WATERVILLE, Maine – A total of seven recent graduates from North Atlantic Conference (NAC) institutions have been nominated for the conference's 2022 Woman of the Year award.

In alphabetical order, the nominees are: Trinity Critelli from SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Samantha Dayter from SUNY Canton, Jordan Finch from SUNY Cobleskill, Payton Goodwin from Husson University, BM3 Elisabeth “Bess” MacArthur, USCGR, from Maine Maritime Academy, Abby Minott from the University of Maine at Farmington, Rachel Palladino from Northern Vermont University-Lyndon, and Savannah Rodriguez from the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

The NAC Woman of the Year award is modeled after the NCAA Woman of the Year program which honors graduating student athletes who distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, service, and leadership. The NAC also selects a Man of the Year using the same model, nominees for which will be released on June 28. These are the two preeminent awards presented annually by the conference.

Member schools nominate student athletes from their own institution, then NAC athletic directors and senior woman administrators vote to select the Woman of the Year. Scoring for the academic achievement section is based on the undergraduate cumulative grade-point average of the nominee. Scoring for athletic excellence is based on the nominee's honors and accomplishments including awards and championships, and scoring for service and leadership is based on their involvement in campus and community activities and organizations over the course of their collegiate career. Administrators also consider a short personal statement written by each nominee.

The NAC Woman of the Year will be announced in early July, and will be honored on her campus during the upcoming academic year. She will also be the NAC nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.

Representatives from the NCAA membership comprise the NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee. The selection committee will choose the Top-30 national honorees, including 10 from each division, and then narrow the list to the top-three in each division using the guidelines outlined here. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will use the same criteria to select the winner from the final nine. The top-30 are due to be announced in September, and the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named this Fall.

More information on the 2023 NAC Woman of the Year nominees is below:

Trinity Critelli, SUNY Poly Softball
3.98 GPA | Finance (Accounting minor)
A two-year member of the SUNY Poly softball team, Trinity Critelli is a two-time All-NAC West Division selection and three-time NAC Pitcher of the Week honoree over her two seasons with the Wildcats. Critelli earned SUNY Poly’s 2023 Female Scholar Athlete Award for having the highest GPA of any female student-athlete, and received the Outstanding Finance Student Award for outstanding knowledge and growth in finance.
The two-time President’s Excellence List honoree graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Poly this past May, and has passed her Series 66 and Series 7 examinations for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FiNRA).
Away from the softball diamond, Critelli served as treasurer for SUNY Poly’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She helped lead SUNY Poly’s SAAC in its involvement with Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a Utica, New York-area charity that provides beds for area youths in accordance with its slogan “no kid sleeps on the floor in this town”. She is active in her local church, and has coached with a local summer travel team for the past three summers.
 
Samantha Dayter, SUNY Canton Women’s Lacrosse/Women's Basketball
3.63 GPA | Nursing (Applied Psychology minor)
A four-year, two-sport student-athlete at SUNY Canton, Samantha Dayter was a three-time All-NAC selection in women’s lacrosse, earning NAC Women’s Lacrosse Player of the Year honors in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Dayter earned Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Second Team All-Region honors in 2022, becoming the NAC’s first All-Region honoree in women’s lacrosse. She was selected as SUNY Canton’s Female Student-Athlete of the Year in 2022 and 2023, and graduated as the Roos’ all-time leader in points, assists, and draw controls. Academically, she was a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award, the highest student honor in the SUNY System. Dayter was tabbed for College Sports Communicators’ Academic All-District honors, the NAC All-Academic Team, and the IWLCA All-Academic Squad in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Dayter was a three-year member of SUNY Canton’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and was a peer tutor for nursing students through the SUNY Canton Tutoring Center as a senior. She helped collect for than $1,200 as part of a Christmas giving campaign through her local church, and has assisted with local youth clinics in lacrosse and basketball. Dayter was named a torch bearer for the 2023 World University Games, held in January 2023 in Lake Placid, New York.
 
Jordan Finch, SUNY Cobleskill Women’s Basketball
3.47 GPA | Animal Science/Canine Training & Management
A four-year member of the SUNY Cobleskill women’s basketball team and three-time team captain, Jordan Finch was named to the 2023 NAC Sportsmanship Team in women’s basketball and was the recipient of the Fighting Tigers’ Steven A. Warde Sportswomanship Award. Academically, she was the recipient of a SUNY Cobleskill Presidential Scholarship and a National Honor Society member, and was a Dean’s List honoree in 2021 and 2022. At graduation, Finch was named the Outstanding Student in SUNY Cobleskill’s Canine Training & Management program.
Finch was also very active in the SUNY Cobleskill campus community, participating in the institution’s Adopt-A-Family program, the SUNY’s Got Your Back program to create and distribute comfort kids to victims and survivors of violence, and the SUNY Yards for Yeardley initiative to raise awareness for the One Love Foundation. She participated in multiple youth camps for SUNY Cobleskill women’s basketball, and helped organize the SUNY Cobleskill Resident Assistant Community Clean Up in 2022. Finch was recognized with the SUNY Cobleskill Department of Student Affairs Excellence in Student Leadership Award in both 2022 and 2023.
 
Payton Goodwin, Husson University Cross Country/Track & Field
3.83 GPA | Exercise Science (enrolled in Husson’s 4+2 program for Doctorate of Physical Therapy)
Payton Goodwin is a four-year member of the Husson cross country and track & field teams, and a three-time First Team All-NAC honoree in cross country. She helped lead the Eagles to NAC women’s cross country championships in both 2021 and 2022, and went on to earn USTFCCCA All-Region honors at the 2022 NCAA Division III East Region Cross Country Championships – becoming the first Husson cross country runner to earn the accolade. In outdoor track & field, Goodwin won NAC individual conference crowns in the long jump (2022 and 2023), 800m run (2021 and 2023), and the 4x400m relay (2021 and 2023). Goodwin helped guide Husson to the 2023 and 2022 NAC women’s track & field championships. She was tabbed as the NAC Senior Scholar Athlete in women’s cross country this past fall, is a four-time President’s List honoree at Husson, and is a seven-time NAC All-Academic Team selection.
Goodwin’s community service activities include working with Husson’s Organization of Physical Therapy Students, serving as a coach with the Winslow Public Schools’ summer track & field practices, and helping organize the 2018 Corporal Eugene Cole Marathon in Norridgewock, Maine, as the marathon director.
 
 
BM3 Elisabeth “Bess” MacArthur, USCGR, Maine Maritime Academy Women’s Soccer
3.63 GPA | International Business & Logistics (Social Science & Humanities minor)
Bess MacArthur is a four-year member of the Maine Maritime Academy women’s soccer team and two-year team captain, and was the goalkeeper for the Mariners’ 2021 NAC championship team and an All-Tournament Team selection. She was also a member of the Mariners’ 2019 NAC championship team. MacArthur was an Honorable Mention All-NAC player in 2021 and a Third Team All-NAC honoree in 2022. She was a two-time NAC All-Academic Team honoree in 2021 and 2022, and was named to the College Sports Communicators’ Academic All-District team in 2022. MacArthur also served as president of Maine Maritime’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and helped coordinator the group’s 2023 Special Olympics Bocce Tournament, and was named MMA Athletics’ Leader of the Year for 2022-23.
MacArthur is a Petty Officer Third Class and Boatswain’s Mate in the United States Coast Guard Reserve, and is a co-founder of Maine Maritime’s Coast Guard University Auxiliary program. She was also an active participant in the Mariners’ “inCommand” leadership development program. MacArthur served as a resident assistant during 2020 and 2021, and was a volunteer at an area middle school.
 
Abby Minott, University of Maine at Farmington Cross Country/Track & Field
4.00 GPA | Business Economics (Coaching minor)
Abby Minott competed for UMaine-Farmington track & field for three seasons and ran one season of cross country for the Beavers, including two seasons as captain of the track & field team. She earned First Team All-NAC honors in the triple jump at the 2023 NAC Track & Field Championship, and took first place in the triple jump at the 2023 Frozen-8 meet in Boston. Minott was a New England Championship qualifier in the triple jump in 2022. Academically, Minott was the 2023 NAC Senior Scholar Athlete in women’s track & field as well as UMaine-Farmington’s 2023 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and was named to the College Sports Communicators’ Academic All-District team. She was a four-time selection to UMaine-Farmington’s President’s List.
Minott was a three-year participant in UMF track & field’s annual Relay for Life fundraiser, serving as a co-coordinator during her senior year. She was a volunteer official at the Mt. Blue High School (Farmington, Maine) track & field meet this past spring, and was a course marshal at Mt. Blue’s cross country meet in the fall. In 2021, she participated in the Gerry Wiles Holiday Food Basket program, helping collect food and donations for food insecure families in Franklin County. Minott was a two-year member of UMaine-Farmington’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and served as a volunteer assistant track & field coach at Noble High School (North Berwick, Maine).
 
Rachel Palladino, Northern Vermont University-Lyndon Women’s Soccer/Women’s Lacrosse
3.93 GPA | Atmospheric Sciences/Mathematics
Palladino was a four-year two-sport student-athlete who competed in women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse for the Hornets, serving as a multi-year team captain for both squads. She briefly served as the team’s acting head coach this past spring prior to the start of the 2023 season, and received multiple team awards in both soccer and lacrosse – capped by her selection as recipient of NVU-Lyndon’s Green & Gold Award, given to the female student-athlete with the highest grade point average, and the Champions of Character Award, given to the student-athlete who best exemplifies the core values of integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership. Palladino was named NVU-Lyndon’s representative to the 2022 NAC Women’s Lacrosse Sportsmanship Team, and was a six-time designee on the NAC All-Academic Team. Academically, Palladino received both the Atmospheric Sciences Honors Award and the Albert Ouellette Memorial Scholar award in mathematics, which are each presented to the senior with the highest grade points average in that program. She was a recipient of the Atmospheric Sciences Academic Achievement Award for having a 3.50-or-higher GPA in the Atmospheric Sciences program. The recipient of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship, Palladino was also a five-time Dean’s List honoree and three-time President’s List selection.
Away from athletics, Palladino was a three-year member of NVU-Lyndon’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and represented SAAC on Lyndon’s Student Government Association in 2021-22. She was active in NVU-Lyndon’s student chapter of the American Meteorological Society all four years as an undergraduate. Palladino was also co-founder the “What’s Your Type: Operation Awareness” Type 1 diabetes education campaign during her junior and senior years. She has assisted with numerous campus service projects, including breast cancer awareness events, campus clean up, and “trunk or treat” at Halloween.
 
Savannah Rodriguez, University of Maine at Presque Isle Women’s Soccer/Softball
3.70 GPA | Physical Education
A four-year keeper and three-year team captain for UMaine-Presque Isle women’s soccer, Savannah Rodriguez earning First Team All-NAC honors in 2021 and 2022. She was tabbed for NAC Defensive Player of the Week recognition during her senior season, and was named UMaine-Presque Isle’s Female Athlete of the Year earlier this spring. Rodriguez also played first base for the Owls’ softball team in 2022. She was a four-time NAC All-Academic Team selection between women’s soccer and softball at UMaine-Presque Isle, and was a five-time Dean’s List honoree. As both a junior and a senior, she was named the Outstanding Student in UMPI’s physical education program. Rodriguez served as president of UMaine-Presque Isle’s Physical Education Major Club.