Rice junior Cali Roper was voted the Conference USA Female Cross Country Athlete of the Year by the league's head coaches as announced by the league office on Tuesday.

Rice redshirt junior Cali Roper capped off a stellar cross country season with a 56th place finish at Saturday’s NCAA Cross Country Championships at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville.

Rice junior Cali Roper will be competing at her second straight NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championship, which will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. (CT) at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

Rice junior Cali Roper earned her second consecutive NCAA Championship berth with a third place finish at Friday's NCAA South Central Regional Championship at the Dale Watts XC Course hosted by Texas A&M.

For a second straight year, Rice juniors Katie Jensen and Cali Roper were each named to the 2015 Conference USA Women’s Cross Country All-Academic Team, the league office announced Friday morning.

The Rice Owls cross country teams will begin NCAA Championship competition at the South Central Regional, hosted by Texas A&M, on Friday morning.