Rice's Olson, Adam Named Academic All-District

HOUSTON, TEXAS (June 6, 2008) Two Rice student-athletes were recently named to the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District VI men's track & field/cross country teams. The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) selects the team for each district.

Earning first team accolades were Brett Olson, a senior from Flower Mound, Texas, who sports a 3.95 grade point average (GPA) in mechanical engineering and civil engineering and sophomore Phillip Adam, from Santa Maria, Calif., who has a 3.90 GPA in economics.

This is Olson's second such award as he was also named to the 2007All-District VI team. He also earned the 2007 and 2008 Rice University Scholar Athlete of the Year honor as well as the 2007 and 2008 Rice Scholar Athlete for men's track and Field.

Olson was named to the 2008 C-USA All-Academic Team for men's cross country, the 2007 and 2008 C-USA All-Academic Team for track & field, and he was a member of the 2006, 2007, and 2008 C-USA Academic Medal and Honor Roll.

He earned the bronze at the C-USA Outdoor Championship in the 3000m steeplechase with a time of 9:33.12 and he placed seventh in the 5000m (15:07.36) and eighth in 3000m (8:47.37) at the C-USA Indoor championship.

Adam, the Owls' top decathlete, earned the 2007 and 2008 Conference USA Commissioner's Academic Medal and was on the 2007 and 2008 Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll. In competition, Adam placed second at the C-USA Outdoor Championship in the decathlon with 6,756 points and he was the 2008 C-USA Indoor champion in the penthalon with 5,317 points.

To be nominated, the student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) for his career. No athlete is eligible until he has reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his current institution (thus, true freshmen, red-shirt freshmen and ineligible transfers are not eligible). In the cases of transfers, graduate students and junior college graduates, the athlete must have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution to be eligible.