Student-Athletes a success in the classroom

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Staff report | @KyKernel

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UK Athletics announced on Tuesday a record-high grade point average for student-athletes across all sports.

A combined GPA of 3.14 from student-athletes with scholarships during the spring semester is the highest mark during UK Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart’s time as AD.

“When I established the goal of a 3.0 overall GPA for our department, I knew I was setting the bar high,” Mitch Barnhart said in a UK Athletics press release. “To reach it for an entire athletic year for the first time is an accomplishment our student-athletes should be very proud of. I commend and thank them for their hard work.”

Women’s tennis led all sports with a 3.69 GPA by scholarship student-athletes.

Women’s soccer, women’s swimming and diving, women’s cross country and women’s golf all had GPAs above 3.5, with a 3.62, 3.60, 3.59 and 3.53 respectively.

Men’s basketball led the men’s teams with a 3.39 GPA from competing scholarship student-athletes.

Sixteen out of 20 teams had GPAs of 3.0 or higher. UK led the SEC with 57 student-athletes on the league’s Winter Sports Academic Honor Roll, according to the press release.

Individually, 47 scholarship student-athletes had a 4.0 GPA in the spring semester.

Chelsea Oswald of the women’s cross country and track team was named the SEC’s H. Boyd McWhorter Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in April.

Megan Moir of the women’s golf team was named the Brad Davis SEC Female Community Service Leader of the Year.

It is the first time since 1999 that UK student-athletes won both of the prestigious awards, according to the press release.

“I am continually impressed by the way our student-athletes, coaches and staff embrace academics as an important part of our mission,” Barnhart said. “We are identified first by what we do in competition, but we are out to prove an athletic department can excel in all facets.”

The athletic program is ranked 20th in the Director’s Cup, the press release says this is one of the key metrics used by Barnhart to evaluate the program’s progress in competition.