FREELAND, Mich. – The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association announced Tuesday (July 16) the 91 teams that earned the MIAA Team GPA Award for the 2018-19 academic year, where three notable firsts were achieved by member institutions.
The MIAA Team GPA Award is presented to conference athletic teams that achieve a 3.300 or better GPA for an academic year. Grade-point averages are calculated at the end of the academic year.
For the first time in MIAA history, Saint Mary's College became the first institution to achieve 100 percent of their MIAA sponsored sports garnering recognition as all eight programs eclipsed the standard. Six MIAA member institutions - Calvin, Hope, Kalamazoo, Olivet, Saint Mary's, and Trine - had 50 percent or better of their MIAA-sponsored athletic teams that were named Team GPA honorees.
Also achieving a first-ever in MIAA records was the Kalamazoo men's lacrosse team, as the squad's team GPA of 3.310 marked the first-ever MIAA men's lacrosse program to surpass the academic plateau since men's lacrosse joined the MIAA in 2013.
The third notable first-ever for MIAA Team GPA was 100 percent of teams in an MIAA-sponsored sport to achieve the team academic standard by three sports: women's soccer, volleyball, and women's cross country. The 2018-19 academic year marked the third consecutive year women's soccer, second consecutive for volleyball, and first-ever for women's cross country.
Five athletic departments had double figures of teams honored, with Hope leading the way with 14 team honorees. Calvin was second with 13 teams, and Kalamazoo third with 12 squads. Olivet and Trine tied for fourth with 11 programs honored.
Of the 91 programs honored, 18 surpassed a 3.600 team GPA for the 2018-19 academic year, with five reaching the 3.700 plateau. Teams surpassing 3.700 in 2018-19 were Hope volleyball, Trine women's cross country, Adrian women's soccer, Trine women's tennis, and Trine's women's soccer. Adrian women's soccer, the 2018 MIAA Tournament champions, were above 3.700 for the second consecutive year.
Fourten of the 23 teams that won an MIAA Championship also earned Team GPA Award honors. Seven MIAA Tournament champions were Team GPA Award honorees. Nineteen of the MIAA's 23 sponsored sports had at least one team named at Team GPA honoree.
The MIAA has presented the Team GPA Award each year since the 1998-99 academic year. To note, both Calvin’s women’s cross country and Hope women’s cross country are the only programs to earn the Team GPA Award 21 consecutive academic years.
Team Listing by Sport (pdf)
--MIAA--
