PUEBLO, Colo. (June 25, 2025) – Colorado State University Pueblo women's track and field standout Katherine Higgins (Mead, Colo./Ponderosa) has been named as the 2024-25 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year as announced by the league office on Wednesday.

Higgins, who is a graduate student at CSU Pueblo, earns the league's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award after capping her collegiate career by winning her first national title and also earning the NCAA Division II Elite 90 Award at the 2025 NCAA Division II National Outdoor Track & Field Championships that was hosted at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl this past May. After earning national runner-up finishes four times in the women's shot put between the indoor and outdoor seasons, Higgins finally captured her first career national title with a career-best toss of 16.38 meters to earn the women's outdoor shot put title at this year's championship meet.

During her illustrious collegiate career, Higgins, who is pursuing a master's degree in Education and carries a 4.0 cumulative GPA in graduate school and earned her bachelor's degree in middle school mathematics with a 3.78 cumulative GPA, was an eight-time All-American in the shot put, including earning first-team honors during both the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons the past three years. She was a Second-Team All-American as a freshman in 2022.

Along with her eight All-American honors, Higgins was an eight-time All-RMAC selection, including earning first team honors this season in the indoor shot put and weight throw and the outdoor shot put and discus and was a three-time RMAC Champion in the shot put, including capturing league titles in both the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2025. She was also a three-time RMAC Runner-up in the shot put during the 2024 outdoor and 2023 indoor and outdoor seasons.

Higgins also earned a slew of academic honors in her CSU Pueblo career as along with winning the 2025 NCAA Elite 90 Award, Higgins was also named the 2025 RMAC Academic Athlete of the Year for both indoor and outdoor track and field, a 2023-24 Third-Team College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-American, and is a three-time CSC Academic All-District selection after earning her third consecutive CSC academic honor on Tuesday afternoon.

With her honor, Higgins becomes the first CSU Pueblo female student-athlete to earn RMAC Women's Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors since the award began in the 2016-17 school year. Higgins is the eighth different student-athlete to earn the award in the past nine years as Colorado School of Mines' women's cross country and track and field athlete Zoe Baker was honored twice in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

The RMAC Male and Female Scholar-Athlete Awards are the highest academic honors bestowed by the conference. A student-athlete must have completed at least two academic terms at a member institution while maintaining a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average, and participated in an RMAC-sponsored championship sport.

Higgins will be honored with her award at the 2025 RMAC Hall of Fame Ceremony and Awards Banquet on Thursday, July 10 at the Colorado Springs Marriott in Colorado Springs, Colo. In addition to Higgins, former Pack football player Ryan Jensen (2010-13) and the 2014 CSU Pueblo National Championship football team are two of the seven RMAC Hall of Fame Class of 2025 inductees. The Hall of Fame Ceremony and Awards Banquet will begin at 5 p.m. MT with the awards and induction ceremony beginning at 6 p.m. MT.

Tickets are now available for the 2025 RMAC Hall of Fame Ceremony and Awards Banquet and can be purchased HERE.