Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus Baylor on April 4, 2026 , Win , 82, to, 69
Final
Men's Basketball
82
vs Baylor
69
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Hayes Named State's NCAA Woman Of The Year :: Honor caps most successful year in Denver native's Sooner career.
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Janel Hayes became the third Sooner in the last five years to be named the state's NCAA Woman of the Year. |
Sept. 13, 2001
NORMAN, Okla. - Janel Hayes has been named the NCAA Woman of the Year for the state of Oklahoma. The award honors outstanding female student-athletes who have excelled in academics, athletics and community leadership and have completed their collegiate athletics eligibility.
Her selection marks the third time in the last five years that a Sooner student-athlete has been selected as a state award winner. Basketball standout Phylesha Whaley was the state winner and a national finalist in 2000 while Jenny Bramer was selected as the state winner in 1997 after a five-year Sooner career that included competition in track and field and basketball.
The Denver, Colo., long jumper and sprinter completed her Sooner career last June at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, earning All-America honors. Hayes won the Big 12 Indoor long jump title and finished second in the Big 12 Outdoor meet in May.
A team captain for the Sooner field events last season, Hayes was the Big 12 runner-up in the indoor and outdoor long jump as a junior and finished third in the indoor long jump as a sophomore. She is the current school record holder in the indoor and outdoor long jump.
She met the NCAA provisional mark in the indoor long jump in March of 2001 and was ranked 19th in the country. She was ranked 18th in the country heading into the NCAA Outdoor Championships and finished 10th, earning All-America honors in the long jump for the first time in her Sooner career.
She was a four-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree and was a multi-time Sooner Scholar and Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll selection. She was a US Track Coaches Association Academic All-American as a junior and was named to the Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Award third team, also as a junior. A marketing major at OU, Hayes ranks among the top 10 percent of OU's business students and received the track and field program's Owen Hewitt Award, given to the male and female student-athlete who exhibit athletic and academic excellence, in 2000.
More than 350 student-athletes were nominated for this year's award by their colleges and universities. A committee comprised of representatives from member schools selected the state winners. Alfreeda Goff, associate commissioner for the Horizon League, chaired the selection committee.
Each NCAA member institution was encouraged to submit a nominee. In fact, schools were allowed to submit the names of two nominees if one was an ethnic minority. The selection committee then reviewed the nominees' academic and athletics accomplishments and community service and involvement.
The state-level winners include 29 student-athletes from Division I, nine student-athletes from Division II and 13 student-athletes from Division III. These student-athletes participated in 14 of the 19 sports in which women compete for NCAA championships.
