Cougars Lead Academic All-MWC

PROVO -- BYU continues to lead the Mountain West in academics as a Conference-best 148 Cougar student-athletes were honored for academic success as 2009 Academic All-MWC Team selections, which was announced Tuesday afternoon.

"We are very pleased with the success of our student-athletes in the classroom and in competition," said BYU Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe. "Both endeavors are equally important to us at BYU and demonstrate the quality of our student-athletes."

BYU led the conference with 31 more student-athletes earning academic accolades than any other MWC institution. New Mexico followed with 117, trailed by in-state rival Utah who added 88 student-athletes; the list was rounded out by UNLV (86), Wyoming (78), Air Force (77), TCU (70), Colorado State (64) and San Diego State (48).

Women’s track paved the way for the Cougars, placing 45 athletes on the team. Men’s track followed with 27 honored athletes, women’s swimming and diving added 21 and was matched with 15 men’s swimming and diving athletes. Several other BYU teams contributed to the total: baseball (12), women’s basketball (6), men’s golf (5), women’s golf (5), women’s tennis (5) men’s tennis (3), men’s basketball (3) and softball (1). For the 2008-09 season a total of 221 BYU student-athletes were named Academic All-MWC.

A total of 772 student-athletes were named to the spring 2009 Academic All-MWC team. The previous high was 731, set twice before in the spring semesters of 2008 and 2006. Spring sports include baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis and men's and women's track and field. To be eligible for selection, student-athletes must have completed at least one academic term at the member institution while maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better, and be a starter or significant contributor on their athletic team.