Upper Iowa University softball's Katie Crogan was named as one of the twenty-five student-athletes from across the country that were revealed on Monday, May 9, as part of the 2022 Schutt Sports/NFCA Division II National Player and Pitcher of the Year awards list.
The Player of the Year award was created in 2015 to honor the outstanding athletic achievements among softball student-athletes throughout NCAA Division II. In 2019, the Association expanded the award to include a Player and Pitcher of the Year. The list is compiled and the award is voted on by the elected members of the NFCA Division II All-American Committee with one head coach representing each of the eight NCAA regions. To be eligible, a student-athlete's head coach must be a member.
The list features a graduate student, 10 seniors, nine juniors, four sophomores, and one freshman representing 25 programs from 15 different conferences.
Following a career-year and a record-setting season, Katie Crogan was named as the first NSIC Player of the Year in Upper Iowa history and earned a spot on the All-NSIC First Team, the third All-Conference nod of her career. Crogan finished 2022 with a .465 batting average, .885 slugging percentage, .543 on-base percentage, 50 runs, 73 hits, 15 doubles, 17 home runs, 76 RBI, and 24 walks. The Watertown, Wis. native set the Peacock single-season record for batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, hits, home runs, and RBI. She also finished with the second-most runs and walks in a season and the third-most doubles. The fifth-year graduate student holds the UIU record for hits (253), doubles (54), home runs (45), runs scored (141), and runs batted in (203) in a Peacock career while finishing second all-time in batting average (.390), slugging percentage (.684), and at-bats (649) and third in OBP (.441).
Crogan helped power a Peacock offense that finished second in the NSIC in runs per game at 6.04, a top-50 mark in NCAA DII. Upper Iowa went 24-28 (14-15 NSIC) in their 2022 campaign and earned the program's first postseason appearance since 2019. In their first year at the helm, Head coach Kiki Stokes and assistant coach Kelsey Aikey helped UIU win its first NSIC Tournament game since winning the NSIC Championship in 2016 by beating Wayne State College in their opening game before falling on day two of the double-elimination tournament.
The California Collegiate Athletics Association, Gulf South Conference and the Lone Star Conference each had three honorees. The Great Lakes Valley Conference, Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association and the South Atlantic Conference earned two plaudits apiece. Crogan is joined by No. 17 Minnesota State University, Mankato's Mackenzie Ward, the NSIC Pitcher of the Year, as the Northern Sun Conference's nominees.
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, Conference Carolinas, East Coast Conference, Great American Conference, Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Mountain East Conference, PacWest Conference, and the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference were represented by one honoree.
The winner of each award will be announced on June 2, following the conclusion of the 2022 season.
