It was just a few weeks ago when I wrote about the amazing accomplishments of 10 former and current Wyoming Cowboy football players who were honored by the College Football Hall of Fame Hampshire Honor Society.
Those 10 Cowboys were seniors or graduates who had attained a minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.2 on a 4.0 scale. And they must have been starters or significant contributors throughout the 2022 season.
These are truly remarkable individual academic/athletic achievements, and certainly something for Cowboys football to shout about.
We are finding out that it’s not just Cowboys football that is achieving in the classroom.
There are a number of Wyoming teams recording outstanding academic progress rate scores. This is the APR, and these scores are based on two factors: retention rate of scholarship student-athletes and the academic eligibility of scholarship student-athletes.
Every Wyoming team exceeded the NCAA benchmark score of 930. A perfect score is 1,000.
Nine of Wyoming’s 15 men’s and women’s programs had perfect single-year scores of 1,000.
Indoor and outdoor track and field are combined into one team; hence, the 15 Wyoming teams included in the APR scores.
The nine Wyoming teams with perfect APR scores for the 2020-2021 season are men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s cross-country, women’s cross-country, men’s golf, women’s soccer, women’s tennis, women’s track and field, and women’s volleyball.
Five Wyoming teams have recorded perfect APR scores over the last four years: women’s cross-country, men’s cross-country, men’s golf, women’s track and field, and women’s volleyball.
These are incredible numbers that continue to show just how successful many Wyoming teams have been in their athletic endeavors and in the classroom.
Here’s more:
· For the 11th consecutive year, the Wyoming men’s golf team recorded a perfect multiyear score of 1,000.
· It was the third consecutive year for women’s cross-country and men’s cross-country to get a perfect 1,000.
· Women’s track and field and women’s volleyball scored a perfect 1,000 for the second year in a row.
By the way, many thanks to Tim Harkins, the multitalented and most-accomplished associate athletics director for media relations, public relations and broadcasting. All of these amazing numbers are provided by Harkins and his cohorts in the UW Athletic Department.
I can’t imagine putting together any kind of column or broadcast that references any Wyoming sports topic without the help of the Media Relations Department. I personally have relied on that wonderful source of UW athletics information for more than four decades.
It is so impressive to see athletes performing in their chosen sports. And when you realize that these athletes also also achieve in the classroom, it’s all the more impressive.
At the University of Wyoming, there are a number of teams, entire groups of Wyoming athletes, achieving these very impressive goals.
As was mentioned before, every Wyoming team exceeded the NCAA benchmark APR score of 930.
And beyond the six teams I’ve mentioned already, I think the others deserve a mention.
· UW women’s golf and men’s track and field posted a near perfect scores of 993.
· Women’s swimming and diving scored a 991.
· The men’s swimming and diving team posted a score of 978.
· Football checked in at 974.
· The Cowboys wrestling team scored 971.
· Men’s basketball scored a 959.
Not only did these teams meet the minimum benchmark, they exceeded the qualifying score of 930 by a lot.
I’m so impressed by those who can compete in their sport at a very high level and all the while performing and achieving the classroom. Doing and accomplishing both, at the same time, is impressive.
And at Wyoming, not just a few, but every Wyoming team is contributing to this impressive performance in APR.
That’s really something to be proud of.
