Lipscomb repeats as A-Sun academic champion
Lipscomb Athletics |
With a league record 85.9 percent of Lipscomb University's student athletes earning a 3.0 grade point average or higher during the 2014-15 academic year, the Bisons have repeated as the Atlantic Sun Conference academic champions.
The honor comes as Lipscomb had a league-best 262 out of 305 total student athletes finish above the 3.0 threshold to win the award for the second straight year. Northern Kentucky University finished a distant second with 69.5 percent of its student athletes earning conference scholar honors just ahead of Florida Gulf Coast, which notched a 67.5 percent mark.
"Of all of the awards that we could win, the academic trophy is one of the ones I am most proud of, and it is truly a team effort,” said Lipscomb Director of Athletics Philip Hutcheson. “Obviously, the student athletes who put in the hard work to excel both in competition and the classroom deserve tremendous credit and I am proud of so many of them for proving that the words ‘student’ and ‘athlete’ are not mutually exclusive.
“In addition, I am thankful for a fantastic faculty who works with our student athletes, both instructing and advising them in such a way as to give them the best chance to succeed. And I am appreciative that we have a group of coaches who make it a point to encourage our students to excel academically as well as athletically.”
Lipscomb also led the way with nine Bisons earning President’s Scholar honors as each finished their academic careers with a 3.8 GPA or higher. They were joined by 13 Lipscomb seniors, who earned commissioner scholar honors with a GPA between 3.6 and 3.79, and 11 seniors, who finished their careers with a GPA between 3.40 and 3.599 to earn conference scholar honors.
“Dr. Lin Garner (associate AD for academics), Sherie Eubanks (administrative assistant for compliance and academics), Dr. Kent Johnson (faculty athletics representative) and Dr. Brian Mast (senior director of the academic success center) deserve special recognition in this accomplishment,” said Hutcheson. “These four people have been instrumental leaders with our teams in helping them to achieve the heights they have reached and I appreciate their expertise and enthusiasm in helping us once again earn this award."
The Purple and Gold have produced 1,944 all-academic honorees all time, the most in A-Sun history. Lipscomb also had 33 student athletes earn a 4.0 GPA for the 2014-15 school year, a figure that led the league as well.
The league as a whole set a record with 68.37 percent of student-athletes earning a 3.0 GPA or higher during the academic year.