IRVING, Texas – Charlotte track and field athlete Riley Felts and Memphis women’s soccer player Mya Jones have been selected as The American’s nominees for the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year.
From a program-record pool of 627 school nominees, a total of 161 college athletes were named conference-level nominees for the award.
Since 1991, The NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service, and leadership throughout their college careers.
The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will now choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division — from the conference-level nominees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in September. 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 2024 Woman of the Year from the nine finalists and will be celebrated at the Woman of the Year Award Presentation at the NCAA Convention in Nashville in January.
Felts, who was the 2023-24 American Athletic Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, rewrote The American record book in women’s pole vault during both the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons, winning the gold medal at both American Athletic Conference Indoor and Outdoor championships in 2024. Felts went on to finish as the NCAA runner-up in both seasons, clearing 4.50 meters (14’9”) during the indoor season and 4.55 meters (14’11”) during the outdoor season. Both marks set American Athletic Conference records. To go along with her athletic feats, Felts was also recognized as a College Sports Communicators (CSC) First Team Academic All-American, as well as being named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team.
Felts earned a 4.00 grade-point average as an undergraduate and a 3.90 GPA in Charlotte’s postgraduate civil engineering program. She won the Charlotte Provost Student-Athlete Academic Achievement Award as the 49ers’ top all-around student-athlete. Felts was a 4-year Director of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at Charlotte and worked with local community organizations such as Samaritan’s Feet, Charlotte Fights and the Down Syndrome Association.
Jones, a four-time All-American Athletic Conference First-Team selection, led Memphis to three consecutive American championships (2021-23) and was a two-time United Soccer Coaches All-South Region First Team member. She was the 2023 American Offensive Player of the Year, Most Outstanding Offensive Player of the 2023 American Championship, the 2020 American Midfielder of the Year and 2019 American Rookie of the Year. She led the Tigers to back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Championship Third Round in 2022 and 2023. Jones was a 2023 United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-American as well as The American’s Women’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She was drafted in the third round of the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League draft by the San Diego Wave, becoming the first Tiger to be selected in an NWSL Draft.
Jones was named as The American’s 2023-24 Women’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She earned a 3.97 undergraduate grade-point average as a health studies major and a 3.83 GPA in Memphis’ MBA honors program. Jones helped found the University of Memphis Athletics for Diversity and Equality group (UMADE) and played a key role between connecting UMADE and Memphis’ SAAC, which she was an executive member of.
