Two Hawkeye Teams Earn NCAA Academic Award

April 24, 2008

IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa men’s cross country and women’s softball teams have been publicly recognized by the NCAA in its annual Academic Progress Rate (APR) report. The awards were announced today by the NCAA.

The APR awards are given to teams for their latest multi-year Academic Progress Rate scores. Both Head Coach Larry Wieczorek men’s cross country squad and Head Coach Gayle Blevins’ softball team posted multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The public recognition awards are part of the broad Division I academic reform effort.

The APR provides a real-time look at a team’s academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility, retention and graduation in the calculation, which provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 965 to a perfect 1,000.

“We’re extremely proud of this distinction by our softball and men’s cross country teams,” said Director of Athletics Gary Barta. “Our goal is have all our teams make this prestigious list and we’ll continue working toward that end. In the meantime we congratulate the softball and men’s cross country programs for what they’ve accomplished.”

Multi-year APR scores for all 6,110 Division I sports teams, including the teams receiving public recognition awards, will be announced May 6. The announcement also will include immediate and historical penalties for low-performing teams.