Former Georgia swimmer Lisa Coole, who found a balance between athletics and academics like few others during her four years in Athens, was killed Saturday morning in a car accident in Champaign, Ill.

Coole was pronounced dead at a Champaign hospital at 8 a.m. Saturday, about an hour after her Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera was struck broadside by a city garbage truck, said Sgt. Von Young of the Champaign Police Department. Young said Coole had failed to stop at a stop sign and her car was hit as she entered an intersection.

Coole was driving the car; her passenger, Illinois student Renee Gamboa, suffered minor injuries in the accident. Young said Gamboa has no recollection of the accident.

Coole, a 23-year-old Rockford, Ill., native, had just completed her first year of graduate work at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. She graduated from UGA in the spring of 1997 with a pre-veterinary degree and a 3.62 GPA.

"This is the saddest thing imaginable," said Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle, who is in Prescott, Ariz., this weekend to receive two national coach of the year awards. "Lisa was a wonderful, talented and motivated young woman. It's still a bit of a shock, but of course our first thoughts go out to her family. I feel blessed that Lisa was at Georgia with us for the time that she was."

Coole had a remarkable stay in Athens from 1994-97, both in and out of the pool. She was a 19-time All-American, and was named the NCAA Woman of the Year - the highest honor for a collegiate female athlete - last October.

That was followed in January by the NCAA Top VIII award, presented to graduated student-athletes based on athletic achievement, academic achievement, and character. Other Top VIII honorees this year included football standouts Peyton Manning of Tennessee and Brian Griese of Michigan, along with Alabama gymnast Meredith Willard.

Coole was the NCAA champion in the 100-yard butterfly as a junior in 1996. The year before, she was a member of Georgia's NCAA champion 200-yard freestyle relay team. Coole finished her career ranked in UGA's all-time top 10 in five individual events and five relays.

In the classroom, Coole was just as successful. She was a Foundation Fellow and participated in the honors program at UGA, and was named an academic All-American in each of her four years in school. Coole's graduate work at Illinois was largely financed by her NCAA and Southeastern Conference postgraduate scholarships - worth $5,000 each.

One of the many who both taught and learned from Coole in Athens was Peter Jorgensen, a professor of Germanic and Slavic Languages at UGA who works with the Foundation Fellows. Jorgensen said Saturday afternoon that the university had lost one of its most able ambassadors.

"She was just the sweetest, hardest-working person with equanimity to spare," Jorgensen said. "She was a tribute to the Foundation Fellows program and a tribute to the University of Georgia. I just can't believe it."

Jorgensen's wife, Else, also knew Coole well through her work with the honors program.

"We were very close to her," said Else. "She was such a great athlete and so vivacious and full of life."

On the rare occasions when Coole wasn't studying or training, she was a volunteer at the Athens area homeless shelter and the Salvation Army, and participated in area mentoring programs.

Coole's former teammates learned of the news one by one Saturday, as the tragic information was spread by phone from person to person by athletes and the team's assistant coaches. Senior co-captain Kara Manglitz, who lived with Coole for a year, said the team was trying to remain upbeat.

"When something tragic like this happens, the best thing to do is just remember the good times and what a great person she was," said Manglitz. "She was a great competitor, she accomplished a lot in her life. She was a great person, a great competitor, a team leader, and I think everybody here on the team is just happy that they got to know her in the short time that she was here for her four years."

Manglitz said some sort of memorial service would be held in Athens, though the details are still being arranged. The funeral will likely be in Coole's home state of Illinois, where she was also remembered Saturday.

"Lisa was an outstanding young woman and an entirely marvelous person," said Victor Valli, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Illinois. "She was quiet and unassuming despite all her achievements. It's a tragedy on graduation weekend, that this is something she won't ever be able to share in."

Coole is the second Georgia athlete to die in a car accident in the last year. Tennis player Rafael Jordan, a rising junior, died in a one-car accident in his native Rio Piedra, Puerto Rico, on Aug. 6, 1997.