Aug. 31, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- The National Wrestling Coaches Association has released the Academic Progress Rating leaders for the 2007-2008 season and has placed Northwestern at the top of the APR rankings for wrestling programs. Head coach Tim Cysewski has ensured that his program is second-to-none academically while competing at an elite, NCAA Championship level.
"We are very proud of earning the No. 1 APR ranking among collegiate wrestling programs," assistant coach Drew Pariano said. "We do it all at Northwestern: we compete in the most challenging wrestling conference in the country and we excel on the academic side. Our academic services at NU are outstanding and they help our student-athletes achieve greatness."
Put in place by the NCAA in an effort to improve the academic success of NCAA Division I student-athletes, the APR only applies to NCAA Division I scholarship athletes (or recruited athletes when a team does not offer scholarships in the case of the Ivy League) and is based on two guiding principles:
-At the completion of every semester, an athlete can accumulate one "eligibility point" for being academically eligible by NCAA and institution standards.
-At the completion of every semester, an athlete can accumulate one "retention point" if he/she returns to campus the following semester.
Northwestern wrestling's APR score is valued at 992. The average APR for all Division I student-athletes is 961, according to the latest data. The average APR for male student-athletes is 951, while the average for female student-athletes is 969.
Northwestern has been able to achieve its academic success while also competing at the highest level athletically; despite fielding a smaller number of varsity athletics programs than most BCS schools, Northwestern has finished in the top-30 in the U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup standings in each of the last three years.