DENVER, Colo. – Former Colorado State University Pueblo women's track and field athlete Katherine Higgins (Mead, Colo./Ponderosa) has been selected as Colorado's 2025 Collegiate Women's Athlete of the Year by the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, as announced by the organization on Tuesday afternoon.

Higgins will be honored at the 61st Annual Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Banquet set for April 16 at the Hilton Denver City Center (1701 California St.).

Following voting early this week, the Selection Committee named Higgins as the second consecutive and third CSU Pueblo women's student-athlete to be honored as the Women's Collegiate Athlete of the Year by the Denver-based group that is located at Empower Field at Mile High.

In addition to Higgins, former women's basketball player Alisha Little was named the Women's Collegiate Athlete of the Year in 2024, and former women's track and cross country student-athlete Yasmine Hernandez was named the Women's Collegiate Athlete of the Year in 2022. In addition, former football player Ross Dausin and former men's track and field runner Thomas Staines were named the Male Collegiate Athletes of the Year in 2012 and 2019, respectively.

"Katherine has made an extraordinary and lasting impact on Pack Athletics. She was a perfect 4.0 student, the 2025 NCAA Division II Shot Put National Champion, and one of the most decorated leaders in the RMAC as both a competitor and a role model," CSU Pueblo Vice President of Athletics and Strategic Partnerships Dr. Paul Plinske said. "The Elite 90 Award and RMAC Woman of the Year honors capture her commitment to excellence far beyond the throwing circle. Being recognized by the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame celebrates not only what she has accomplished, but how she has accomplished it. Katherine embodies the very best of the Pack."

Higgins earns her Women's Collegiate Athlete of the Year honor after closing out her collegiate career in a massive way during the spring of 2025 as the eight-time All-American shot putter capped her collegiate career last May by winning her first national title in the NCAA Division II Women's Outdoor Shot Put 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. 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 the 2025 championship meet. 

During her illustrious career, Higgins, who is married to Pack football player Domingo Prince II (Aurora, Colo./Cherry Creek), and is currently teaching in the Aurora, Colo., school district, 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 in 2023, 2024 and 2025. She was a Second-Team All-American as a freshman in 2022.
 
Along with her eight All-America honors, Higgins was an eight-time All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference selection, including earning first team honors in 2025 in both 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 the league titles in both the indoor and outdoor shot put titles during the 2025 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons. She was also a three-time RMAC Runner-up in the shot put during the 2024 outdoor and 2023 indoor and outdoor seasons. 
 
In addition to her athletic accomplishments, Higgins also earned a slew of academic accolades in her CSU Pueblo career as along with being the 2025 NCAA Elite 90 Award winner for women's outdoor track and field, Higgins was named the 2025 RMAC Women's Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Academic Athlete of the Year and was named both the RMAC Woman of the Year and a nominee for the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year. In addition, she was named the 2024-25 RMAC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was a College Sports Communicators (CSC) First-Team Academic All-American for Division II Women's Track and Field/Cross Country and earned CSC Academic All-District honors three times in her career and was a Third-Team CSC Academic All-American in 2023-24. 

In the classroom, Higgins earned her Bachelor's degree from CSU Pueblo in Middle School Mathematics with a 3.78 cumulative GPA and earned her Master's degree in Education with a 4.0 cumulative GPA. Additionally, she was a five-time member of the RMAC All-Academic Team for both Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field.
 
With her RMAC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Higgins became the first CSU Pueblo female student-athlete to earn RMAC Women's Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors since the league began the award in 2016-17. Additionally, she became just the league's second-ever female student-athlete to capture the conference's two highest honors – Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and RMAC Woman of the Year – in the same school year, joining Colorado Christian's Sophia Proano in 2017-18. 
 
Here is list of Higgins' career accomplishments and honors on the national level:
·         2025 National Champion in women's shot put at NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships
·         2025 RMAC Outdoor Champion in women's shot put, RMAC runner-up in the women's discus
·         2025 National Runner-up in women's shot at NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships
·         2025 RMAC Indoor Champion in women's shot put, placed fifth in the women's weight throw
·         Finished sixth in women's shot put at 2024 NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships
·         2024 RMAC Outdoor Runner-up in women's shot put; placed sixth in the women's discus and fourth in women's hammer throw
·         2024 National Runner-up in women's shot put at NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships
·         2024 RMAC Indoor Champion in women's shot put; placed seventh in the women's weight throw
·         2023 National Runner-up in women's shot put at NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships
·         2023 RMAC Outdoor Runner-up in women's shot put
·         2023 National Runner-up in women's shot put at NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships
·         2023 RMAC Indoor Runner-up in women's shot put
·         Placed 11th in women's shot put at 2022 NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships
 
Here are Higgins' career honors from the RMAC:
·         2025 First-Team All-RMAC Outdoor Track & Field (shot put, discus);
·         2025 First-Team All-RMAC Indoor Track & Field (shot put, weight throw);
·         2024 First-Team All-RMAC Outdoor Track & Field (shot put);
·         2024 Second-Team All-RMAC Outdoor Track & Field (discus);
·         2024 First-Team All-RMAC Indoor Track & Field (shot put);
·         2023 First-Team All-RMAC Outdoor Track & Field (shot put);
·         2023 First-Team All-RMAC Indoor Track & Field (shot put);
·         2022 First-Team All-RMAC Indoor Track & Field (shot put)
 
Following voting that concluded on Monday, the Selection Committee of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame also named Colorado Avalanche defensemen Cole Makar as the Professional Athletes of the Year, while Regis University catcher Adam Paniagua was named the men's Collegiate Athlete of the Year and Lucy Thompson of Legend High School softball and flag football and Elijah Womack of Montrose High School football and lacrosse were named the High School Athletes of the Year and RI Armstrong will be the recipient of the Hall of Fame's Athlete with Disabilities Award.

Tickets for the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Banquet at $250 each, and sponsor tables start at $3,000. For additional ticket and table information, please contact the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame (www.coloradosports.org) or call them at (720) 258-3535. The Colorado Sports Hall of Fame & Museum is located at Gate on the west side of Empower Field at Mile High at 1701 Bryant Street in Denver, Colo.

Since its inception in 1965, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame has inducted 286 individuals. The first class of inductees featured Earl "Dutch" Clark, Jack Dempsey, and former Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White. The 2026 Hall of Fame inductees are former professional women's tennis player Gigi Fernandez, former Denver Bronco football player Steve Foley, former women's Olympian and Colorado State University graduate Wendy Koenig Knudson, former Denver University men's basketball player Harry Holliness, former Denver Nuggets basketball player Lafayette "Fat" Lever, and former University of Colorado and longtime NFL quarterback Kordell Stewart.