Atlanta, Georgia – The Gustavus Adolphus women’s basketball team achieved a significant milestone on Wednesday when the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced its Academic Top 25 Team Honor Rolls for the 2012-13 season. Making their 15th appearance on the NCAA Division III honor roll, the Gusties were recognized as the team with the top cumulative grade point average in country at a 3.600 – a first in the program’s history.
“It’s such an amazing honor and a great indicator of the type of student-athlete we have here at Gustavus,” said head coach Laurie Kelly. “The girls take great pride in the ‘student’ aspect of their collegiate athletic experience and represent the college in such a tremendous way.”
The WBCA Academic Top 25 annually recognizes women’s basketball teams across the nation in NCAA Divisions I, II and III, the NAIA, and junior/community colleges that carry the highest combined grade point averages (GPAs) inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2012-13 season is the 18th in which the WBCA has produced the honor rolls.
The Gusties have secured a place inside the top 10 a total of eight times in the tenure of award. Gustavus’s other top finishes include a second place standing in 1997-98 and a pair of fifth place marks in 1996-97 and 2011-12. The Gusties are the lone representative from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) on this year’s WBCA Top 25 Academic Honor Roll.
A team’s GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by the total number of hours attempted by all team members in the academic terms (semesters or quarters) that the season spans. Weighted grades are converted to a 4.0 scale. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by a WBCA-member head coach. A team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.
This season’s other top honorees include Utah Valley University (3.639) for NCAA Division I, Ohio Dominican University (3.699) for Division II, Vanguard University (3.610) of the NAIA, and Snow College (3.583) of the Junior/Community College division.
Founded in 1981, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association promotes women’s basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game as a sport for women and girls. For more information on the WBCA, please visit wbca.org.
Congratulations Ladies. All those smarts, and you can ball too……..