HOUSTON -- Houston Athletics continually focuses on building Champions for Life by preparing over 400 student-athletes to become champions in academics, athletics and in the community. The building continued this spring as a record 88 Houston student-athletes earned a spot on the University of Houston Dean's List by recording a 3.50 GPA or better while passing 12 or more hours, a department record for a spring semester.

Those student-athletes led a group that recorded the second-best spring GPA, 2.87, in athletics department history. The number falls just behind the record spring GPA of 2.92 set last spring.

With a cumulative GPA of 2.89, Houston student-athletes compiled the second-best cumulative GPA following a spring semester in department history, coming in just behind the record of 2.92 also set last spring.

The numbers were bolstered by 12 of Houston's 17 teams eclipsing the 3.0 mark in cumulative GPA, led by the Tennis with a 3.46 cumulative team GPA. Softball was second with a 3.36 GPA followed by Women's Cross Country at 3.32. Men's Cross Country led all men's programs with a 3.24 cumulative GPA.

The Houston Football program had its best ever academic semester as the team set program highs for cumulative GPA, semester GPA and average hours passed per student-athlete. The team was joined by Baseball and Tennis with recording the highest ever cumulative GPA in program history and Men's Basketball and Tennis with the highest ever hours passed in the spring semester.

Tennis also led the way in terms of spring semester GPA, recording a 3.69 while Women's Cross Country was next at 3.40. Swimming & Diving ranked third among Houston's 17 sport programs at 3.28 in the spring while Men's Cross Country led the way with a 3.23 semester GPA. Tennis and Women's Track & Field also posted their second-best cumulative GPA following a spring semester in program history while Women's Golf posted its third best.

Eleven student-athletes recorded perfect 4.0 GPAs in the spring: James Broussard (Men's Track & Field), Hannah Dauzat (Soccer), Ben Dew (Football), Alina Gersib (Swimming & Diving), Rachel Hobbins (Swimming & Diving), Margo McEntire (Soccer), Justin Montemayor (Baseball), Logan Piper (Football), Meredith Sorenson (Women's Track & Field), Megan Thothong (Women's Golf) and Brandon Wilson (Football).

For McEntire, Montemayor and Thothong, it marked a full 2015-16 academic year with perfect GPAs after accomplishing the feat in the fall semester as well.

On average, Houston student-athletes passed an average of 13.8 hours in the spring semester, the second-best mark behind the 13.9 hours passed last spring.