Kendall Sanders Nominated for NCAA WOTY
Photo by Elizabeth Grimsley
With athletics finally back in full swing, our Centenary’s own student-athletes have wasted no time adding more hardware and accolades to the record books. On August 8th, Kendall Sanders was nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year, an extremely prestigious award with over 150 nominees across all NCAA divisions. There were 54 nominees from Division I, 41 in Division II, and 61 in Division III, with Sanders competing in the final group of nominees for this award. All other nominees, including Sanders, either competed in an athletic conference that wasn’t their respective school’s primary conference, or they competed for an independent school. The nominees represent 17 sports, and Sanders was one of only four gymnasts nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year.
During her career at Centenary, Kendall Sanders has been no stranger to success. Starting off strong, Sanders was named to the All-American Second Team and also was named a WCGA Academic All-American in her freshman season with the Ladies. Then, picking up right where she left off, Sanders was named to the 2020 Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association Division III regular season All-America Team and to the 2020 USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate Nationals second-team All-American in the all-around in her sophomore year. After dominating her first two years, Sanders showed absolutely no sign of slowing down. In her Junior season, Sanders earned all-conference honors, was named an All-American by the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association while competing on beam, and was also named Named a First-Team All-American by USA Gymnastics on both the floor and in the all-around while also coming close to, and breaking, some of her personal records.
Kendall Sanders was a Pre-med Biology major from Spring Branch, Texas. She attended Smithson Valley Highschool graduating in the top 5% of her class while also being a part of the National Honors Society. Sanders competes in the All-Around gymnastics competitions, helping gain her team points and setting the standard for the team. If her personal accolades didn’t impress you, Sanders has very impressive career highs in all categories. Sander’s personal best when competing All-Around is 38.525, 9.6 when competing on the vault, a career-high of 9.7 in bars, 9.725 on the beam, and her career-best when competing on the floor is 9.8.
Our Ladies' Gymnastics team has their season in the spring, so be sure to come out and support our gymnastics team next semester! For the official release of Kendall Sander’s nomination for NCAA Woman of the Year, check it out here: