The spring semester grade numbers are in for the University of Colorado athletic program, and the most recent news parallels that of the last four years as the 300 student-athletes enrolled in the 2013 spring semester had a collective term grade point average of 2.892.
It’s the second highest semester GPA since the department starting tracking the information in 1996, just shy of the top mark of 2.935 set in Spring ’12; the best fall semester grade point was 2.889 recorded last fall (’12). For the second consecutive year the GPA has been in excess of 2.850 for both the fall and spring terms, the first two times this has occurred.
Cumulatively speaking, the 300 student-athletes recorded a 2.913 number, the highest number ever calculated, besting the 2.897 figure posted following the Spring ’09 semester; Spring ’12 (2.892), Fall ’11 (2.876) and Fall ’09 (2.870) round out the top five. This marks the 11th straight semester all Colorado student-athletes have combined for a GPA over 2.8 (and all 2.827 or better).
“Our student-athletes are competitors, and they compete in the classroom as well as in their sports,” said Kris Livingston, Director of the Herbst Academic Center. “They continue to engage in their academics while balancing their demanding schedules. We have many stories of individual accomplishments in the classroom.
“The coaches and administration place an emphasis on the student side of the student-athlete as much as they do the athlete side. This allows the staff in the Herbst Academic Center to provide a culture and expectation of academic success.”
Five programs had team grade point averages of 3.2 or better (men’s and women’s skiing, women’s cross country, soccer and track), while seven boasted 3.0-plus marks. The 12-member men’s ski team had a 3.462 GPA for the semester and a cumulative grade point of 3.503, as the coed program placed a record 14 team members on the Division I National All-Academic Ski Team (equivalent to Academic All-America).
The top three single semester marks are held by the women’s ski team (3.627 in the Fall ’07), the men’s skiers (3.620 in Spring ’12) and the women’s cross country team in (3.604 in Spring ’01).
Other superlatives included the women’s ski team posting its 24th consecutive semester over a 3.0 (and 34 of the last 35), while the women’s cross country team did so for the 18th straight term; women’s track has nine straight semesters over 3.0 (and 25 over 2.9), and the volleyball team’s 3.13 was its best since the 2005 spring. Women’s soccer recorded its best tem GPA ever at 3.403, while football recorded its fifth consecutive semester at 2.60 or higher (its high is 2.720, recorded in the Spring of 2012). It’s just the third time in 34 semesters of tracking the information that each program recorded a grade point of at least 2.6.
Eight squads own cumulative grade points of 3.0 or greater, led by the men’s skiers for the third straight semester at 3.503 (the first three times the cumulative GPA has topped the 3.5 mark). The women’s soccer team was next (3.341), followed closely by women’s cross country (3.304), women’s skiing (3.232) and women’s track (3.198). Football’s cumulative average was 2.688, its second-highest; since attaining 2.50 or higher for just the third time in the Spring of 2008, the team has recorded 11 straight semesters in excess of that barrier.
Overall, 57 student-athletes owned semester grade points over 3.5 (19 percent), 141 over 3.0 (47%, one percent shy of the record) and 218 over 2.5 (73%); 11 students scored perfect 4.0 semesters. Cumulatively speaking, 15 percent own GPA’s of 3.5 or higher, 42 percent of at least 3.0, with 74 percent at 2.5 or better.
