KANSAS CITY, Mo. —
It was a clean sweep for the Ashford University athletic department on Tuesday.
All 15 eligible teams were honored by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and appeared on the NAIA Scholar-Team Award list for the 2011-12 school year. It comes on the heels of AU student-athletes collecting a school-record 136 Midwest Collegiate Conference All-Academic nods just over a month ago.
For a team to be considered for the NAIA Scholar-Team Award, it must have a minimum 3.0 grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale) as defined by the institution. The team grade-point average must include all varsity student-athletes certified as eligible. A total of 741 teams earned the award, down from a record-breaking 943 that were honored last season.
Every AU team appeared on the association's list except men's and women's bowling, which are non-championship sports for the NAIA.
Oklahoma City University women's track squad was named the 2011-12 NAIA Scholar-Team of the Year by posting a 4.07 cumulative grade-point average. Rounding out the top five teams were Vanguard (Calif.) women's cross country (3.97); Lee University (Tenn.) women's golf (3.96); Oklahoma City women's cross country (3.91); and Shorter (Ga.) women's golf (3.83).
Ashford's 15 squads were the most among MCC schools but finished one team short of Concordia (Neb.) and Hastings (Neb.), who tied for the NAIA lead with 16 teams each honored on the list.
The Saints were led by the women's soccer program (3.44), women's golf (3.41) and men's basketball (3.36).
The NAIA honors are just the latest academic awards for the Saints.
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) released its 2012 ITA All-Academic Teams and Scholar-Athletes recently, and both Ashford tennis teams, along with six individuals, were recognized for their work in the classroom last season.
The AU men's squad was one of 17 teams to garner ITA All-Academic Team accolades, while the women's team joined 20 other teams from around the NAIA on the association's list. In addition, men's tennis student-athletes, Jake Dunn and Moises Hernandez, joined women's tennis players Anastasia Dabiza, Andreina Guedez, Theresa Stumpf and Sara Vach as ITA Scholar-Athletes for the 2011-12 academic season.
The women’s basketball team was named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Academic Top 25 Team Honors Rolls for the 2011-12 season for the first time since the 2004-05 season.
Head coach Amy Eagan’s team compiled a 3.417 GPA, ranking the team 15th nationally among all NAIA institutions.
Their counterparts on the court, the Ashford men’s basketball team, placed six members on the National Association of Basketball Coaches NABC Honors Court.
Seniors Peter Tanzillo, Devin Ehrich, Javier Valdez and Mitch Jankowski, along with juniors Vesteinn Sveinsson and Joseph Lightfoot III, all landed among the associations' list made up of student-athletes from the NAIA and all three divisions of NCAA men's basketball.
Sports
July 25, 2012
Ashford teams receive academic honors
All 15 programs are cited by NAIA
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