Kent State University’s student-athletes continued their run of success in the classroom during the spring of 2014 by posting the third highest term grade point average (GPA) in recorded history.
The athletic department finished with a 3.085 spring GPA, a number that ranks behind only a 3.11 in the spring of 2013 and a 3.10 in the spring of 2012.
The department’s current cumulative GPA of 3.139 remains the highest in recorded history.
“Our goal is to graduate student-athletes with meaningful degrees,” said Joel Nielsen, Kent State’s director of athletics.
“These grade-point averages indicate that our students will be prepared to go out into society and contribute in the fields of their choice."
-Joel Nielsen
Kent State's director of athletics
"Successes in the classroom translate to successes on the field, and that is revealed by our recent stretch of wins in the Cartwright Award, the Reese and Jacoby trophies and the Wagon Wheel Challenge," he said.
Twelve Kent State teams recorded term and cumulative GPAs over 3.0, including three with term GPAs above 3.4 and five with cumulative GPAs above 3.4.
A total of 22 student-athletes scored perfect 4.0 GPAs. They are included among a group of 234 Golden Flashes with term GPAs at 3.0 or above (61 percent of Kent State student-athletes) and 118 with term GPAs above 3.5 (30 percent).
“What impresses me most about our student-athletes is their desire to be the standard bearers of the Mid-American Conference athletically as well as academically,” said Randale Richmond, associate athletic director for academic and compliance services at Kent State. “We have student-athletes who compete at the highest level athletically and receive all the praise and accolades that comes with that success on the playing field, yet they’re in our offices working with our academic counselor, tutors and learning specialists to see how they can get a 3.0 up to a 3.5. They hold each other accountable and display remarkable perspective and resolve and truly embody the ideal of student first athletes.”
Individual Team Accomplishments
- Baseball earned third best spring GPA in recorded history
- Men’s basketball boasted highest spring term GPA in recorded history
- Women’s basketball had 83 percent of team finish with a 3.0 or higher term GPA
- Field hockey had three students graduate with honors
- Football earned second highest term GPA in recorded history
- Golf senior class earned a 3.498 GPA
- Women’s golf earned highest GPA for the year (fall 2013 and spring 2014 combined) since 2007
- Gymnastics earned second highest term GPA in the department
- Women’s soccer recorded highest GPA in the department with all student-athletes above a 3.0 GPA
- Softball senior class boasted a 3.825 average cumulative GPA
- Men’s track and field finished with 36 student-athletes above a 3.0 GPA
- Women’s track and field finished with highest team GPA in recorded history
- Wrestling earned highest team spring term and cumulative GPA in recorded history
- Volleyball earned highest term GPA in five years (spring 2009)
For more information about Kent State Athletics, visit www.kentstatesports.com.