Hawks Second in America East Academic Cup

The America East has announced the final standings and results of the Academic Cup, and student-athletes at the University of Hartford compiled an impressive 3.13 grade-point average, good for second place in the nine-school conference. The Hawks tied with the University of New Hampshire, as the University of Vermont finished with a 3.17 GPA to take home its seventh consecutive Academic Cup.

Hartford was part of a record-setting 3.07 league-wide GPA for the 2010-11 academic year. At its end-of-the-year banquet held in May, the Hartford athletic department honored 114 student-athletes who earned a 3.5 or higher in either the fall 2010 or spring 2011 semester. Fourty-four of those standouts put together two semesters of 3.5 GPAs or better, and nine of them had at least one semester of a perfect 4.0 GPA.

The Hawks' women's basketball team was one of just two league squads (the Binghamton men's tennis team being the other) to win the league titles both on the court and in the classroom. The squad, which knocked off Boston University in Boston by a 65-53 margin to capture its fifth conference title, posted a 3.47 team GPA, the highest among all league women's basketball teams.

As a department, in fact, Hartford posted a league-best seven conference-best GPA teams. In addition to the women’s basketball program, the baseball (3.11), men’s cross country (3.33), women’s tennis (3.52), men’s indoor (3.22) and outdoor track & field (3.23), and volleyball (3.45) programs also garnered that distinction.

The Academic Cup, established by the America East Board of Directors in 1995, is presented to the institution whose student-athletes post the highest grade-point averages during that academic year. In all, six of America East’s nine institutions compiled grade-point averages over 3.0, while 66 percent of the league’s teams (98-of-149) had GPAs of 3.0 or better. Furthermore, the league’s nearly 3,200 student-athletes compiled a league-record 3.07 average during the 2010-11 season. 

Hartford last captured the Academic Cup after the 1996-97 academic year.

“These numbers continue to serve as proof that the young adults in the America East Conference are the epitome of what it is to be a student-athlete,” said America East Interim Commissioner Shonna Brown. “I’d like to commend the student-athletes, as well as their families, coaches and administrators on their hard work all year long.”