Dec. 5, 2007

IRVING, Texas - Senior Stephen Samoei of UTEP and junior Alex Becker of Tulsa have been named Conference USA Male and Female Cross Country Athletes of the Year, respectively, as voted upon by C-USA head cross country coaches and released by the conference office Wednesday.

Samoei becomes the first runner in C-USA history to earn three All-American honors and to be named the league's Cross Country Athlete of the Year for three consecutive seasons. He also garnered the awards in 2005 and 2006, after leading the nationally-ranked UTEP Miners to C-USA team titles and NCAA Regional appearances. He is the third All-American in C-USA history.

The three-time All-C-USA selection helped lead the Miners, who finished the season ranked 10th in the nation, to their third-consecutive C-USA Championship title by scoring a perfect 15 points on their home course in El Paso in October. The Eldoret, Kenya, native also repeated his NCAA All-Mountain Regional honor after the team placed second and he finished runner-up (29:54.5) in the 10K race. Samoei wrapped up his collegiate career with the 23rd best time of 30:20.4 at the 2007 NCAA Championships in November. The four-time C-USA Athlete of the Week honoree led UTEP in all but one meet and won two individual titles this season.

After a strong showing at the NCAA Championship, Becker became TU's first All-American in cross country by placing 15th with a 6K time of 20:35. Becker, a native of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, is only the second Tulsa woman to qualify for the NCAA Championships twice. The three-time C-USA Athlete of the Week selection, finished third at the NCAA Midwest Regional where she established a personal-best of 20:06 in a 6K race. As a tune-up for the national and regional meets, Becker won the C-USA individual title by clocking a winning 5K time of 17:34.6. That performance earned her the league's Athlete of the Year honor and All-C-USA first team accolades.