INDIANAPOLIS – Carson-Newman's first ever Elite 90 winner, swimmer Nancy Claire Smith (Franklin, Tenn.) was voted one of the 31 semifinalists for the Fan Favorite Award when voting ended Friday evening.
Voting totals from the first round have been reset and supporters are encouraged to go to the link: http://on.ncaa.com/Elite90 to vote for Smith in her attempt to make the final 10. The vote is open from 10 a.m. Monday until 8 p.m. Tuesday evening.
The opening round received a total of 20,598 votes. Fans do not have to register but can only vote once per day per computer.
The Elite 90 award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships.
Smith became Carson-Newman's Elite 90 winner since the award was created by the NCAA in 2008; the junior currently owns a 4.00 GPA in Biochemistry. She is a two-time National Swim Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American and a CoSIDA Academic All-American.
In the pool, Smith held the program's school record in the 400 Individual Medley with a time of 4:31.16 until it was reset this season and was a member of the 800 Free Relay that reset the school record at the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships last month; the 800 Free Relay time is the third-quickest in Division II this season.
The 10 finalists will be selected Tuesday evening with one winner, who will be featured on NCAA social media platforms on Friday, July 22. Last year's winner was Carrington Motley of MIT, who barely edged second place by 80 votes. Overall, the contest garnered 38,741 votes.
Semifinals: Monday 7/18 at 10am ET until Tuesday 7/19 at 8pm ET
Finals: Wednesday 7/20 at 10am ET until Thursday 7/21 at 8pm ET
Winner celebrated: Friday 7/22
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