Winning every event that she competed in this fall, Rhaina Echols from the University of Chicago (Ill.) has been named the 1999 NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Year. The United States Track Coaches Association and Mondo Surfacing selects and presents the award annually to a top performer at one of the 429 NCAA Division III schools that sponsor women's cross country.

Echols, a senior from Glendale, Calif., highlighted her 1999 season by the winning the individual title at the NCAA Division III Championship held Nov. 20 in Winneconne, Wis. There, Echols outdistanced a field of 213 runners by completing the 5,000-meter course in a time of 16:46. Her performance was 22 seconds better than the second-place time of 17:08 recorded by the University of California-San Diego's Carolyn Jones. Echols is the University of Chicago's first NCAA Division III champion in women's cross country.

In addition to her individual title at the NCAA Division III Championship, Echols also won eight other events during the 1999 campaign. Among them were the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional, University Athletic Association Championship, Augustana College (Ill.) Invitational, North Central College (Ill.) Invitational, Loyola University (Ill.) Invitational and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Invitational. Echols' first-place finish at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional held Nov. 13 in Rock Island, Ill., qualified her the NCAA Division III Championship. The English major was one of two representatives for the Maroons at the NCAA Division III Championship.

Last year, Echols helped the University of Chicago to a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championship by finishing third with a time of 18:02. Echols' performance gained her All-America accolades.

Dave Davis from the University of Puget Sound (Wash.) was the 1999 NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year.