KEVIN JENISON
GoSycamores.com
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana State women's golf team will receive the NCAA Public Recognition Award in honor of their posting a score in the top 10 of the most recent multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) for their respective sport during the 2012-13 season. More than 1,000 Division I sports teams are being honored by the NCAA for top scores in the classroom.
The Sycamores are one of six Missouri Valley Conference schools to receive the award in women's golf along with Bradley, Evansville, Illinois State, Northern Iowa, and Wichita State.
Indiana State's Christina Beyerl, McCall Christopher, and Emily Dixon were part of that team and were named Women's Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholars. Dixon and Amanda Smith were named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete team. Also competing that season were Reece Feducia, Gina Della Camera, Erinn Sutton, Andrea Frankiewicz, and Margaret Harper.
The women's golf team joins the men's golf team in receiving the away for the 2012-2013 season. Men's cross country has earned the away in the past three seasons while women's cross country earned the award for the 2009-2010 season.
APRs for all Division I teams will be released May 14. The APR is an annual scorecard of academic achievement calculated for all Division I sports teams nationally. Teams must meet a certain academic threshold to qualify for the postseason, and they also can face penalties for continued low academic performance.
The 1,049 teams publicly recognized for high achievement represent 631 women's teams and 418 men's or mixed squads. In 2013, 976 teams were recognized.
The scores required to be in the top ten ranged from 980 to a perfect 1,000, depending on the sport, with the majority of top 10 teams earning a perfect APR.
“Each year, more and more teams are achieving perfect APR scores,” said NCAA president Mark Emmert. “We are proud of our member schools' commitment to providing tremendous opportunities for student-athletes so they can succeed on the field, in the classroom, and in life.”
While the spring championship season is still ongoing, six NCAA national champions from the 2013-14 season are already included in this year's award list:
University of Georgia women's swimming and diving; University of Colorado men's cross country; Providence College women's cross country; University of Connecticut women's field hockey; Oklahoma University's women's gymnastics; and University of Notre Dame men's soccer.
A total of 275 Division I schools (and seven in other divisions who have a sport competing in Division I) placed at least one team on the top APR list, up 19 from last year.
Dartmouth College had the most teams (26 of 28) recognized, followed by Brown University (22 of 31) and Bucknell University (21 of 27). The conferences with the most teams receiving recognition are the Ivy League (117), Patriot League (94), Atlantic Coast Conference (77) and Big Ten Conference (66).
The APR measures eligibility, graduation and retention each semester or quarter and provides a clear picture of the academic performance for each team in each sport.
The most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-2012 and 2012-13 academic years.
