Oklahoma State University Athletics
Men's Cross Country Squad Named Academic All-American Team
June 21, 1999 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track
January 19, 1999
STILLWATER, Okla. - In honor of their outstanding performance in the classroom last fall, Oklahoma State's men's cross country team was named an Academic All-American team.
The Cowboys earned this honor by the 13 cross country members recording a 3.157 grade point average. Teams need a 3.0 GPA for the people who participated to qualify for the team honor.
"That's excellent. It's the first time happened it's happened in the 16 years I've been here. We've been close before," OSU head coach Dick Weis said. "To have the 13 people who participated in cross country have a cumulative grade point of 3.157, that's outstanding. We really stress academics as well as athletics. This is a very strong indication of the quality of our student-athletes. It's a real credit to the kids."
Individual athletes earning Academic All-American honors were senior Ren Carlsen and Nathaniel Lane.
Carlsen improved his geography GPA to 3.33 with a 3.60 during the fall. Lane earned a 3.66 in the Master's of Business Administration program to raise his overall GPA to 3.52. The two athletes had to finish in the top 10 percent at the District V meet as well as having a cumulative GPA of 3.25.
"They're outstanding as individuals," Weis said.
Senior Andrew Hennessy led the team with a 4.00 in graduate studies for exercise science. Junior Chuck Sloan scored a 3.14 toward his geography degree.
Of the 28 athletes on both the cross country and track team in the fall, 24 had over a 3.0 grade point average.
"We're really excited we can achieve this," Weis said. "All the awards are directly attributed to our academic counselor, Agatha Anderson, and Dr. Marilyn Middlebrook (assistant athletics director of academic and student affairs)."
The Cowboys will be honored at halftime of the OSU-Baylor men's basketball game Jan. 20.
