Dec. 5, 2007

UTEP senior Stephen Samoei has been named the Conference USA Male Cross Country Athlete of the Year, 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.