KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI---Lisa Ann Coole, record-setting swimmer at the University of Georgia, is the 1997 NCAA Woman of the Year. Coole will receive the award at the seventh annual NCAA Woman of the Year Awards Dinner this evening, at the Westin Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. The award honors academic and athletics excellence, as well as community service and leadership.

The NCAA Woman of the Year Award is presented by Rawlings.

Coole was chosen from more than 400 nominations. A special selection committee chose 51 state winners, including the District of Columbia and then narrowed that field to 10 national finalists. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics chose the winner from that field.

"This is just amazing. This is nice closure to what has been a wonderful career," Coole said, "It recognizes what the college experience was all about -- academics, athletics and service.

"Everyone was so deserving, and I feel for the committee because it had to make a very tough decision. All the nominees are winners."

Coole graduated from Georgia, achieving a 3.620 grade-point average and majoring in biology. She was a two-time NCAA champion and 26-time all-American during her four-year swimming career at Georgia. Coole also won gold, silver and bronze medals at the World University Games in 1995 and has been named to two national swim teams.

A native of Rockford, Illinois, Coole was an active volunteer throughout her college career. She was involved with the Athens-Clarke County mentor program and Athens area homeless shelter for three years and was a two-time National Student-Athlete Day volunteer.

The NCAA is a membership organization of colleges and universities that participate in intercollegiate athletics. The primary purpose of the Association is to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body. Activities of the NCAA membership include formulating rules of play for NCAA sports, conducting national championships, adopting and enforcing standards of eligibility and studying all phases of intercollegiate athletics.