WINTRHOP, Mass. – Recent Suffolk University graduate Emily Manfra has been tabbed as a co-recipient as the 2019-20 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Woman of the Year, the league office announced Tuesday afternoon. Manfra shares the honor with Emmanuel's two-sport standout Yuleksa Ramirez-Tejeda. The pair is the conference's nominees for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership.
As the conference nominee, Manfra will be forwarded to the Woman of the Year selection committee, which will choose the top 10 honorees in each NCAA division. The committee will then determine the top three candidates from each division from that pool. The nine finalists will be sent to the Committee on Women's Athletics, which will vote to determine the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year. The winner will be announced in the fall.
Manfra and Ramirez-Tejeda were two of six finalists for conference consideration along with Alison Fairbairn of Colby Sawyer, Maria Coniglio from Johnson & Wales, Lasell Mindy Esposito and Lillian Bissett of Saint Joseph's (Maine).
Manfra is one the nearly 150 conference-level selections out of a record 605 nominees across all three NCAA divisions. She is the first-ever Suffolk student-athlete to be chosen as the GNAC representative since the league selection model started in 2006.
Prior to 2006 and dating back to 1991, when the honor was established, the NCAA Woman of the Year format picked its nominees by state rather than conference affiliation, as it stands now. Suffolk has never had a nominee on the national ballot until Manfra's distinction this year.
"We are thrilled Emily is being recognized as the GNAC Woman of the Year," Director of Athletics Cary McConnell said. "She has been a very special student-athlete representing Suffolk on the national stage in cross country and track & field. As proud as we are of her athletic success, her performance in the classroom is equally remarkable with a near perfect 3.99 grade point average, while studying biology."
McConnell's statement directly reflects how Manfra encompassed the true meaning of student-athlete and ran with it; both literally and figurately.
In competition, the long-distance runner's resume is second to none in the blue-and-gold's history.
She jump started on the scene as the program's first-ever GNAC Rookie of the Year in cross country in 2016. It was only up from there, graduating as the most decorated runner of all-time with both GNAC Runner of the Year and GNAC Champion status in 2019, a pair of all-region and a trio of all-conference nods, respectively. In addition to her hardware, she became the first Ram to run at NCAAs in 2018 and repeated that performance last fall with her second straight trip to nationals.
When transitioning from the cross country courses to track & field Manfra never skipped a beat. She quickly ran to the regional then national ranks, competing at NCAAs in both indoor and outdoor, respectively. Her award haul includes two All-American nods, three all-region honors, 2020 GNAC Track Athlete of the Year (indoor), 2019 GNAC Runner of the Year, GNAC Champion on four occasions and four all-league honors.
"Emily had an amazing year, and in my opinion, cemented herself as the greatest runner in both Suffolk and GNAC history," Will Feldman head coach of cross country/track & field said. "Being named GNAC Woman of the Year is the perfect cap to an incredible career."
While her athletics are second to none, her academics accolades were near perfect.
In eight semesters at Suffolk the biology major maintained a 3.99 cumulative GPA. For her performance in the classroom, she took home Academic All-American honors from CoSIDA twice, including a first-team nod this year, the first Ram to do so in Suffolk history. The two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree also owns four all-academic team honors from the USTFCCCA and four by the GNAC to go along with eight AD Honor Roll selections and six unblemished 4.0 terms.