FARMINGTON, Utah — A leader and staunch student-athlete advocate within the Big Sky Conference, Portland State's Jamie Zamrin earned further respect from the league Thursday as the Big Sky announced her and Idaho's Prabhasha Wickramaarachchi as its two nominees for the NCAA Women of the Year award.
 
Zamrin is a deserving nominee for the award. She served as President of the Big Sky's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) from January 2023 until she graduated with her master's in public administration this past June. In her role as President, Zamrin attended national conferences on behalf of the Big Sky and its member student-athletes, advocating for them and their rights at the NCAA level.
 
Athletically, Zamrin competed across two cross country seasons for the Vikings, as well as one season each in indoor and outdoor track & field. In cross country, she helped the Viking women place fourth at the Big Sky Championships in 2022 – the program's second-best finish ever at the conference meet. She then finished as the Vikings' top runner at the Big Sky and NCAA West Regional meets in 2023.
 
On the track, Zamrin set three all-time top 10 marks between the indoor and outdoor disciplines. She set the No. 3 mark all-time in the indoor 5k, finishing in 16:58.07 at the 2023 Husky Classic. She then posted the No. 7 and No. 8 times in the outdoor 10k and 5k, respectively, during the 2023 outdoor season. Her all-time mark in the 10k came at that season's Bryan Clay Invitational where she finished in 35:16.58. The 5k mark came two weeks later at the OSU High Performance Meet where she finished in 16:57.32.
 
Academically, Zamrin was a four-time Academic All-Big Sky selection, earning the honor after every season she competed at Portland State.
 
As one of the Big Sky's two nominees for Women of the Year, Zamrin will now advance to the national stage of the award process. The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division — from the conference-level nominees. The selection committee will then determine the top three honorees in each division from the Top 30 to comprise the group of nine finalists, later in the fall. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will choose the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year. The honorees will be celebrated at the Woman of the Year Award Presentation at the NCAA Convention in Nashville in January 2025.
 
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. This year, the program received over 600 nominations, which is a record total.