St. Mary’s University and Texas Woman’s University claimed the 11th annual Lone Star Conference Academic Excellence Awards presented by Balfour.
 
St. Mary’s earned the men’s honor for the third consecutive year, and Texas Woman’s captured its second straight women’s award as the athletic departments with the highest collective team grade-point average (GPA) for the 2023-24 academic year. The Rattlers and Pioneers will each receive a cash reward and custom trophy.
 
“Once again, we are proud to honor both St. Mary’s and Texas Woman’s for their outstanding academic achievements,” LSC Commissioner Jay Poerner said. “Thank you to Balfour the continued support of this most prestigious and highly coveted award.”
 
The team with the overall highest GPA in the conference was the West Texas A&M women’s golf team. The Lady Buffs posted a 3.914 GPA.
 
DBU (women’s indoor track and field, women’s outdoor track and field and volleyball), Lubbock Christian (men’s indoor track and field, men’s soccer and women’s cross country), TWU (women’s basketball, women’s soccer and first award for stunt), UT Tyler (men’s cross country, men’s tennis and softball) and Western New Mexico (football, men’s outdoor track and field and men’s golf) all tied for the most sport academic champions with three each.
 
On the men’s side, the UT Tyler tennis team had the highest GPA at 3.866 and won for the third consecutive year. The Patriots’ cross country team won their second straight title. St. Mary’s had the top baseball team (3.458 GPA) for the third year in a row. The Rattlers’ golf, tennis and soccer teams were their respective sport’s runner-up. The LCU soccer team made it back-to-back titles.
 
On the women’s side, the DBU indoor and outdoor track and field teams won for the third consecutive year. Angelo State took the tennis title.
 
The award winners were determined by a point system, with points distributed according to finish in sports sponsored the LSC sport after a conference-wide comparison of team GPAs. The member institution with the highest team GPA in each sport was named the Sport Academic Champion and earned five (5) points toward the overall award. The runner-up in each sport picked up four (4) points and third-place three (3) points toward the overall award. Any program with a Team GPA of 2.00 and above earned one (1) point. Points for each member institution were totaled by gender and then divided by that institution’s number of counter programs in that gender to arrive at the comparison value.

 
LSC ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD PRESENTED BY BALFOUR
 
2023-24 Winners
 
Men
St. Mary’s University
 
Women
Texas Woman’s University
 
 
All-Time Winners

Year	Men’s Award	Women’s Award
2023-24	St. Mary’s	Texas Woman’s
2022-23	St. Mary’s	Texas Woman’s
2021-22	St. Mary’s	Lubbock Christian
2020-21	UT Tyler	UT Tyler
2019-20	Lubbock Christian	St. Mary’s
2018-19	Cameron	Texas Woman’s
2017-18	Western New Mexico	Eastern New Mexico
2016-17	Eastern New Mexico	Texas Woman’s / Cameron
2015-16	West Texas A&M	Texas Woman’s
2014-15	West Texas A&M	Texas Woman’s / West Texas A&M
2013-14	Eastern New Mexico	Texas Woman’s

 
 
2023-24 SPORT ACADEMIC CHAMPIONS
 
Men
 

Sport	School	GPA
Baseball	St. Mary’s	3.458
Men’s Basketball	West Texas A&M	3.463
Men’s Cross Country	UT Tyler	3.524
Football	Western New Mexico	2.780
Men’s Golf	Western New Mexico	3.815
Men’s Indoor Track and Field	Lubbock Christian	3.283
Men’s Outdoor Track and Field	Western New Mexico	3.356
Men’s Soccer	Lubbock Christian	3.430
Men’s Tennis	UT Tyler	3.866

 
Women
                                                                                                   

Sport	School	GPA
Women’s Basketball	Texas Woman’s	3.819
Women’s Cross Country	Lubbock Christian	3.625
Women’s Golf	West Texas A&M	3.914
Women’s Soccer	Texas Woman’s	3.585
Softball	UT Tyler	3.724
Stunt	Texas Woman’s	3.248
Volleyball	DBU	3.707
Women’s Indoor Track and Field	DBU	3.608
Women’s Outdoor Track and Field	DBU	3.608
Women’s Tennis	Angelo State	3.782