Towson University’s women’s cross country squad is the Tigers’ front runner in its 20-team varsity program in terms of eligibility and retention among its student-athletes receiving athletics aid and has been recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its perfect multi-year Academic Progress Rate.
The cross country team scored a perfect 1,000 over the last four years with all of its student-athletes on athletics aid remaining eligible and returning the following semester or graduating.
“The recognition of our women’s cross country team is outstanding,” said Towson Athletics Director, Mike Hermann. “Coach (Roger) Erricker and his squad richly deserve the praise. The team has had the highest semester GPA average in the department the past three semesters. I’m equally as pleased that all 20 Towson athletics programs have APR scores above 955. It’s a credit to our student-athletes, the faculty, coaches and academic support staff. There is a real focus at Towson on the student in the student-athlete.”
Each year the NCAA honors selected Division I sports teams by publicly recognizing their latest multiyear APR. This announcement is part of the overall Division I academic reform effort and is intended to highlight teams who demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes by achieving the top APRs within their respective sports. Specifically, these teams posted multiyear APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport.
The APR provides a real-time look at a team’s academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team’s academic performance.
“It’s the culture of the team that we’ve cultivated over the years that academics is truly the most important part of cross country for us,” Erricker said. “I always remind the young ladies that they’re not going to make a living off of cross country, but they will off of their degrees.”
