FAIRBANKS, AK – The Alaska Nanooks men's cross country and women's volleyball teams clinched titles for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's individual sports academic award, as announced by the conference office Wednesday.
The men's cross country team had the highest cumulative team grade-point average of any of the mens' sports teams with a 3.48 overall. It marks the sixth time since the inception of the Spokane-based league that the Nanooks garnered the honor. For Alaska's spikers (3.47), who had the third highest GPA for a women's team, it was their first time winning the league award.
Alaska was one of three schools, along with Saint Martin's (baseball, golf) and MSU Billings (softball, women's basketball), with two sports winners apiece.
Northwest Nazarene University posted the best team grade point average in three sports in winning the
2009-10 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Academic All-Sports title for the third year in a row.
The Crusaders won titles in men's basketball, women's soccer and women's track and field in out pointing Seattle Pacific 131- 125 to win the overall title. Montana State Billings was third with 117 points, 17 ahead of fourth-place Saint Martin's. also won its third straight women's title and its sixth overall edging MSUB 77-73. Seattle Pacific finished third with 67 points and Saint Martin's was fourth with 52 points.
SPU won the men's title with 58 points, four ahead of Northwest Nazarene. Saint Martin's and MSU Billings finished third and fourth with 48 and 44 points, respectively. The title was the sixth overall for the Falcon men, but their first since 2005-06.
Seattle Pacific matched NNU's team title total, also earning the best cumulative team GPA in three sports including men's soccer, men's track and field and women's cross country, while Western Oregon was the leader in one (football).
Saint Martin's baseball team academic title was its ninth in a row. The Saint baseball squad is the only team to win the academic team in all nine years of the award.
Seattle Pacific's women's cross country team posted the best GPA of any GNAC team finishing with a 3.73 average. Fifty-three of the conference's 92 teams (57.6 percent) posted cumulative GPAs of 3.00 or better, including all nine women's cross country teams and all eight women's track and field squads. Seven of the conference's nine volleyball teams had cumulative GPAs of 3.00 or better, while six of the seven softball teams and six of the nine women's hoop squads also reached that figure. In all 40 of the GNAC's 48 women's teams (83.3 percent) had cumulative GPAs of at least 3.00.
On the men's side, 13 of the 44, teams including five in cross country and three in track and field also had GPAs of 3.00 or better.
The Academic all-sports standings are based on the cumulative grade point averages of all the athletes on the official team rosters including redshirts.
Individual sport academic winners included:
Men: Cross Country – Alaska 3.48. Soccer – Seattle Pacific 3.42. Basketball – Northwest Nazarene 3.22. Baseball – Saint Martin's 2.92. Track-and-Field – Seattle Pacific 3.22. Golf – Saint Martin's 3.20. Football – Western Oregon 2.70.
Women: Volleyball – Alaska 3.47. Cross Country – Seattle Pacific 3.73. Soccer – Northwest Nazarene 3.50. Basketball – MSU Billings 3.45. Softball – MSU Billings 3.15. Track and Field – Northwest Nazarene 3.39.
