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Setting academic records

The U's student-athletes register record 3.57 GPA, 196 students make Dean’s List.

Ute student-athletes posted a departmental cumulative 3.57 GPA for the spring semester, a department record, while all teams posted a semester GPA above 3.00 for the first time ever.

Fourteen sports earned the highest team semester GPA in the history of the program with women’s tennis setting a new department standard with a 3.89 mark. Golf had the highest team GPA for a men’s sport at 3.61.

Of all student-athletes:

  • Athletic Director’s Honor Roll (3.00+ GPA): 86% (439 students, which is the highest percentage to do so in a decade)
  • Dean’s List honors (3.50+ GPA): 39%
  • Semester GPAs of 4.00: 110 students

Utah Athletics has now achieved a 3.00 departmental GPA for 28-straight semesters (14 academic years) and gymnastics has been able to meet the benchmark for an astounding 50-consecutive semesters. Cross country has never had a semester GPA below 3.00 and skiing paces all men’s teams with 24-straight semesters above the 3.00 threshold.

“I could not be more proud of the way our student-athletes embraced the challenges of distance learning and the disruptions they experienced in every aspect of their lives this semester,” said Director of Athletics Mark Harlan. “Our university community is incredibly supportive of all of our students and I’m grateful for the relationships we have across our campus to provide a platform for success. Within the athletics department, from our leadership team through our coaches and support staff, there is tremendous commitment to providing the best experience for our student-athletes, and I’m proud of their academic accomplishments this year.”

Seventy-two current and former Utah student-athletes received their degrees as part of the University of Utah’s spring commencement, recognizing both Spring and Summer 2020 graduates earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Utah’s student-athletes continue to graduate at an exceptionally high level, producing a 94% figure—highest among all public institutions in the power five conferences—in the most recent NCAA Graduation Success Rate report, released in October.

For the 2019-20 academic year, Utah student-athletes continue to excel setting another record earning a departmental GPA of 3.39.

Of all student-athletes:

  • Dean’s List in the fall and/or spring semesters: 35%
  • Athletic Director’s Honor Roll accolades: 77%
  • 4.00 GPAs for the fall and/or spring semesters: 15%

“I am truly humbled by the academic accomplishments of our student-athletes,” said Chris Uchasz, senior associate athletics director for academic services. “The passion and work ethic of the athletics academic support team was crucial and they all worked together with our student-athletes to make the transition to online classes a success.  It takes a village and I want to thank our dedicated faculty who worked extremely hard during this transition and played a major role in the successes we are celebrating.”

Another success seen in the spring semester was the unveiling of the NCAA Academic Progress Report. Four teams (football, gymnastics, men’s tennis and volleyball) earned NCAA Public Recognition Awards for having APR scores in the top 10 percent nationally of their respective sport. Utah had 11 sports (men’s and women’s skiing, men’s tennis, women’s basketball, cross country, gymnastics, softball, soccer, women’s swim, track & field and volleyball) with perfect single-year APR scores of 1000.

Thirty-eight student-athletes were named to the Pac-12 Winter Academic Honor Roll, unveiled on the last day of March. Men’s swim and dive earned a department-high 13 spots on the list with women’s swim and dive contributing 11. Utah’s Pac-12 champion gymnastics team finished with eight honor roll selections with men’s and women’s basketball adding three each. Additionally, Alyssa Barrera of Utah Softball was named CoSIDA Academic All-District in mid-May.