May 15, 2008

IRVING, Texas - Sivan Aballi and Steffen Nerdal both earn Conference USA All-Academic team honors announced today by the league office. Both athletes are first time recipients of the award.

Aballi is a U of M graduate student with another year of eligibility still available. A four-time C-USA Academic Medalist, the communication major has a 3.85 GPA. She has been named to the Dean's List and Tiger 3.0 Club every semester at Memphis. Aballi earned All-Conference USA honors in the shot put after placing third at the C-USA Indoor Championships and set a NCAA Regional-qualifying mark of 16.36 meters on April 18.

Nerdal was the 2008 C-USA Indoor Track & Field Performer of the Meet, winning the weight throw title with a conference championship-record mark of 20.94-meters. He is a two-time NCAA Mid East Regional qualifier in the hammer and the discus and earned C-USA Athlete of the Week honors on Feb. 26 and April 8. The school record holder in both the weight throw and hammer, Nerdal maintains a 3.33 GPA as a management major.

Both athletes will be competing this week at the Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at Kidd Field, hosted by UTEP. Nerdal will begin competition today starting with the hammer throw.