The Big 12 Conference has nominated Ayoka Lee (Kansas State women’s basketball) and Grace Lyons (Oklahoma softball) for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year.

League offices selected 151 college athletes as their nominees. The student-athletes are represented from 17 sports spanning all three NCAA divisions with 53 nominees from Division I.

From the total pool of 577 nominees submitted by NCAA member schools, 547 were sent to conferences to select their nominees for consideration for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.

Lee and Lyons were selected by the Big 12 Senior Woman Administrators.

Lee adds the NCAA Woman of the Year nomination to her large collection of academic honors which includes: two-time CoSIDA Academic All-America honors (second team in 2021; first team in 2022), 2022 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, three-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team honors and the 2021 Big 12 Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award, the Conference’s highest academic distinction.

The native of Bryon, Minnesota graduated in May of 2021 with her undergraduate degree in psychology and is currently pursuing her graduate degree in couples and family therapy.

On the court, Lee was a First Team All-American by The Athletic and Sports Illustrated, a Second Team All-American by the Associated Press and USBWA, a Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-America Honorable Mention recipient, a finalist for the 2022 Lisa Leslie Award, a unanimous All-Big 12 First Team selection by the league’s coaches and garnered her first selection to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team.

Lee was the only player in NCAA Division I women’s basketball in the 2021-22 season to register 725 or more points, 325 or more rebounds and 90 or more blocks. This was the first time in the 54-season history of K-State women’s basketball in which a player reached the statistical markers of 725 or more points, 325 or more rebounds and 90 or more blocks in a single season.

As part of her 2021-22 statistical resume, Lee set the NCAA Division I single-game record of 61 points scored against Oklahoma on January 23. She also led the Big 12 in  field goal percentage (.555) and had a Big 12-high eight games with 30 or more points.

Lee, a four-time Big 12 Player of the Week selection and a three-time ESPN.com National Player of the Week honoree, also topped the Conference with 30-point games in league play (4), games with 10 or more rebounds (11) and double-doubles (11). She finished second in the Big 12 in scoring (21.89 ppg), rebounding (9.78 rpg) and blocked shots (2.4 bpg).

Lyons was selected as a 2022 NFCA First-Team All-American and Top-10 Finalist for the 2022 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. She was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 and 2022 along with earning All-Big 12 First Team honors and NFCA First Team All-Central Region recognition in both seasons. 

The Peoria, Arizona native has started at shortstop in 208 of Oklahoma’s 209 games since the beginning of the 2019 season, while helping the Sooners to a record of 192-17, including national championships in 2021 and 2022.

In 2022 she finished eighth in the country with a career single-season best 23 home runs and ranked sixth in the country with 70 RBI while hitting .401 and earning one Big 12 Player of the Week selection.

Off the field, Lyons graduated with a 3.88 GPA in biomedical engineering and will begin work towards an MBA in the fall. Throughout her time in Norman, she was named to the CoSIDA All-America First Team in 2022 and the second team in 2021 while being selected to the Academic All-Big 12 First Teams from 2020-22. In 2021 she received the Big 12 Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award and has been selected to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll all eight of her semesters.

Lyons was recently named to the 2022 U.S. Women’s National Team (WNT) roster for the upcoming Japan All-Star Series.

The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose 10 nominees from each division to make up the national Top 30 honorees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in October. From there, the selection committee will narrow the pool to three finalists from each division. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2022 Woman of the Year from the nine finalists.

At January's NCAA Convention in San Antonio, the national Top 30 honorees will be celebrated, and the NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced.

Former Texas Tech track and field student-athlete Ifeatu Okafor received the esteemed award in 2013.

The NCAA Woman of the Year program is rooted in Title IX and has recognized graduating female college athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991. For more information about the program and previous winners, please visit ncaa.org/woty.

The full list of conference office nominees can be found here.