Three-time national champion track and field athlete and Nebraska Wesleyan University graduate Isabella Hogue has been selected for one of the most prestigious academic awards in the American Rivers Conference. The selection marks NWU’s sixth consecutive year earning the award.
The Murray, Neb., native has been named the 2023-24 A-R-C Johanna Olson Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The award recognizes academic excellence, community leadership and athletic accomplishments. The winners were selected through a vote by the conference's faculty athletic representatives and announced by the league earlier today
She graduated in 2024 with a 4.0 GPA in communication studies and a minor in marketing. Her academic accolades include earning College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-American First Team honors in both 2023 and 2024, being named to the Dean's List six times and receiving the Gold Key Award from Phi Kappa Phi.
On the track, Hogue earned several notable, record-breaking achievements:
• National Championships: She clinched titles in the Indoor 200m, Outdoor 100m, and 200m in 2022.
• All-American Awards: Bella earned this honor eight times across various events in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
• Conference Records: She set new benchmarks in the A-R-C with records in the Indoor 60m and 400m dashes.
• Nebraska Wesleyan School Records: Hogue holds six school records in several sprint events.
Hogue has also been active in the Lincoln community through volunteerism. She’s tutored at the Karen Society, conducted communication-based research for CEDARS, and led youth track clinics. She was a track and field ambassador for NWU, a guest speaker at donor events, and as a representative for transfer students.
Included in the nomination for A-R-C Scholar-Athlete of the Year was an essay. In her essay, Bella expressed, “The most incredible part about being a student athlete at Nebraska Wesleyan was not the championships, the records, the accolades, the test scores, the degrees, or the achievements; The most impactful part of the 1,095 days I spent at Nebraska Wesleyan while combining athletic participation with the pursuit of my academic degree was the love I felt for simply being there.”