Jan. 11, 2013

IRVING, Texas - Baylor student-athlete Blake Niccum has been named the 2012 Big 12 Men's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as selected by the league's coaches. This is the inaugural year for this conference honor.

Niccum, an engineering major from Houston, Texas, finished the semester with a 4.0 cumulative GPA and competed in all six of the Bears' events. He was a scoring runner in five of those six meets, including a season-high ninth-place finish at the UTA Season Opener.

The junior has been named to the Academic All-Big 12 first team each of the last two seasons and is a regular on the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll selection.

Niccum joins football's Nick Florence and soccer's Dana Larsen as Baylor student-athletes to be honored by the conference office as scholar athletes for the 2012 fall season.

Nominees must be a junior or senior in athletic and academic standings, have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.2, participation in at least 60 percent of the team's scheduled contests, and a minimum of one year in residence at the institution in order to qualify.