 227 nominees in Division III with an average GPA of 3.76.
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