Five athletic programs at Cal were honored Wednesday with the Newmark Award, an annual accolade given to the teams on campus with the best cumulative grade-point average for the previous year.

Men's Rowing won the Large Team Award for the third straight year after posting a team GPA of 3.284. Men's Golf, for the second consecutive year, took the Small Team Award with an academic mark of 3.322.

On the women's side, women's soccer won the Large Team Award with a GPA of 3.558, while women's tennis was the Small Team winner at 3.432.

Cal's football program was recognized as Most Improved for the second straight year.

Each team will receive over $7,500 to embed in its operating budget.

The awards were established in 2007 by Pat and Kent Newmark in an effort to recognize team academic success at Cal. Earlier this year, the Newmarks made a $1 million gift to Cal Athletics endow the award program in perpetuity.

Kent Newmark competed on the tennis and track & field teams at Cal before graduating in 1960.