INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- As a testament to her excellence in competition, in the classroom and in the community at the University of Michigan, track and field distance runner Erin Finn (West Bloomfield, Michigan) was named the school's nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year award on Thursday (July 12).

The NCAA Woman of the Year program honors the top graduating female collegiate student-athletes in the nation for their efforts not only in athletics, but also academics, community service and leadership. A record 581 nominees from all three NCAA divisions and from 20 different sports were put forward by their respective schools in 2018, including 251 Division I honorees.

Finn has led her teams to three Big Ten championships and a national runner-up NCAA Cross Country finish on the strength of her 10 individual conference titles and nine All-America awards, all while maintaining the highest standards in her studies as Michigan's first three-time First-Team Academic All-American.

A graduate student pursuing a Master's of Public Health in epidemiology, Finn is Michigan's first NCAA Woman of the Year nominee since women's basketball player Nicole Elmblad in 2015. The last track and field/cross country student-athlete from Michigan to earn the honor was Lindsey Gallo in 2005.

The announcement of the Big Ten's nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year from among those put forward by its member institutions will come in early August. At that point, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee will choose the top 10 candidates from each of the three divisions to arrive at the top 30. The pool will be further whittled to nine finalists -- three from each division -- from which the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year will be selected on Oct. 28.

For her combination of academic and athletic prowess, Finn was honored as one of eight finalists for the prestigious Amateur Athletics Union (AAU) James E. Sullivan award and was awarded the 2018 Big Ten Medal of Honor from among all Michigan female student-athletes.

In the classroom she has posted a sterling 4.18 grade-point average in her graduate studies, improving the near-perfect GPA she carried throughout her undergraduate biochemistry career. As an undergrad, she was awarded the American Institute of Chemists' biochemistry award for the University of Michigan.

In competition, Finn has distinguished herself as among the very best in Michigan track and field and cross country history. Few who have come before her can match the four individual national runner-up finishes, nine individual All-America honors and 10 individual Big Ten titles amassed by the diminutive distance runner. Her Big Ten title tally is tops in program history, and her All-America count is matched only by Nicole Edwards.

Finn's excellence on the track has rewritten the record books, as she owns the school's all-time standards at 3,000 and 5,000 meters indoors, and 5,000, and 10,000 meters outdoors.

Her achievements have spanned even beyond the Michigan record books into the realm of NCAA history. By virtue of her performances at the 2016 and 2017 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, she became the only woman to run faster than 15:30 in back-to-back 5,000-meter finals at the national meet.

Showing her versatility, she is one of just two women in collegiate history to have run faster than 15:25 indoors over 5,000 meters, 15:30 or faster outdoors over 5,000 meters, 32:00 or faster outdoors over 10,000 meters, 9:00 or faster indoors over 3,000 meters and 4:40 or faster in the mile indoors before completing her NCAA eligibility.

Though her demanding athletic and academic careers keep her busy, she still finds time to give back to the community and to the sport.

Throughout her time at Michigan, Finn has engaged the university and Ann Arbor communities as a U-M Student Ambassador, through the Food Gatherers program and during visits to the Mott Children's Hospital. She also took part in an initiative that writing letters and delivering varsity jackets to former U-M female letterwinners who had never before received the same jackets as their male counterparts.

Having suffered numerous injury setbacks throughout her time at Michigan, Finn has found ways to find the silver lining in those dour situations to make a positive impact. In her graduate studies she has pursued research -- and produced written and in-person presentations -- under Dr. Kenneth Kozloff on stress fractures in endurance athletes and the effects of training on bone adaptation and response.

Finn also worked with Athletes Connected at Michigan to produce a video about her personal experience dealing with mental health and sport, honing in on her injury history and her subsequent comebacks. In the video, for which she wrote the script and in which she acted, she hoped to provide other student-athletes who may be struggling with inspiration and awareness of the resources she used to help overcome her adversity.