INDIANAPOLIS – UIndy women's golfer Pilar Echeverria was named the co-winner of the GLVC Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award Tuesday as the league's female athlete of the year, sharing the honor with Drury's Hailey Diestelkamp. The award is bestowed annually by the GLVC to one male and one female student-athlete (barring a tie) that displayed academic excellence, athletic ability and achievement, character, and leadership.
 
Echeverria becomes the fifth female Greyhound to be honored with the Paragon Award – most by any GLVC school – and the third UIndy women's golfer in since 2014. The elite group includes Elizabeth Ramsey (women's basketball, 2001), Kyleigh Turner (volleyball, 2010), Jenny Konop (women's golf, 2014) and Annika Haynes (women's golf, 2018).
 
Echeverria has authored one of the most decorated careers in both UIndy and GLVC history. The senior and Guatemala native set school and league records this past season by earning a fourth straight All-America First Team award and a fourth consecutive GLVC Player of the Year selection. She also garnered her second straight WGCA Division II Player of the Year nod, becoming the first repeat winner since 2015.
 
She has set a number of other school benchmarks, including lowest single-season scoring average (71.56), lowest career scoring average (72.96), lowest 36-hole tournament score (135), lowest 54-hole tournament score (209, twice), most GLVC Player of the Week honors (16) and most tournaments won (16). Counted among her individual titles are three NCAA DII East Regional medals and the conference crown in 2019, as well as tournament wins at Ohio State and Kentucky.
 
Furthermore, Echeverria has been the top player on possibly the best team in the nation over the past four seasons. Since she stepped onto campus in 2016-17, she has led the Greyhounds to an amazing 29 wins in 45 tournaments and an .862 overall win percentage, including a perfect 89-0 mark versus GLVC competition. UIndy captured the program's second national championship in 2018, and the Hounds are the only team in Division II with three top-three finishes in each of the last three national tournaments.
 
During her four-year tenure, Echeverria has also excelled in the classroom, compiling a 3.31 overall GPA as a Industrial Systems & Engineering major. In 2017, she earned WGCA All-American Scholar and Academic All-GLVC laurels, while she also balanced her time by serving the community and conference. She participated in both the "GLVC is Me" and "Someone to Listen" PSA campaigns, sharing her personal story and being a voice on campus for mental health awareness. The team captain also volunteered all four years with the Indiana Special Olympics and made multiple visits to patients at Riley Children's Hospital. Additionally, she participated in Food Recollection at UIndy and assisted during the 2019 Night to Shine, a program that provides a prom experience for individuals with special needs 14 and older.
 
A Greyhound also captured the Paragon Award on the men's side this year, with senior diver Payton Staman garnering co-winner status as well. UIndy is just the fourth school with both a male and female honoree in the same season since the award's inception in 1991 and first since 2013. UIndy's overall number of seven Paragon Award winners is second only the University of Southern Indiana's total of eight.