Tanisha Silas, a former track and field standout at UC Davis, is the 2002 NCAA Woman of the Year, the second Aggie to earn the distinguished honor.

Silas received the award - one of the most prestigious that the NCAA bestows - at the 12th annual NCAA Woman of the Year Awards Dinner on Saturday evening at the Westin Hotel in Indianapolis. The award honors academic and athletics excellence, as well as community service and leadership.

Silas was chosen from about 350 nominations. A selection committee composed of representatives from member schools chose 50 winners representing the states and then narrowed the field to 10 national finalists. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics selected Silas from among the 10 finalists.

She is the second student track and field athlete from UC Davis to be named the NCAA Woman of the Year. Jamila Demby, another all-American, received the honor in 1999.

"Tanisha is most deserving of this award," said UC Davis Director of Athletics Greg Warzecka. "She epitomizes what UC Davis student-athletes are all about and what this prestigious award stands for."

An outstanding scholar, Silas graduated with highest honors last June with a 3.663 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) in neurobiology, physiology and behavior.

Currently a medical student at UC Davis, Silas received the Division of Biological Sciences Citation for Academic Excellence in 2002, the Outstanding Senior Leadership award in 2001 and the Arthur Ashe, Jr., National Sports Scholar Award in 2000.

• member of the Golden Key National Honor Society, she was listed on the intercollegiate athletics honor roll and the College of Letters and Science dean's list throughout her college career.

Silas - a six-time all-American and member of the 4x400 relay teams for UC Davis' indoor and outdoor track and field squads - was part of the outdoor relay teams that were the conference champions from 1999 to 2001. She was part of the Aggies' relay teams that hold both indoor and outdoor school records.

The Vallejo native volunteered as a Special Olympics clinic instructor and as an athletics peer counselor. She was an intern in a pediatrics emergency room and in the geriatrics department at UC Davis Medical Center. In addition, Silas, the captain of the track and field team, sang with the UC Davis Gospel Choir at numerous events.

Last year's Woman of the Year was Kimberly Black, an Olympic swimmer from the University of Georgia.