Sept. 4, 2002
DAVIS, Calif. - Tanisha Silas, an All-America track and field student-athlete at UC Davis, has been named the NCAA Woman of the Year Award state winner for California, it was announced by the NCAA on Wednesday.
Silas is the second straight Aggie to be named a state winner for the prestigious award - track and field standout Kameelah Elarms was honored last year - and is the program's impressive fourth in the past six years. Former soccer standout Kim Haskell was California's winner for the 1996-97 academic year, while track All-American Jamila Demby was named in 1999.
Demby was named the school's first-ever NCAA Woman of the Year winner later that year. She is also the only Division II winner of the award.
A total of 342 student-athletes were nominated for this year's award, with 175 of those nominations from Division I, 62 from Division II and 105 from Division III. The NCAA Woman of the Year Award honors outstanding female student-athletes who have excelled in academics, athletics and community leadership.
The 10 finalists for the celebrated award will be announced next month with the NCAA Woman of the Year selected in Indianapolis on Nov. 2. The District of Columbia plus 49 states are represented among the 50 state winners.
Silas, from Hogan High School in Vallejo, begins medical school this month at UC Davis after graduating in June with her undergraduate degree in neurobiology, physiology and behavior. She graduated with a 3.663 GPA, received the Division of Biological Sciences Department Citation for Academic Excellence in 2002, completed an honor's thesis and received several other academic and leadership honors.
The Dean's List student was also a member of the UC Davis Gospel Choir and interned at the pediatrics emergency room and geriatrics department at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
Additionally, she has volunteered with the Northern California Special Olympics, was volunteer coordinator for the track and field team's participation in Thanksgiving activities at the Shriner's Hospital in Sacramento, and was a peer counselor in UC Davis' Peer Counselors in Athletics program.
On the track, she finished as an outdoor All-American in the 4x400-meter relay each of her four years of competition, was an indoor All-American in the same event as a sophomore and junior, and was part of UC Davis' outdoor relay team that captured California Collegiate Athletic Association championships four times.
Additionally, she is part of relay teams that hold both the indoor and outdoor school records.
"I think Tanisha has shown by example what a hard work ethic can accomplish," said women's track and field coach Deanne Vochatzer.
Silas' recognition give the Aggies' team two straight state-level winners in the NCAA Woman of the Year program.
"It speaks to the quality of the leadership we have here in the program," Vochatzer said. "The older ones take the younger ones under their wings."
The 2002 NCAA Woman of the Year awards dinner will be hosted at the Westin Indianapolis Hotel in Indianapolis, Ind., on Nov. 2.
