Contact: Chassidy Holloway, Associate Executive Director, holloway@midwestconference.org
 
GRINNELL, Iowa – The Midwest Conference (MWC) announced today that Lake Forest College softball player Josie Klein and Knox College track & field athlete Charles Broomfield are the 2022 Midwest Conference Athletes of the Year.
 
Awarded to one student-athlete representing women’s sports and one student-athlete representing men’s and mixed sports, the MWC Athletes of the Year award honors graduating student-athletes for their exceptional achievements in athletics, academics, leadership, and community service. 
 
Klein was named MWC Position Player of the Year after leading Lake Forest to a conference championship in 2022, the team's second title during her career. The senior center fielder posted the league's highest on-base percentage (.597) and slugging percentage (.946), while ranking among the leaders with 30 hits, 28 runs, seven doubles, four home runs, and 22 runs batted in during the 16-game conference schedule. In addition, Klein went 3-0 with a shutout and a 2.23 earned run average as a pitcher. She was named MWC Position Player of the Week three times and Pitcher Performer of the Week once this spring.

Klein's 57 base hits over the course of the entire season is a new school record. She finished among the top 35 in the nation in slugging percentage, on-base percentage, total bases, and triples. She was also named Second Team All-Region IX by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and earned Team MVP honors for the second consecutive season.

Successful in the classroom as well, Klein was a First Team Academic All-America® selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America and, earlier today, was listed as an Academic All-MWC honoree for the fourth time in her career. The economics and psychology double-major appeared on the Dean's List throughout her collegiate career, earned multiple academic scholarships as well as the Warren A. Peterson Memorial Award in Economics, and was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society.

Klein has also been involved in numerous activities on campus, in the surrounding community, and in her hometown of Burlington, Wisconsin. She served as an economics tutor and a teacher's assistant at a nearby elementary school and volunteered for Forester Day of Service, Special Olympics, and National Women and Girls in Sports Day. As a member of the softball team, she donated her time at Feed My Starving Children and worked with young players at Lake Forest College Softball Camps. Klein also shared her knowledge of the game as a private pitching coach, an assistant coach of a travel softball team, and a head coach in Burlington Little League Baseball.

Klein is the fifth Forester in the last 10 years to earn one of the league's most prestigious awards, which was formerly called MWC Woman of the Year. She joins swimmer Becky Shaak '13, soccer players Becky Esrock '14 and Michelle Greeneway '16, and fellow softball player Jenny McTague '17.

Broomfield was named the Outstanding Field Performer at both the 2022 Indoor and 2022 Outdoor Midwest Conference Track and Field Championships. He earned first place finishes in the shot put and weight throw at the Indoor Championships and first place in the discus and shot put at the Outdoor Championships.
 
Over his career, Broomfield finished in the top-5 at the MWC Indoor or Outdoor Championships a total of 10 times. He was also named to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Region Team in the Weight Throw after the 2022 Indoor Season.
 
Broomfield owns the Knox record in the Indoor Weight Throw at 57’ 5.5” and the Outdoor record in the Hammer at 160’ 11”.
 
Broomfield also excelled in the classroom and was named the MWC Elite 20 Award Recipient at the 2020 MWC Indoor Championships, the 2021 Outdoor Championships, and the 2022 Indoor Championships. The Elite 20 Award goes to the individual attending the championships with the highest overall GPA.
 
Broomfield made the Knox College Dean’s List all four years and was also on the MWC Academic All-Conference Team each year. In 2021, he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. He spent two years on the Knox College Union Board and was also a Resident Assistant.
 
Broomfield was also chosen for prestigious internships at two Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC), Argonne National Laboratory and The MITRE Corporation.

Klein and Broomfield will be the league’s nominees for the Division III Commissioners Association (DIIICA) Student Athletes of the Year Program, while Klein will also move on for NCAA Woman of the Year consideration.

The DIIICA will announce its regional selections the week of July 25 via press release, and the Student Athletes of the Year on Monday, August 15.

On Thursday, the NCAA announced a total of 577 graduating student-athletes across all three divisions were nominated for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award, including 202 in Division III. Of the conference honorees, the Woman of the Year Selection Committee will then select 10 student-athletes from each division, determining the Top 30 honorees.

Of the Top 30, the Committee will announce nine finalists in September, three from each division. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will review the finalists and name the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year this fall.