Ohio Wesleyan’s Hardman Garners 2023 Pam Smith Award

CLEVELAND, OH - Recent Ohio Wesleyan University graduate and field hockey and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field student-athlete Veronica Hardman (Blenheim, New Zealand/Ravenswood) has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 North Coast Athletic Conference Pam Smith Award.

A four-year member of the Ohio Wesleyan field hockey team and a two-year member of the women’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams, Hardman leaves OWU with three championship crowns. Hardman was a member of the Battling Bishops’ field hockey squad that captured their ninth NCAC title in 2019 and back-to-back NCAC Tournament titles in 2021 and 2022. She is a three-year captain and three-time All-NCAC selection in field hockey and claimed one All-NCAC Indoor Track & Field certificate after placing third in the long jump during the 2023 indoor season. She was the NCAC’s only National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) first-team All-Region selection and Synapse Sports second-team All-America honoree this past season. Hardman scored the game-winning goal in the second overtime period of the 2022 NCAC field hockey tournament title game, securing the Battling Bishops second-straight NCAC Tournament crown. She earned tournament MVP for her efforts, while her team collected the league’s automatic qualifier onto the national stage. In the 2021 postseason, Hardman earned a selection to the NCAC All-Tournament team after the Battling Bishops claimed their first NCAC Tournament title and then went on to record their first NCAA tournament win in program history.

A double major in Psychology and Health and Human Kinetics with a concentration in Exercise Science, Hardman graduated from Ohio Wesleyan with a 3.90 grade point average and earned the Ohio Wesleyan Presidential Award (athletic ability and achievement, academic excellence, character, leadership, activities, and inspiration) and the Ohio Wesleyan Mackenzie Conway Sportsmanship Award (sportswoman of the year). She is a two-time NCAC Academic Honor Roll honoree and was named OWU’s NCAC Scholar-Athlete Award winner which honors outstanding academic and athletic achievement. Hardman was selected to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team in Track & Field and as an at-large player in field hockey. She was honored with the Ohio Wesleyan Dale Bruce Scholar-Athlete Top 50 GPA Award in both 2022 and 2023. In 2023, Hardman received the Dale Bruce Scholar-Athlete Top 10 Award (student-athlete impact upon their family, team, University, and community), the Nan Carney-DeBord Award (top female senior student-athlete) and the Harriet Stewart Award (Health and Human Kinetics department). She was inducted into Chi Alpha Sigma and Psi Chi in 2023, is a four-time recipient of the NFHCA DIII National Academic Squad and has been named an NFHCA Scholar of Distinction three times.
 
Aside from success in competition and in the classroom, Hardman volunteered her time in the community with the Common Ground Free Store and with FEED Delaware. On campus from 2020-23, she served as an orientation leader for new international student orientation and participated in Kappa Alpha Theta. She served as the Kappa Alpha Theta Vice President of External Affairs in 2021-22 and was responsible for organizing service events for members along with two philanthropy events that raised money for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). She also served as a team leader during the 2022 Make a Difference Day, coordinating a team to help members of the community with tasks around their homes. Hardman was a member of the Health and Human Kinetics Department Student Board from 2020-23, where she helped advise students on which classes to take for a timely graduation, while providing evaluations of professors and coming up with ways to increase the presence of the department on campus.

Hardman was one of seven outstanding nominees considered by the selection committee. The other candidates included:

Lucy Anderson, Women’s Volleyball, Denison University
Payton Doan, Field Hockey, Kenyon College
Isabelle Hoover, Women’s Cross Country and Indoor & Outdoor Track & Field, College of Wooster
Seelye Stoffregen, Women’s Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field, DePauw University
Britta Treu, Women’s Lacrosse, College of Wooster
Mya Wolfe, Women’s Lacrosse, Wittenberg University
 
The NCAC Woman of the Year Award commemorates former Wittenberg women’s basketball Head Coach and Associate Director of Athletics Pam Evans Smith, who had a profound impact upon the athletes she coached and the students she taught over an illustrious career that spanned more than two decades. She was the architect of the women’s basketball program with the most wins and highest winning percentage in NCAC history through 2007. A 1999 Wittenberg Athletics Hall of Honor inductee, Smith earned seven NCAC Coach of the Year awards and compiled a 401-170 record after taking the reins of a struggling program prior to the 1986-87 season. She led the Tigers to eight NCAA Division III tournament appearances, twelve 20-win seasons, and 11 NCAC regular-season championships. 
 
As the NCAC winner, Hardman will be nominated, along with Wooster’s Isabelle Hoover (Millersport, OH/Fairfield Union), for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award, one of the most prestigious honors the NCAA bestows. The award recognizes senior student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service, and leadership. Each NCAA conference, and independent institutions, can submit two nominations for the NCAA Woman of the Year award as long as one of the nominees is a student-athlete of color or is an international student-athlete. The Woman of the Year Selection Committee will name the Top 30 honorees, which include 10 women from each division. From the 30 honorees, the committee will then select and announce nine finalists, three from each NCAA division. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will review the finalists and name the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year. Later this fall, the national Top 30 honorees and nine finalists will be announced. The 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced at the 2024 NCAA Convention in Phoenix.
 
NCAC Pam Smith Award Winners
2023 - Veronica Hardman, Ohio Wesleyan
2022 - Emmie Mirus, Kenyon
2021 - Megan Wong, Denison
2020 - Sydney Kopp, DePauw
2019 - Hannah Orbach-Mandel, Kenyon
2018 - Julia Wilson, Kenyon
2017 - Ellie Crawford, Kenyon
2016 - Haley Townsend, Kenyon
2015 - Maggie MacPhail, DePauw
2014 - Paige Gooch, DePauw
2013 - Leah Sack, Kenyon
2012 - Alisa Vereshchagin, Kenyon
2011 - Katie Navarre, Denison
2010 - Sarah Shinn, Ohio Wesleyan
2009 - Tracy Menzel, Kenyon
2008 - Erin Gorsich, Denison

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