Women’s basketball achieves perfect academic score

women's-bbal-seniors-130INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA released its 2012-13 Academic Progress Rate (APR) figures, and nine Washington State University intercollegiate athletic programs posted perfect single-year scores, it was announced Wednesday.

The APR is an annual assessment of each team’s academic and retention history. The score is based on the most recent four years of data (2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13).

“I am very appreciative and proud of our student-athletes, coaches and staff for their continued dedication and efforts in reaching for academic success, and the most recent NCAA data fully support their hard work,” said WSU Director of Athletics Bill Moos. “They place their academic pursuits on par with their athletic endeavors.”

The WSU football team exceeded the NCAA’s 930 standard with a four-year average score of 944, an improvement from last year’s 942. The single-year mark of 963 eclipsed last year’s 960, which was the highest one-year total since a 955 for 2004-05.

The highest multi-year APR score at WSU was earned by the women’s basketball team, which recorded a perfect 1,000 and was recognized last year by the NCAA as among the top 10 percent of programs nationally.

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Cougar women’s basketball seniors Hana Potter, Sage Romberg and Brandi Thomas. (Photo from WSU Athletics)

Women’s cross country was close behind with a four-year score of 991, while women’s golf was 981. Other women’s programs include rowing (978), outdoor track (978), indoor track (975), tennis (975), swimming (972), soccer (971) and volleyball (929).

The volleyball team is not subject to postseason penalties due to its demonstrated academic improvement in recent years. The team has shown significant improvement from a single-year score of 837 in 2010-11, the year before current staff came on board.

Since then, women’s volleyball has posted single-year scores of 939 in 2011-12 and a perfect single-year score of 1,000 in 2012-13.

On the men’s side golf led the way with an average four-year score of 986, followed by baseball (968), outdoor track (957), indoor track (954), cross country (953) and basketball (938).

In addition to volleyball, those programs recording perfect single-year scores (2012-13) of 1,000 include women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, rowing, swimming and tennis.

“The overall academic performance of our student-athletes is indeed remarkable,” said WSU Faculty Athletic Representative Ken Casavant. “Their hard work, under trying workloads, results in this solid performance.”