May 17, 2011

RUSTON - Louisiana Tech's men's golf team and women's bowling team were both honored nationally by the NCAA with Public Recognition Awards, based on their most recent multi-year Academic Progress Rates (APR).

These awards are given each year to teams ranking in the Top 10 percent of their respective sport with their APRs.

This year, head coach Jeff Parks' Bulldog golf team and head coach Shawn Jackson's women's bowling team were both among 909 Division I teams recognized, which represents 14 percent of the 6,385 eligible teams.

"Congratulations to our student-athletes for continuing to perform so well in classroom," said Tech Athletics Director Bruce Van De Velde. "I want to express my appreciation to the faculty, coaches and staff for making education our top priority."

Through its innovative APR, which provides an annual scorecard of academic achievement, the NCAA tracks the classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I sports team.

Full APR scores for all teams, including penalties for low-performing teams, will be released May 24.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said top-performing teams this year posted APR scores ranging from 977 to a perfect 1,000. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on the number of perfect scores.

"Most student-athletes excel at balancing their academic and athletics commitments, yet each year there are those who perform at extraordinary levels," Emmert said. "By achieving the highest levels of academic success as a team, these young men and women truly embody what it means to be a successful NCAA student-athlete."

Louisiana Tech's student-athletes continue to excel in the classroom as the University boasts one of the highest graduation rates in the state and in the Western Athletic Conference.

LA Tech was one of only two WAC schools that had multiple teams honored this year while it joined LSU and Tulane as the only three state schools to have multiple programs earning recognition.