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Northern Illinois Athletics Extends 3.0 Streak to Six Semesters

Huskie Student-Athletes Again Combine for Superior GPA

	Interim Director of Athletics Robert Collins congratulates Senior Associate Athletic Director Francine St. Clair after Huskie student-athletes again achieved a 3.0 cumulative semester GPA.

May 30, 2008

DeKALB, Ill. -- With 11 of Northern Illinois' 17 teams reporting a semester grade point average of 3.0 or above, Huskie student-athletes finished the spring with a cumulative GPA of 3.051, marking the sixth straight semester that NIU has surpassed the 3.0 mark.

In addition to six consecutive semesters at the 3.0 level, Northern Illinois student-athletes have achieved the mark in eight of the last nine terms dating back to the Spring of 2004. NIU's 3.051 GPA is the third-best cumulative mark in school history and combined with the 3.062 obtained this fall, gives Northern Illinois its best back-to-back semesters ever.

"I want to congratulate and acknowledge our tremendous Huskie student-athletes who have attained this monumental achievement of a sixth straight 3.0 semester," said NIU Interim Athletic Director Robert Collins."In light of the change and adversity we all experienced on our campus during this past semester, it is gratifying to see that they were able to stay focused on what is most important and that is their academic success. Special thanks must be extended to [Senior Associate Athletic Director] Francine St. Clair and her Student-Athlete Academic Support Services Staff, as well as the coaches, who continue to make academics a priority. We look forward to maintaining this standard of excellence moving forward."

Leading the way this spring was the NIU women's gymnastics team as that squad posted a grade point average of 3.382 for the term to top all Northern Illinois teams. Gymnastics' cumulative GPA of 3.302 also ranks first, ahead of fall semester leader volleyball, which came in at 3.258 after the spring. Women's cross country is third at 3.25, followed by softball (3.217) and women's soccer (3.215). Men's golf led all Huskie men's teams with a semester GPA of 3.208 to raise their cumulative mark to 3.171, sixth overall. Also achieving the 3.0 cumulative GPA were NIU's men's tennis (3.137), women's basketball (3.135), women's track and field (3.117) and women's golf (3.116) teams.

Meanwhile, the spring semester ended with record-setting GPAs for the Northern Illinois football, wrestling and women's track and field teams. The football team saw its collective grade point average rise for the sixth straight semester as they own a cumulative mark of 2.899, while wrestling's 2.945 cumulative GPA after a 3.007 semester represents a high-water mark for head coach Dave Grant's team. Women's track and field raised their cumulative GPA from a 2.699 mark a year ago to a 3.117.

Individually, 200 of NIU's 467 student-athletes currently have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better while 219 individuals surpassed the 3.0 mark for the spring term. Of those, 34 student-athletes turned in a perfect 4.0 GPA this spring while four - Kyle Knotek (Geneva, Ill./Geneva HS) of men's soccer, women's soccer player Annie Wyer (Geneva, Ill./Community HS), track and field student-athlete Kaylee Walters (Lafayette, Ind./Hononegah HS - Rockton, Ill.) and wrestling's Will McDermott (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein HS) - own a perfect cumulative GPA for their collegiate careers.

The current streak of 3.0 semesters is unprecedented in school history, said St. Clair, who leads the Huskies' Student-Athlete Academic Support Service unit.

"We are very proud of the job that our student-athletes have done in the classroom and are extremely pleased to continue our current string of consecutive semesters with a collective 3.0 grade point average," St. Clair said. "These results illustrate the continuing commitment by our students, our administration and our coaches to achieve academic success as we strive to help every Huskie student-athlete receive a degree from Northern Illinois University."

A current list of NIU's 3.0 student-athletes (cumulative) by sport follows. Note that this list is up-to-date as of May 22, 2008 and does not reflect any changes made after that time.

SPRING 2008 HUSKIE SCHOLAR-ATHLETES
(cumulative GPA above 3.0; 4.0 student-athletes indicated with a *)

Men's Soccer (12)
J.C. Aikenhead
Steven Algozino
Jeff Atkins
Brad Bahr
Luis De La Cerda
Engebreth Faerden
Brad Horton
Chris Johnson
Kyle Knotek *
Chris Rufa
Aaron Zendejas
Joe Zimka