JMU Athletics Earns Academic Recognition at Sun Belt Honors Banquet

HARRISONBURG, Va. – During the Sun Belt Conference's fall meetings in Atlanta, the league hosted its annual honors banquet on Wednesday to recognize its top award winners from the 2021-2022 academic year.

The league included the four new institutions that joined on July 1, 2022 in some categories with James Madison claiming three honors. JMU earned top honors with the Student-Athlete Graduation Rate Award for the highest student-athlete graduation rate among Sun Belt schools and also claimed the Institutional Graduation Rate Award for the highest graduation rate among the entire student body at the university. Additionally, JMU was one of several institutions to receive a Graduation Achievement Award for its student-athletes exceeding the graduation rate of the university's overall student body.

"It was a great night to celebrate the best of the best in our league, and we appreciate the Sun Belt including JMU in these awards," JMU Director of Athletics Jeff Bourne said. "James Madison places a high emphasis on academic rigor and achievement, so these awards are highly valued as reflective of our mission. Congratulations go to our student-athletes, our student-athlete services staff under Senior Associate A.D. Jenn Phillips and to Dr. Roger Soenksen, our faculty athletics representative. I'd also like to thank President Jonathan Alger for the university's support and leadership in these efforts."

A total of 121 JMU student-athletes graduated across the fall, spring and summer graduations during the 2021-2022 academic year. Over 450 student-athletes combined to post a 3.076 cumulative grade point average. The department met the NCAA's academic progress rate qualifying standard with a 990 single-year APR score, including 11 of 17 programs posting a perfect 1,000. Six programs posted an all-time best multi-year APR score. A total of 71 student-athletes earned JMU President's List honors with another 195 claiming Dean's List recognition. Six Dukes earned CoSIDA Academic All-District laurels to go along with six claiming VaSID Academic All-State awards.

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