DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Alex Orr and Tarra Keating have been nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. One of the most prestigious NCAA awards, the Woman of the Year Award was established in 1991 to celebrate the achievements of women in intercollegiate athletics. Now in its 29th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
 
Orr competed for the Eagles' cross country and track and field teams from 2014-19. She helped the cross country team to the Sunshine State Conference title in 2017 and a regional crown in 2018, as well as back-to-back NCAA II team appearances in 2017 and 2018. She garnered All-SSC first team honors after a fourth-place finish at the conference championships in 2017, and followed that with eighth-place showing at the NCAA South Region Championships that afforded her 2017 All-Region recognition. 
 
On the track, Orr helped the Blue and Gold to the 2018 and 2019 Peach Belt Conference titles. She earned All-Conference honors in the 10K in 2018 and currently owns the ERAU 10K record (37:50.85).
 
Orr was also very active on campus and in the community throughout her ERAU career. She was the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee secretary and served in the Student Government Association as the Athletics liaison and a student representative for the College of Aviation. In addition, she engaged in several volunteer activities, including the university's Sexual Assault Awareness program, hurricane clean-up and the Tree Initiative.
 
A two-time ERAU Eagles of Excellence scholarship winner and the recipient of the 2017-18 Steve & Vicky Ridder scholarship, Orr was named to the Sunshine State Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll three times, as well as the Peach Belt Conference All-Academic team. Orr completed her undergraduate degree in Aeronautical Science in 2018 with a 3.78 and cumulative grade point average. While working toward master's degree in Aeronautics at ERAU, Orr worked her way up from flight instructor to check airman at Epic Flight Academy. She wrapped up her master's degree in May with a 3.889 GPA.
 
Keating was a four-year letterwinner with the track and field team. She helped the Eagles to consecutive Peach Belt Conference Track and Field titles in 2018 and 2019, and capped her career as the 2019 PBC pole vault champion. A two-time PBC All-Academic selection, Keating posted top-10 finishes at the 2019 conference meet in the heptathlon (6^th) and the javelin (10^th), and recorded the second-highest vault in the PBC this season (3.35 meters).
 
Off the track, Keating was engaged in a number of campus and community activities and organizations. She was the vice president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, was a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering honor society, and volunteered at a local food pantry and with local elementary school STEM programs. Keating was a peer mentor for ERAU freshmen, and her work as a Fellow in Ethics, Service and Leadership in the Chaplain's office earned her a 2019 Embry-Riddle Student of the Year nomination.
 
Keating graduated from ERAU with an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering with a 3.90 GPA.
 
Orr is one of five SSC nominees and Keating is one of nine Peach Belt nominees who are eligible for submission to NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee, which identifies the top 10 honorees in each of the three NCAA divisions. The selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division from the Top 30 and announce the nine finalists in September. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then will choose the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual award ceremony Oct. 20 in Indianapolis.