New Orleans, LA – The Sage Colleges' women's and men's track and field team was recognized by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division III Scholar Teams of the Year for the 2016 outdoor track and field season. The Sage Gators are led by Head Coach Jim Bowles and combined this past spring for a 3.39 grade-point-average to earn a repeat selection to the listing.
The USTFCCCA announced the 2015 Division III All-Academic Track & Field teams and featured a total of 170 women's teams and 99 men's teams earned the distinction as a result of earning a cumulative team GPA of 3.10 or higher.
The UW-Eau Claire men and Baldwin Wallace women, both national champions, were honored as Indoor Scholar Teams of the Year. That trend continued during the outdoor season as the national champion UW-La Crosse men and Illinois Wesleyan women took home the laurels for Outdoor Scholar Teams of the Year.
Sage's women's team was honored for the second straight year as the Gators had a combined for a 3.41 grade-point-average, while Sage's men were also recognized after tallying a 3.23 GPA for the year.
In order to be in the running for Scholar Team of the Year, a team must finish highly at the respective national championship and have at least a 3.10 cumulative team GPA. All told, there were 112 men's teams and 175 women's teams up for consideration.
In total, there were 112 men's teams and 175 women's teams honored by the Association for success in the classroom and in competition.
Fontbonne's women had the best GPA out of every DIII team with a 3.84. The runner-up women's team was St. John Fisher at 3.645, followed by third-place tie between Carleton College and Whitworth at 3.63. Edgewood College rounded out the top-5 with its GPA of 3.62.
The top men's team was Waynesburg University with a GPA of 3.7. Principia College followed at 3.599, narrowly topping MIT with its 3.5968. The fourth-place men's team was Carleton College at 3.55 and fifth place belonged to Stevens at 3.524.
