Dooley was the top finisher for Sam Houston as her team posted its highest Southland Conference country team finish in the past 13 seasons. She earned all-conference honors with a runner-up time of 21:08. Her performance marked the program's top individual finish since 1999.

The senior kinesiology major from Flower Mound also has been a leader in the classroom.

Dooley is one of eight student-athletes from 2012 fall semester sports to earn Academic All-Southland Conference honors.

She also stands as one of 20 Sam Houston fall sport participants to post a perfect semester grade point average of 4.00.

That's a figure highest than any of the nine other universities in the league.

Brian Bell, Trey Diller, Kaleb Hopson and Riley Smith from Sam Houston's NCAA Division I Football Championships finalists, Kayla Anderson and Tricia Mallory from soccer; Tayler Gray from the Bearkats' Southland championship volleyball team and Dooley all achieved the remarkable feat of earning both all-conference honors as well as being members of this elite 4.0 GPA group.

Overall, 32 other Bearkats from all 17 sports teams posted perfect 4.00 semester grade point averages during the fall semester.

Performances like this paved the way for the more than 400 student-athletes who represent Sam Houston in 17 intercollegiate sports to produce a department GPA of 2.98 this fall.

The 2.98 average, a mark higher than the overall GPA for the university's 18,475 students, marks the ninth time in the past 13 semesters athletics has produced 2.90 or higher GPA.

The athletic department set an academic record this fall with seven sports squads compiling team GPAs higher than 3.0.

This academic success came as the Bearkat intercollegiate athletic program posted one of its most successful fall sports seasons ever in 2012, winning Southland Conference championships in both football and volleyball, finishing as runners-up in cross country and reaching the league's post-season soccer tournament.

These performances highlight the SHSU Department of Athletics Fall 2011 Academic Report released this week by associate athletic director for student services Chris Thompson and her staff.

"Seven of our sports teams produced team grade point averages higher than 3.0. We've never had a semester with that many of our sports teams over 3.0 before," Sam Houston director of athletics Bobby Williams said. "We are extremely proud of our student-athlete's achievements in the classroom and commend our coaching staff for the job they do in recruiting quality student-athletes. The number one goal for each of our sports teams is to have our young men and women earn the Sam Houston degrees."

During the 2012 fall semester, 161 student-athletes produced 3.0 or higher semester GPAs. A total of 146 Bearkats own overall GPAs of 3.0 or higher for their college career.

The Bearkat sports teams with team GPAs above 3.0 included tennis 3.72, bowling 3.63, volleyball 3.62, women's golf 3.59, softball 3.15, soccer 3.07 and women's track 3.06.

Joining the eight fall All-Southland performers with perfect 4.0 fall GPAs were Tim Redden (baseball); Rebecca Pittser and Kelsey Smith (bowling); Kevin Matthews, Rudis Requeno, Joshua Reynolds, Zachary Stevens and Caden Walker (football); Nicole Budnik, Daniela Fuentes and Shelby Hardy (women's golf); Madison Bible and Hailey Shelpuk (soccer); Sheridan Currie, Madeleine Mortimore, Natalie Petaia and Kayla Stevenson (tennis); Cherise Coleman, Jamie Haas and Amshatar Stephenson (volleyball); Kim Damian (softball); Brek Christensen, Patrick Krol and Stephen Waller-Delarosa (men's track) and Nicole Aponte, Haleigh Ceballos, Lygia Foreman, Kaylynne Wright, Jenny Zoch and Shelie Zotyka (women's track).

"It's really fun winning with young student-athletes who work hard in the class room as well as on the field," Sam Houston head football coach Willie Fritz said.

Sam Houston athletics' success in the classroom is no flash in the pan. Since the 1994-95 school year, SHSU student-athletes have combined to produce semester GPAs of 2.4 or higher. The Bearkat athletic GPA has 2.89 or higher for 13 consecutive semesters.

A total of 71 Bearkats were named to the 2012 Southland Conference Commissioners' Academic Honor Roll: