Three Lady Topper athletic teams were honored on Wednesday for their success in the classroom as volleyball, women’s golf and women’s tennis received NCAA Academic Performance Program Public Recognition Awards for having a multiyear Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores in the top 10 percent nationally through the 2015-16 academic year.
It marks the 12th-straight year the Lady Topper volleyball program has ranked in the top 10 percent nationally, and WKU has now had multiple programs honored for three consecutive seasons for the first time since the program began. WKU’s volleyball program is one of only 93 Division I sport programs across the country to earn the award in each of the 12 years of the program.
WKU is one of only four Conference USA member institutions to have three sport programs honored, joining Rice, UAB and UTSA. As a whole, the league had 27 sport programs honored on Wednesday, and 14 of those programs were repeat recipients of the award.
“I want to compliment Jonatan Berhane, Adam Gary, and Travis Hudson for their efforts and their program’s efforts in producing successful student-athletes both on and off the field of play,” said Director of Athletics Todd Stewart. “Their student-athletes work hard to be in the top 10 percent of all programs in the nation in the classroom, and as head coaches, they set that expectation every day.”
The APR provides a real-time look at a program’s academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team’s academic performance.
The programs recognized Wednesday posted multiyear APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport. The full APR report will be released on May 10.
Over the past calendar year, 111 WKU student-athletes received their diploma from the University with 77 graduating in May 2016 and 11 over the summer session while 22 received their degrees this past December. The cumulative GPA of the 111 graduates was 3.19.
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Kyle Neaves
Associate Athletic Director, Communications
WKU Athletics