INDIANAPOLIS -- Former University of South Alabama track & field student-athlete Kaitlyn Beans is one of two women to be nominated by the Sun Belt Conference for the 2017 NCAA Women of the Year Award, as announced by the NCAA on Tuesday. Beans joins Haley Haden from the Louisiana-Lafayette as the other nomination from the Sun Belt Conference.

The NCAA Women of the Year award looks at four pillars in regards to student-athletes who are nominated: academics, athletics, service and leadership. There were 145 conference nominees this year. Of the 145 nominees; 53 are from Division III, 34 are from Division II and Beans is one of 58 honorees from Division I schools.

During her career, Beans captured six individual Sun Belt Track and Field Conference Championships, including three outdoor triple jump titles, two indoor triple jump titles and an indoor long jump title, en route to becoming the first three-time NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships qualifier from South since 2007. Beans was also a second-team NCAA Outdoor Track and Field All-American during the 2016 outdoor season, earned first-team all-region (outdoor) honors three times, and was all-Sun Belt Conference seven times, including three first-team all-outdoor honors and two all-indoor first-team honors. 

She holds the individual South records in the indoor triple jump (12.98m/42-10¾), the indoor long jump (6.14m/20-1¾) and the outdoor triple jump (13.38m/43-10¾), while having the third-best outdoor long jump performance (6.11m/20-00½). 

Beans culminated her career by being named the 2017 Sun Belt Conference Indoor Track and Field Most Outstanding Field Athlete of the Year as well as being named the 2017 South Alabama Female Student-Athlete of the Year among other honors.

Away from the track, Beans has been a shining star in the classroom and in the community. She was a three-time recipient of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Award, was named first-team CoSIDA Academic All-District in 2016, and earned a spot on South Alabama's Dean's Honor List three times, while making the Dean's List on two occasions. 

In the community, she volunteered at Little Sisters of the Poor Nursing Home, St. Mary's Orphanage and was a high school track and field camp volunteer among many other volunteer activities. Beans also served on the South Alabama Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was the financial director for the South Alabama Student Programming Board for Jaguar Productions. 

The next step in the process for Beans will be when the selection committee chooses the top-10 honorees in each division, before selecting the top-three finalists for each division in the NCAA. The Committee on Women's Athletics will then select the 2017 NCAA Women of the Year, and the winner will be announced at a ceremony on Oct. 22 in Indianapolis, Ind.