PEORIA, Ill. ? All 17 members of the 2005 Bradley Softball team qualified for the Athletic Director's Academic Honor Roll to highlight a record-setting performance by Bradley's student-athletes during the recently completed spring semester.
In order to qualify for the Bradley Athletic Director's Academic Honor Roll, a student-athlete must complete at least 12 graded hours with a minimum 3.0 grade point average during the semester. With all 17 players meeting the threshold, the Bradley softball team set a team record with a 3.52 team GPA last spring, which also raised the squad's cumulative GPA to a record 3.38.
As impressive as the softball team's performance was in the classroom last semester, though, the team only managed the third-best GPA among Bradley's 14 intercollegiate athletic teams last semester. The women's cross country team checked in with a team record 3.70 mark, while the track and field team also recorded a record 3.58 semester GPA. Among the 14 teams, 11 improved their cumulative GPAs and 10 bettered their semester marks last spring. Nine of the 14 achieved at least a 3.0 team grade point average and five teams recorded either a semester or cumulative GPA record.
Together, Bradley's women student-athletes set semester (3.47) and cumulative (3.32) GPA records and the entire student-athlete population finished the spring semester with a record 3.19 grade point average. By comparison, the entire Bradley University student body recorded a 3.14 GPA last spring. The Bradley Athletic Department has academic records dating back to 1984.
“We are extremely proud of the continued, collective outstanding academic performances of our student-athletes,” said Bradley Director of Athletics Ken Kavanagh. “In particular, I want to commend those who achieved the tremendous distinction of recording straight A's during the past semester as well as those who have established new high water benchmarks for their teams. These significant combined results remain a by-product of the diligent efforts of the fine young men and women in our program, as well as the daily contributions by our coaches, academic advising units and Bradley University's quality faculty. Regardless of the potential for professional athletic opportunities, graduation remains our ultimate goal, and we derive substantial satisfaction in knowing that our student-athletes are producing so well in the classroom.”
Individually, 21 student-athletes achieved perfect 4.0 spring semester grade point averages among the 118 who qualified for the Bradley Athletic Director's Academic Honor Roll. Those 21 student-athletes with 4.0 springs were: Bekah Aavang (Women's Cross Country/Track and Field), Eitan Barbalat (Baseball), Marcia Backstrom (Women's Cross Country/Track and Field), Emily Buys (Women's Cross Country/Track and Field), Brad Canada (Baseball), Collin Diedrich (Men's Cross Country), Kim Dobill (Softball), Gillian Falknor (Volleyball), Rachel Furman (Women's Cross Country/Track and Field), Shelby Lile (Women's Cross Country/Track and Field), Ivor Miskulin (Men's Tennis), Maya Monitto-Webber (Women's Track and Field), Genny Mueller (Women's Basketball), Mark Muskievicz (Men's Tennis), Rachel Redenius (Women's Track and Field), Todd Reedy (Men's Soccer), Jessica Sampias (Women's Tennis), Rachel Scanlan (Women's Cross Country/Track and Field), Ainslie Schultz (Women's Cross Country/Track and Field), Brian Spielmann (Baseball), Liz Wilson (Softball).
Academic honors for the 2004-05 year were highlighted by Brad Canada's repeat selection to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American squad (first team) in baseball and his selection as the Missouri Valley Conference's top male scholar-athlete (Dr. Charlotte West Award) and MVC Postgraduate Scholarship. He is currently a finalist for an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Other notable distinctions include Genny Mueller's being named to the I-AAA Athletic Director's ten-member Scholar-Athlete Team for women's basketball for the second consecutive year and a total of four BU student-athletes who earned District and/or Regional recognition (Canada and Brian Spielmann for Baseball, Chris Dunsheath for Soccer and Mueller) and nine Braves who earned first-team Valley Scholar-Athlete accolades in their respective sport.
In addition four Bradley student-athletes were awarded the MVC President Council Academic Excellence Award, which requires a minimum 3.8 cumulative grade point average (through fall 2004 semester), participation in athletics a minimum of two years and the student-athlete must be within 18 hours of graduation. Brad Canada (Baseball), Genny Mueller (Women's Basketball), Rachel Furman (Women's Cross Country/Track and Field) and Rachel Scanlan (Women's Cross Country/Track and Field) were four of the 51 Valley student-athletes that earned the league's highest academic achievement. Bradley boasted 16 of the Valley's 314 recipients of the league's Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award. The award requires a minimum grade point average of 3.5 for the previous two semesters and a minimum 3.2 grade point average for the current team (Fall 2004).
Bradley leads the Missouri Valley Conference with a 78 percent graduation rate among the student-athletes who entered school during the four-year period between 1994-95 and 1997-98. The collective graduation figure climbs to 94 percent for the 233 student-athletes who exhausted their athletic eligibility on the Hilltop during the ten-year period inclusive of 1988-89 through 1997-98.
