Two former Georgia student athletes, Caterina Don and Caitlin Lyons, have been chosen to represent the Southeastern Conference as nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. The news was announced Tuesday.
The NCAA Woman of the Year program was established in 1991. It seeks to recognize “academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of graduating female college athletes from all three divisions” of the NCAA. 10 athletes are chosen from each of the three NCAA divisions, which is then narrowed down to a list of nine finalists. The final NCAA Woman of the Year will be named during an awards presentation at the NCAA Convention in January.
Don played golf for Georgia from 2019 to 2024. In her final season, she was named an Honorable Mention All-American by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association and Golfweek after leading Georgia in average, par-or-better rounds, birdies, low-54, top-20s and counting percentage.
During her time at Georgia, Don was Vice President of Georgia’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She was also Georgia’s female nominee for the 2023-24 H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete of the Year, a five-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member and received a host of other academic honors. Don graduated from Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and minors in statistics and global health.
Lyons was a part of Georgia’s equestrian team from 2019 to 2024. She made the All-SEC Reining Team and National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) All-American Reining Second Team in 2022, and helped Georgia win the NCEA national championship in 2021.
Georgia made Lyons its female nominee for the 2023-24 Brad Davis SEC Community Service Leader of the Year last season. She was also named the 2024 SEC Equestrian Scholar-Athlete of the Year and received an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Lyons made the Spring SEC Academic Honor Roll four times and the NCEA All-Academic First Team three times. Last spring Lyons received her bachelor’s degrees in both ecology and French. She is currently enrolled in Georgia’s Master of Natural Resources program.
