Feb. 12, 2003
WASHINGTON -- The American University athletic department announced that the combined grade-point average (GPA) of all teams in the fall of 2002 was the highest achieved with a 3.13 since tracking began in the 1980s. All eight of the women's programs recorded a cumulative team GPA over 3.0 while three of seven men's programs garnered the same honor.
Leading the way was the AU men's and women's swimming and diving teams, which have continued to prove their excellence out of the pool, setting the highest GPA among all AU athletic teams in the fall semester. It marks the first time in modern AU history that counterpart female and male athletic teams have achieved the highest team GPAs at the same time. The men's team GPA was 3.38 - its highest in either semester - while the women averaged a 3.37, reaching the best fall marks ever attained.
"I'm really proud of the team," said Head Coach Mark Davin. "We did really well in the pool and to achieve this academically is really great for the program."
The Patriot League Champion volleyball team was second-highest among female teams and third highest overall with a 3.35 GPA while women's tennis had a 3.33 GPA. The men's cross country was impressive with a 3.28 GPA and women's soccer was solid with a 3.26 GPA as both squads were Patriot League Champions. Also reaching above a 3.0 as a team were field hockey (3.25), women's basketball (3.25), the Patriot League Champion women's cross country team (3.24), women's lacrosse (3.24) and golf (3.23).
American had 55 student-athletes garnering Patriot League Academic Honor Roll status in the fall including 14 from women's soccer, 11 from field hockey, 10 from men's cross country, eight from volleyball, and six from both women's cross country and men's soccer.
The Eagles had three student-athletes named Patriot League Scholar-Athletes of the Year in the fall of 2002 including field hockey's Magdalena Aguilar (Buenos Aires, Argentina/St. Catherine's Moorlands), women's cross country Jen Baclawski (Ijamsville, Md./Urbana) and volleyball's Karla Kucerkova (Olomouc, Czech Republic/Brno). Kucerkova was also the Verizon Academic Volleyball All-America of the Year in December.
American University, which fields a 19-sport NCAA Division I athletics program featuring 10 women's sports and nine for men, recently completed its inaugural year of membership in the Patriot League. The University had an extremely successful year to date on respective fields of play, capturing league championships in men's cross country, women's cross country, men's soccer, women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's tennis and women's tennis, and regular-season titles in men's basketball and women's lacrosse.
Chartered by an Act of Congress in 1893, American University features students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and more than 160 nations worldwide.