GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The University of North Dakota Athletics Department has emerged from its final year of NCAA Division I transition stronger than ever academically.
UND's 377 student-athletes combined to achieve a 3.173 grade point average during the 2011-12 academic year, the highest in UND Athletics history. More than 65 percent (246 of 377) of the student-athletes achieved a 3.0 GPA during the Spring 2012 semester, while more than half (199 of 377) boasted a cumulative 3.0 GPA. An additional 48 student-athletes recorded perfect 4.0 GPAs during Spring 2012, including 13 who own cumulative 4.0 GPAs.
"Our student-athletes and our coaches have once again demonstrated their dedication to academic excellence," said UND Athletics Director Brian Faison. "Given the challenges of Division I transition, particularly those posed by the tremendous travel, this is a great testament to their commitment to putting academics first."
Thirteen of UND's 18 teams, including all 10 women's teams, achieved a 3.0 during the 2011-12 academic year. The top team grade point average belonged to the Great West Conference champion women's basketball team, which recorded a 3.507 GPA. Men's cross country (3.50), women's cross country (3.442), women's track and field (3.404) and women's swimming and diving (3.351) rounded out the top five team GPAs.
UND's 10 women's teams combined for a 3.30 GPA, while the eight men's teams had a combined 3.01 GPA.
The record-setting GPA performance punctuated another tremendous year in the classroom for the Fighting Sioux. Among the other academic highlights in 2011-12:
- UND's women's golf team earned NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) Public Recognition for the second straight year
- UND claimed both the WCHA Male (Brad Eidsness) and Female (Jocelyne Lamoureux) Most Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year awards
- Eidsness received postgraduate scholarships from both the NCAA and the WCHA
- Lamoureux was named the first Academic All-American in the history of UND women's hockey
- Lamoureux, junior football player Emmett Lynch, junior swimmer Veronica Medon, junior hurdler Kirsten Haas and senior distance runner Lindsay Anderson each earned Academic All-District honors
- Medon and her teammates earned Fall 2011 College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCSAA) Scholar All-America Team honors
- Seventy-two Sioux have earned academic all-conference honors, with spring honorees yet to be named
- Senior football player Catlin Solum was named to the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society
In competition, UND earned six Great West Conference and Western Collegiate Hockey Association team championships in 2011-12.
