By Cristal Steuer

Crusaders rank sixth in the nation in number of teams honored for academic success

Sixteen College of the Holy Cross varsity athletic teams have received Division I Academic Progress Rate public recognition awards from the NCAA. These teams 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.

With 16 teams receiving academic success honors, Holy Cross tied for the sixth in the nation with Harvard, Lafayette, and Princeton. Other schools with at least 16 teams receiving public recognition awards include Yale, Dartmouth, Penn, Brown, and Bucknell.

The Crusader programs to receive public recognition awards are:  baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s lacrosse, men’s swimming and diving, men’s soccer, softball, women’s swimming and diving, women’s tennis, men’s tennis, women’s indoor track and field, and women’s outdoor track and field.

“The priority of academics is an overriding principle in our conduct of athletics at Holy Cross,” explains Dick Regan, director of athletics at the College. “The results clearly reflect this.”

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 and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 976 to a perfect 1,000.

Approximately 25% of the Holy Cross student body of 2,900 compete as varsity athletes, and the majority of students participate in sports on some level at the College.  Holy Cross is a founding member of the NCAA Division I Patriot League.

www.holycross.edu