July 11, 2008

Irving, Texas - The University of Houston men's cross country team received the Conference USA Sport Academic award on Friday, as announced by league commissioner Britton Banowsky.

The team finished the 2007-08 school year with a cumulative 3.50 GPA for the highest team GPA among the league's men's cross country teams. Stephen Magness led the Cougars in the classroom by being named a C-USA Academic Medal winner. He also joined Ahmed Harb, Antony Keller and Adrian Slusher as members of the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll.

The Sport Academic Award is given to the team in each conference-sponsored sport with the highest grade point average for the current academic year.

Harb returns in 2008 to lead the team. He finished 16th at the C-USA Championship and was an NCAA South Regional participant.

The Cougars will kick off the 2008 season when they play host to the Johnny Morriss UH Invitational on Aug. 29.