Conferences: The Big South honored four student-athletes with the George A. Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence. Recognized were Coastal Carolina cross country and track student-athlete Felicitas Mensing, Radford tennis student-athlete Cassandra Price, Winthrop volleyball student-athlete Pohai Nu’uhiwa and VMI track student-athlete Kevin Sullivan. The award is named for former Augusta President George Christenberry, one of the founders of the Big South, and honors the male and female student-athletes with the highest grade-point average. In the event of a tie, such as this year, multiple awards are given. Mensing, Price and Nu’uhiwa all had perfect 4.0 grade-point averages.

Facilities: Oregon State opened its new Sports Performance Center last week. The $11 million center provides a weight room and practice facility for the wrestling team and is the second phase of the Reser Stadium expansion totaling $115 million … Alabama A&M’s renovation of Elmore Gym began this week. The $270,000 project includes the addition of new seats with chairbacks in the lower bowl. The project is expected to be complete next month.

Miscellaneous: Idaho State raised $77,000 for athletics scholarships at the 28^th annual Bengal Foundation Auction. Items in the auction included autographed footballs, a NASCAR package for two and autographed pictures of sports celebrities.