Kate Brush, a three-time All-American on the Colorado College women's swimming team, capped her decorated career by being named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Woman of the Year in a ballot of the league's senior woman administrators.
 
The award recognizes the conference's senior female student-athlete who has best distinguished herself throughout her collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence and service and leadership. Brush will now be nominated for the 33^rd annual NCAA Woman of the Year Award, one of the most prestigious honors the NCAA bestows.
 
To be nominated, a student-athlete must have completed intercollegiate eligibility in her primary sport by the end of the 2023 spring season, received her undergraduate degree prior to the conclusion of the summer 2023 term and had a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.50 (4.0 scale).

Brush compiled a 3.78 grade-point average and graduated on May 28, earning a bachelor's degree with a double major in art and economics. She is a two-time CSCAA Scholar All-American and a member of the SCAC Honor Roll all four years at Colorado College.
 
"We are so proud of Kate," Colorado College Vice President and Director of Athletics Lesley Irvine said. "She had an extraordinary career here at CC. To be recognized at the conference level for her commitment, hard work and talent is special and we are immensely grateful for all she has given to the program and our community."
 
Brush is the third Tiger to be honored in the history of the award, joining Isabelle Aragon-Menzel (2021) and Melanie Auguste (2009) on the exclusive list. The recognition was created prior to the 2005-06 academic year and is announced annually in conjunction with the league's Man of the Year award.
 
A native of Greenwich, Ct., Brush was named the school's 2023 Laura Golden Award winner as the top female senior student-athlete. She earned three All-America honors at CC, including two this past season at the 2023 NCAA Division III Championships. She claimed a first-team All-America nod with an eighth-place finish in the 100 butterfly and a second-team selection with a ninth-place finish in the 200 butterfly. Brush is first female swimmer in school history to be an All-American in multiple events in the same year and the second to earn the honor in multiple years.
 
Brush captured six Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference individual titles during her career, including three as a senior in the 500 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly. She set the SCAC open record in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:02.13 and holds five school records. 

"Kate is an impressive athlete and student, and her performances in those arenas speak for themselves," head swimming coach Anne Goodman James said. "I am most impressed, though, with her tremendous growth as a person and team member during her years here at CC. Her teammates admire her consistent and intense work ethic in practice every day and appreciate her all-out efforts while competing for the team and our overall team goals. Besides becoming a faster swimmer, she has developed her resiliency and poise through her experience as a collegiate athlete."
 
During her four years at Colorado College, Brush volunteered at the Special Olympics Swim Clinic of Southern Colorado, teaching starts, turns, finishes, underwaters, and stroke mechanics. She also volunteered with the rest of the swim team for the Little Cats Swimming program, which provides swim and water safety lessons to underprivileged kids in after school community programs all around Colorado Springs.
 
Another community initiative was a partnership with Team Impact, a non-profit organization that matches sick or disabled children with collegiate sports teams. The swimming team signed a local girl named Shelby Otto, who was diagnosed with Juvenile Dermatomyositis, to a 'National Letter of Intent' and was an honorary member of the team.
 
Brush recently began working as a Client Advisory Analyst at Chilton Trust in New York City.