Lafayette Student Athletes Boast 3.15 Overall GPA in Fall 2011

Lafayette student athletes combined to post a 3.15 grade point average during the 2011 fall semester.

“Our student-athletes are among the nation’s best in terms of graduation rates and overall academic excellence,” says Bruce McCutcheon, director of athletics. “This fall’s GPA performance is another example of the significant accomplishments made by the students who participate in our athletics program.  We are extraordinarily proud of them.”

More than 65 percent of Lafayette’s 528 athletes earned higher than a 3.0 GPA, including 17 students with perfect 4.0 GPA’s. In total, 344 athletic team members have made the academic honor roll. Lafayette athletes have now reached the 65 percent threshold in eight consecutive semesters, a mark that had only been reached once, the 2003 spring semester, since the inception of the Patriot League in 1990.

Women’s cross country led the way in team GPA with a 3.49, followed by men’s soccer with a 3.40 and women’s soccer with a 3.37. Women’s track (3.35), men’s cross country (3.34), men’s tennis (3.27), and volleyball (3.27) round out the list of top team academic marks.

Individually, Lafayette had six Academic All-Patriot League selections in the fall semester. Women’s cross country runner Rose Willey ’14 (Brookfield, Conn.), a mathematics-economics major, earned the distinction with her cumulative 4.0 GPA.The others were field hockey player Emily Valeo ’13 (Norristown, Pa.), an English major with a 3.69 GPA; football players Brandon Ellis ’12 (Jeffersonville, Pa.), an economics major with a 3.56 GPA, and Mark Ross ’14 (Aliquippa, Pa.), an economics major with a 3.54 GPA; and soccer players Blake Fink ’13 (Westampton, N.J.), a government and law major with a 3.78 GPA, and Graham Heydt ’12 (Northbrook, Ill.), a mathematics-economics major with a 3.72 GPA.