In her final race for the Red and Blue, Bella Whittaker broke the Ivy League Women's 400 Meter record while finishing fifth overall at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday.
Credit: Chase SuttonAfter an exciting summer competing at the Paris Olympics, 2024 graduate and former Penn women's track and field athlete Isabella Whittaker continues to collect honors — the latest being a finalist for the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
Originally established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award honors not only athletic excellence but also the community service, leadership, and academic achievement of graduating female athletes from any sport in the three NCAA divisions. Earlier this fall, Whittaker was voted by the selection committee as one of the top-30 finalists, and now was advanced to the top nine — three from each NCAA division. Whittaker is the ninth-ever Ivy League athlete to be named a finalist.
The Laurel, Md. native’s athletic excellence cannot be denied with eight program records, eight indoor and outdoor Ivy championship titles, five separate All-American honors, and the Olympics rings under her name. This summer, Whittaker represented Team USA as part of the 4x400-meter relay pool.
Whittaker’s off-the-field track record further impresses. In her time at Penn, she served as a founding member of Black Student Athletes at Penn and launched Penn's chapter of Athlete Ally — an organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ athletes at Penn.
In addition, Whittaker made a difference in the greater Philadelphia community, working with the Young Quakers Community Athletics and the Make A Play Foundation that helped underprivileged Philadelphia youth and student-athletes from underprivileged areas respectively.
And of course, unsurprisingly, Whittaker excelled in the classroom, graduating summa cum laude as a Communications major from the College of Arts and Sciences.
Whittaker is not done running yet as she has an additional year of NCAA eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which she is using currently as a graduate student at the University of Arkansas due to the Ivy League’s barring of graduate student participation in athletics.
As for who will receive the honor of NCAA Woman of the Year, the moment of truth will be in January when the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will announce the winner at the NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee where the Top 30 will also be honored.
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