CLEVELAND  – In an announcement made this afternoon, Alexandra Turvey of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, and Max Cleveland of Simpson College were recognized as the recipients of the third annual Division III Commissioner's Association (DIIICA) Women's Sport and Men's Sport Student-Athlete of the Year awards, respectively.

The two emerged as the national winners from a pool of 20 regional honorees which were announced earlier in the month.

Turvey is a 21-time CSCAA All-American who swam on a pair of national champion relays and finished runner-up in three individual events in leading her team to a seventh-place national finish at the Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in March. Also a two-time Canadian Olympic Trials qualifier, she earned three SCIAC Women's Swimmer of the Year honors and currently holds eight SCIAC records. She was the NCAA Elite 90 winner in 2023 - only the second individual in conference history - and was awarded a Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship upon graduation. She was named the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for swimming & diving in 2024.

Turvey, who earned her undergraduate degree at Pomona in biology, will be pursuing an eight-year dual-graduate MD-PhD program at Harvard Medical School and MIT, having conducted research in a genomics computational biology lab and at Children's Hospital.

Cleveland earned three All-American honors during his career. He earned First-Team All-American honors in 2023 at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the 110-meter hurdles. He earned second-team honors at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships in 2024 when he competed in the 60-meter hurdles and then again at the Outdoor Championships in the 110-meter hurdles. He is a four-time NCAA qualifier, five-time All-Region performer, and six-time All-Conference honoree. Cleveland graduated holding two Simpson records: indoor 300 meters and indoor 60-meter hurdles.

Cleveland, who graduated from Simpson with human services, psychology and religion degrees, was a four-time A-R-C Academic All-Conference honoree. He was an Academic All-American in 2024 as presented by College Sports Communicators (CSC) and a two-time Academic All-District recipient by CSC. He was named a USTFCCCA All-Academic Individual three different years. He graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors and received the 2024 Outstanding Senior in Religion Award at Simpson. 

Selection criteria for the DIIICA Student-Athlete of the Year awards included considerations based on academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership and a personal statement submitted by each nominee.

Conferences were permitted to submit two nominations for each award if at least one of the nominations was an international student/ethnic minority. Graduating seniors were the only student-athletes eligible for this award. Selection criteria for the awards included considerations based on academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership and a personal statement submitted by each nominee.

The initial round of voting was conducted by commissioners within each of the ten regions, with the top male and female honoree recognized as finalists for the Awards Committee to select the Division III Commissioner's Association Men's Sport and Women's Sport Student-Athlete of the Year.
 
About the DIIICA: The Division III Commissioners Association became a stand-alone organization in January 1992, after previously serving as a combined group with the Division II Commissioners Association. The association is comprised of 43 NCAA Division III conferences, representing over 440 public and private institutions. The purpose of the DIIICA is to empower commissioners to effectively lead their conferences and positively impact Division III intercollegiate athletics by identifying challenges, developing solutions, and taking collective action that reflects the conference perspective.