Women's cross-country earns Div. I's best GPA

Congrats to USF's women's cross-country team, which posted the highest team grade-point average out of 325 Division I schools last season, according to the U.S. Track and Field Cross-Country Coaches Association.

The Bulls earned a team GPA of 3.78, which edged Belmont (3.77) for the highest in Division I. Setting the pace for USF with 4.0 GPAs were five runners: Lisa Giblin, Kaley Matthews (Largo), Maressa Pinzini, Emily Wakley and Rebecca Zuhlke.

"To have earned the No. 1 GPA in the United States is a great honor for our women's cross country program, the athletic department and the University of South Florida," USF coach Warren Bye said in a statement. "We take great pride in our academics. I am very proud of the work these young women have done in the classroom."

Other state programs whose women's cross-country teams were honored for team GPAs of 3.0 or higher were Florida (3.44), Florida State (3.29), Central Florida (3.25) and Florida International (3.07); Florida (3.23)was the only state school to have its men's team recognized.

In Division II, the University of Tampa's women's cross-country team ranked fifth with a 3.73 GPA; UT's men's team ranked eighth with a 3.48.

Comments

[Norb]

Greg:

Is there a link to the full list?

[G.A.]

I have the list, but it's an XLS file. Who are you curious about?

[DELdaBULL]

That is awesome. X-Country women are smarter!

[Norb]

Where is Bucknell on that list?

[G.A.]

Norb, looks as though Bucknell's teams did not get a 3.0 GPA and as a result did not make the USTFCCCA honor roll.

[Norb]

Very impressed by USF women.

Cross Country GPAs were higher at Bucknell back in my day, 20 years ago. I remember my 3.2 pulling the average down on a team ranked nationally in top 25.

[Dave W]

I've had a few classes with Emily Wakley. Very intelligent and hard-working.

It is good that some of our athletic programs understand that classes are most important.

[Mike Lakeland]

Where did USF men's team place?

[G.A.]

USF's men didn't have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, so they weren't among the schools listed by the USTFCCCA.

I'll admit, I'm responding as much because I like typing USTFCCCA, easily the bulkiest abbreviation on earth.

[knightsrulebullssuck]

The Knights men are better than the Bulls.

[Mike Lakeland]

Bulkiest abbreviation? Maybe.

But no where near as cool as ADAA:

The American Dogdeball Association of America

[G.A.]

So if I have this right, the UCF argument has devolved to "Our men's cross-country team has a higher grade-point average." That looks solid on a T-shirt.

[Ken]

It's a lot better when you use the abbreviation GPA.

[Al]

"I'll admit, I'm responding as much because I like typing USTFCCCA, easily the bulkiest abbreviation on earth." Greg Auman

Isn't USTFCCCA an acronym rather than an abbreviation?

[G.A.]

One of those things where technically, an acronym is supposed to be sounded as a word and not spelled out; NATO and AIDS and scuba and sonar are acronyms, not AFL-CIO or ESPN. You hear acronym used for any collection of letters a lot these days.

(If you're sounding out USTFCCCA as a word, you could call it an acronym. I'd make the third "c" a silent one.)

[Mike Lakeland]

uss-tuff-kah-kah

That would be my acronym.