The office of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced Thursday that Minnesota State junior Katelin Rains (Spring Lake Park, Minn.) has been named the USTFCCCA National Division II Women's Indoor Field Athlete of the Year.

Rains has been dynamic all season long, and enters this weekend's NCAA Division-II Indoor Track and Field Championships with a chance to bring home two NCAA Championships. At last year's championships, Rains walked away with a national championship in the pole vault, setting a new NCAA Division-II height record in the process at 14'. The height broke the record previously held by former Maverick Amanda Frame, who won indoor pole vault titles in 2004 and 2005.   The Spring Lake Park, Minn. native will be competing in the pole vault once again, and enters this weekend's meet ranked #1 with a qualifying height of 14-0 ½, a record for Division-II she set at the first meet this season, the MSU Pre-Season Open.

Along with the pole vault, Rains will also be competing in the triple jump, an event in which she holds the MSU school record at 38-9 3/4. The school-record height is also her qualifying height, and places her #9 in the field.

Rains was chosen for the award from a total of eight female athletes that had earned USTFCCCA regional awards earlier this week. Katelin is the first Maverick to receive this honor, male or female.

So far in her career, Rains has captured 10 North Central Conference individual titles, and has earned NCAA All-American status three times.  Rains has been named Athlete of the Week by the North Central Conference a total of 11 times over her career, including five times this season.  She was also named to the North Central Conference Academic Honor Roll, rewarding her for her excellent classroom success.