More Academic Honors for Women's Track Team and Seven Track Athletes

Utah State University’s women's track team was recognized for its academic excellence as it received the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Academic Award for having the fourth-best overall grade-point average in the country.

As a team, Utah State's women had a cumulative grade-point average of 3.440 during the 2007 spring semester, tying Bradley University for fourth-best in the country. Arkansas-Little Rock led the nation with a 3.61 GPA, followed by Quinnipiac (3.518), Tennessee-Chattanooga (3.460), and USU and Bradley.

 

The USTFCCCA honors individuals and teams for their academic and athletic accomplishments during the indoor and outdoor track seasons. This year, 97 Division I women's teams were honored for having a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

 

"My feelings on winning academic awards is, that is what we are in college for," said veteran USU head coach Gregg Gensel. "Athletics are very important to all of our student-athletes, but they understand why they are here and make sacrifices to do well athletically and academically."

 

Utah State was one of just three Western Athletic Conference schools honored, along with Hawai'i and Idaho. USU was also one of three teams from the state of Utah to be honored, joining Weber State and the University of Utah.

 

Individually, Utah State had seven student-athletes honored as Kathryn Duhadway (Logan, Utah), Amy Egan (Greensburg, Pa.), Anthony Jones (Toquerville, Utah), Stacie Lifferth (Layton, Utah), Amber Peterson (Midvale, Utah), Jennifer Twitchell (Sandy, Utah) and Vance Twitchell (Helena, Mont.) were all named to the USTFCCCA all-academic men's and women's teams.

 

To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field Team, an athlete must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.25 or higher and must have met the NCAA Division I regional or national qualifying standard in his/her event.