Ithaca and Houghton Make WBCA Top 25 Honor Roll
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) released its Academic Top 25 Honor Roll and Ithaca College and Houghton College were ranked 12th and 19th, respectively, on the list for NCAA Division III. Ithaca's cumulative grade-point average for the 2016-17 academic school year was 3.558, while Houghton's gpa was 3.537.
The Empire 8 has been well represented in the Top 25 over the past few years including Houghton College earning the highest ranking amongst an E8 team honored with a fourth place rank in 2015-16. Ithaca College was sixth in 2011-12 and 2012-13. The Bombers were also tenth in 2013-14 and were joined by Elmira (6th) and Utica (24th). In 2014-15 Ithaca was 12th and Utica ranked 19th.
The WBCA Academic Top 25 recognizes NCAA Division I, II and III; NAIA and junior/community college women’s basketball teams across the nation that carry the highest combined GPAs inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2016-17 season is the 22nd in which the WBCA as compiled the honor rolls.
“The WBCA family is committed to the student-athlete experience and celebrates these teams that have demonstrated excellence in the classroom,” said WBCA Executive Director Danielle Donehew. “This year’s WBCA Academic Top 25 is a powerful list of teams and their head coaches who have winning cultures that prepare their student-athletes for success in life.”
A team’s GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of quality points (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0) earned by the total number of academic hours attempted by all team members in the academic terms (semesters or quarters) that the season spans. Weighted grades are converted to a 4.0 scale. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by the WBCA-member head coach. A team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.
NCAA Division III
|
Rank
|
Institution
|
Head Coach
|
GPA
|
|
1
|
Emerson College
|
Bill Gould
|
3.673
|
|
2
|
Westminster College (Missouri)
|
Tracey Braden
|
3.669
|
|
3
|
University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg
|
Erin Eaton
|
3.647
|
|
4
|
Greenville College
|
Roy Mulholland
|
3.641
|
|
5
|
University of Dubuque
|
Mark Noll
|
3.634
|
|
6
|
New York University
|
Lauren Hall-Gregory
|
3.625
|
|
7
|
MIT
|
Sonia Raman
|
3.618
|
|
8
|
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
|
Tonja Englund
|
3.594
|
|
9
|
Western Connecticut State University
|
Kimberley Rybczyk
|
3.593
|
|
10
|
William Smith College
|
Lindsay Sharman
|
3.576
|
|
11
|
Vassar College
|
Candice Brown
|
3.559
|
|
12
|
Ithaca College
|
Dan Raymond
|
3.558
|
|
13
|
Bethel University (Minnesota)
|
Jon Herbrechtsmeyer
|
3.552
|
|
14
|
Middlebury College
|
KJ Krasco
|
3.549
|
|
15
|
Carthage College
|
Tim Bernero
|
3.547
|
|
16
|
Marywood University
|
Tara Macciocco
|
3.546
|
|
17
|
Baldwin Wallace University
|
Cheri Harrer
|
3.544
|
|
18
|
Washington and Lee
|
Christine Clancy
|
3.540
|
|
19
|
Houghton College
|
Alicia Mucher
|
3.537
|
|
20
|
Swarthmore College
|
Renee DeVarney
|
3.532
|
|
21
|
Elmhurst College
|
Tethnie Carrillo
|
3.527
|
|
22
|
University of Minnesota, Morris
|
Tim Grove
|
3.526
|
|
23
|
Suffolk University
|
Ed Leyden
|
3.519
|
|
24
|
Case Western Reserve University
|
Jennifer Reimer
|
3.513
|
|
25
|
Thomas More College
|
Jeff Hans
|
3.511
|