University of Vermont, whose student-athletes maintained a 3.14 grade-point average, has been awarded the America East Academic Cup for the second-consecutive season and becomes the first institution in conference history to win the award three times. It ties the highest grade-point average in the 11-year history of the award, which the Catamounts set last season.
University of Maine (3.11), University of Hartford (3.10) and University of New Hampshire (3.06) were other institutions to compile grade-point averages of 3.00 or better in 2005-06.
Vermont fielded teams in 16 of the 22 sports sponsored by the conference during the 2005-06 academic year and saw 12 of those teams post grade-point averages of 3.0 or better. The Catamounts had seven sport leaders, including women's lacrosse, whose 3.37 grade-point average was the highest of any Division I women’s lacrosse squad in the country. Other team winners for the Catamounts were field hockey (3.38), women’s soccer (3.34), men’s cross country (3.27), women’s swimming and diving (3.27) and men’s indoor (3.14) and outdoor (3.14) track and field.
Vermont’s student-athletes are part of the more than 3,200 student-athletes who competed at nine America East institutions in the 2005-06 season. The conference’s student-athletes compiled an average of 3.02 on the team grade-point averages, which were calculated by dividing the total team quality points by the total credits completed for grade. The overall institutional GPAs were calculated using the same formula for all student-athletes at each respective school.
Hartford’s men’s golf team (3.31) joined UMBC’s men’s swimming and diving squad (3.07) and Stony Brook’s men’s tennis team (3.23) as the only programs to win an America East Championship and post the highest grade-point average among the conference’s teams.
Other sport winners were: baseball, Binghamton (3.00); men’s basketball, UMBC (2.89); women’s basketball, UMBC (3.24); women’s cross country, Stony Brook (3.54); women’s golf, Hartford (3.33); men’s lacrosse, Binghamton (2.89); men’s soccer, Binghamton (3.31); women’s soccer, Hartford and Vermont (3.34); softball, Maine (3.35); women’s tennis, New Hampshire (3.37); women’s indoor track and field, Hartford (3.37); women’s outdoor track and field, Hartford (3.37); and volleyball, Hartford (3.43).
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.
Vermont also won the Academic Cup in the inaugural year (1995-96) of the award, while Hartford was the winner in 1996-97. New Hampshire won the Academic Cup in 1998-99 and 1999-2000. Binghamton won the Academic Cup in its first two years in the conference (2001-02, 2002-03), followed by Maine in 2003-04.