RIVERSIDE, Calif. - 42 UC Riverside student-athletes earned Big West Spring All-Academic honors, it was announced by the conference office on Thursday. 

In order to qualify for the Academic All-Conference accolade, a student-athlete must carry a minimum 3.00 cumulative institutional grade point average (GPA), must have completed one full academic year at the member institution prior to the season for which the award is being received, and must have competed in at least 50 percent of the institution's contests in the student-athlete's respective sport.

Highlander track and field led the way with 22 of UCR's 42 honorees - 12 for men and 10 for women, including all four NCAA Preliminary qualifiers: Collette Lowengrub, Shiloh Corrales Nelson, Linda Perez and JT Ober III. Also honored from the national stage was Tiffany Le of women's golf, who in May became the first Highlander women's golfer in history to compete at the NCAA Championships. 

Corrales Nelson and Ober were two of four Highlanders earning their third All-Academic honors of their careers, joining women's golf's Nicole Le and Mylan Hirata. All told, 17 honorees earned at least a second career All-Academic recognition. 

Six of seven UCR spring sports featured an underclassman on the All-Academic list, including three of five honorees each from Highlander baseball and men's tennis. Men's tennis also had the highest percentage of its roster earn All-Academic honors - five out of seven roster spots - including All-Big West Honorable Mention Antreas Djakouris.