LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego announced that Sydney Brown and Ciara Franke have been nominated for 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year. The NCAA Announced its full list of potential award winners on Thursday afternoon.
 
Brown has competed on the Tritons women's basketball team since 2019, after spending her freshman season at Columbia. Franke was a dual-sport athlete for the Tritons, competing on the women's water polo team beginning with the 2018 season and with UC San Diego swimming and diving since 2017. 
 
Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award is rooted in Title IX and recognizes graduating female college athletes who have distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
 
For a full list of the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year nominees and details on the next steps of the selection process, click here.
 
SYDNEY BROWN, WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
 
Brown completed her third season with the Tritons in 2022, after spending her freshman campaign at Columbia. Earlier this month, Brown was named as a Big West Service and Leadership Award recipient for her accomplishments on the court, in the classroom and in her community. 
 
During her career, the Rexford, N.Y. native has been recognized on both the all-conference and all-academic teams in each of her three seasons at UC San Diego. She is a two-time All-Big West Second Team selection and two-time Big West All-Academic Team honoree. During her time at Division II, Brown was an All-CCAA Honorable Mention and named to the CCAA All-Academic Team as a sophomore. Additionally, Brown served on the Triton Athletes' Council (TAC) as a team representative for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years and was twice named to the All-Triton Scholar-Athlete Team. 
 
For the 2021-22 campaign, Brown led the Tritons in minutes (851), scoring (12.0 ppg), rebounds (7.9 rpg), free throws (78.8%) and recorded a team-high seven double-doubles to help UC San Diego finish fifth in the Big West in its second season of Division I competition. She finished with 19 double-digit scoring efforts and two 20+ point games, ranking fourth in the Big West in rebounding, ninth in blocks (18) and 12th in scoring.
 
Brown is an active leader within the Triton Athletic Department, organizing fundraisers and service events to benefit the greater San Diego community. In 2022, she created the Lungevity Walk at UC San Diego—to honor her mother who passed from lung cancer in 2021—raising more than $2,000 to support lung cancer research. Additionally, Brown helped organize the Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk and a homeless shelter walkathon, as well as organizing a Love4KBag fundraiser for local oncology centers, a clothing and food drive for a local shelter, and a holiday shopping trip with the Adopt a Family program.
 
Brown earned her B.A. in Human Developmental Sciences this spring and plans to return for an additional season with UC San Diego women's basketball in 2022-23 as a graduate student. 
 
CIARA FRANKE, WOMEN'S WATER POLO/SWIMMING AND DIVING
 
Franke finished her fifth year in 2022, leading the UC San Diego women's water polo to a fifth-place finish in the Big West Conference and the Tritons' first-ever win in Big West Championship play. The captain's accolades span multiple divisions and conferences during her career with the Tritons. She is a three-time ACWPC Division I All-America Third Team honoree, an ACWPC Division II All-America First Team selection and has been recognized by the Big WestConference and the WWPA academically and athletically each season. 
 
Most recently, Franke was named to the All-Big West First Team and earned Big West All-Academic designations from the 2022 season. In 2021, the Big West Conference recognized Franke as the Big West Women's Water Polo Player of the Year in the inaugural NCAA Division I season for the Tritons. 
 
A hometown product of San Diego, Franke finished her time in the gold and blue ranked sixth in career goals (207), sixth in career shot percentage (.434), tied for eighth in career steals (163), and tied for eighth in single-season steals (64). Additionally, Franke is a twelve-time All-American sprinter on the Triton swim team, winning four PCSC championships in the 200 freestyle, and in the 200, 400, and 800 freestyle relays. 
 
Matching her athletic prowess, Franke is an outstanding student as well. In her first year of graduate school, the human developmental sciences major and business psychology minor was recently named to the Big West Spring All-Academic Team, finishing with a cumulative GPA of 3.64. Franke was awarded the Outstanding Senior Scholar-Athlete honor at the 2022 UC San Diego Triton Awards Night for her performance in the classroom.  
 
In the community, Franke guided high school-aged swimmers on the Wind N Sea Swim Team as a senior coach to achieve their goals at their current level while helping them reach the next level without burning out. As a Masters coach for the same program, Franke created various swim sets and workouts for diverse age groups and levels of swimmers, helping them reach their goals within the sport through challenging workouts. 
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.