ELMHURST, Ill. - Omaha Athletics has been honored by its fellow Summit League schools with the league's Sportsmanship Award for the 2012-13 season.  It's the first time in Summit League history that a school has won the award in its first year of league competition.

The Sportsmanship Award is given annually to the school judged by its peers to be the best in the league in living up to the ideals of sportsmanship.  Areas for evaluation include student-athlete conduct, staff/administrator conduct, coaches' conduct and event management.

Kansas City won the inaugural Sportsmanship Award following the 1998-99 academic year.  Fort Wayne earned the honor last season. Southern Utah has a record five Sportsmanship Awards followed by Centenary with three and South Dakota State with two.  Fort Wayne, IUPUI, Kansas City, Omaha and Valparaiso have each captured the honor once.

Entering its fourth decade of Division I athletics, The Summit League offers 19 championship sports and has a combined enrollment of over 144,000 at nine universities, four of which are located in top 58 U.S. metro populations (Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Omaha). Member institutions include: Fort Wayne (Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne), IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis), Kansas City (University of Missouri-Kansas City), Omaha (University of  Nebraska Omaha), North Dakota State University, Oakland University, the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University and Western Illinois University. Previously known as the Mid-Continent Conference,

The Summit League rebranded in 2007 and has since produced 54 All-Americans, 37 Academic All-America selections and seven NCAA Championships. For more information about the league and its history, visit www.thesummitleague.org to "See The Summit" or follow on Twitter @thesummitleague.