July 16, 2007

Colin Norris (Calgary, Alberta, Canada/Cochrane H.S.) became the sixth student-athlete in UTPA history to earn Academic All-American honors when the UTPA senior earned the distinction by the Golf Coaches Association of America on Monday (July 16).

"This is a tremendous honor and is something that hasn't happened for the men's golf program in 20 years," said UTPA head men's golf coach Andrew Tredway. "Colin had this as a goal at the beginning of the year, and it was amazing to see his dedication to attaining such a difficult goal. I really believe that Garry Gibson deserves a lot of credit because he was the one who personally challenged Colin as well as my entire team. It was great to see Colin accept the challenge and do everything he needed in order to attain this goal."

The UTPA senior posted a 3.4 cumulative grade point average in psychology en route to earning Academic All-Independent accolades for the second time in his career. Norris ranked first on the Broncs with a 75.5 strokes average and recorded the best finish of his collegiate career at the 2007 National Minority College Golf Championships where he notched a third-place showing with a 54-hole tally of 215.

Norris became the first athlete since former men's track and field standout Jeff Martzall in 2005 to earn Academic All-American laurels and became the third member of the UTPA men's golf program to capture the honor. Bertil Marje and Lars Tamen each represented the Bronc golf team on the Academic All-American list during the 1986 season with Marje also earning the distinction during the 1987 campaign.

A standout in the classroom, Norris earned UTPA Athletic Director's Honor Roll accolades in all four semesters while recording a grade point average of 3.0 or higher in every academic semester during his tenure with the UTPA men's golf program.

In order to qualify for the Cleveland Golf Academic All-American Team, juniors and seniors had to record a minimum 3.2 cumulative grade point average and must have obtained a strokes average of 76.0 or less in Division I competition.

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