Front Page

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Lobos Set Grades Record

By Rick Wright
Journal Staff Writer
       Not all sports comebacks are authored on the playing surface.
    There are classroom comebacks, too.
    The University of New Mexico on Tuesday announced its student-athletes had achieved a combined grade-point average of 3.11 for the 2008 spring semester. That's a school record, according to the UNM registrar's office.
    The 3.11 also represents a significant rally. Last fall, UNM's student-athletes finished with a GPA of 2.98 — slipping below 3.0 for the first time since the spring of 2002.
    It's UNM's biggest improvement in GPA from semester to semester since a jump from 2.41 to 2.67 between fall 1988 and spring 1989.
    UNM athletics director Paul Krebs seemed as pleased with this comeback as with any the Lobos might accomplish between the lines.
    "This is an outstanding achievement by our student-athletes," Krebs said in a news release. "The hard work put in by our student-athletes, coaches, academic advisement staff and mentors is definitely reflective in the GPAs from the spring semester."
    Men's skiing led the way with a cumulative 3.75, followed by women's tennis (3.65), women's golf (3.54), women's skiing (3.53) and women's swimming and diving (3.50).
    Among UNM's highest-profile sports, women's basketball checked in at 3.26, baseball at 2.92, men's basketball at 2.87 and football at 2.79.
    Though football ranked last among the school's 17 listed sports, 2.79 is a best for that program. In the fall of 1998, after head coach Rocky Long's first season, the team GPA was 2.29.
    "This caps off a banner year for our program," Long said of this spring's 2.79. "To win a bowl game for the first time in 46 seasons and set a program record for GPA in the same school year is an amazing accomplishment."
    The Lobos beat Nevada 23-0 in the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 22.
    The men's basketball team's academics have been under a microscope of late — not because of its GPA but because of NCAA Academic Progress Rate deficiencies that cost the program a scholarship during the 2007-08 season.
    "One of our top priorities when we started last season was to try and change the academic atmosphere within the men's basketball program," second-year coach Steve Alford said. "We are not there yet, but this (the third-highest GPA in the program's history) shows that we are headed in the right direction."