The University of Montana men’s and women’s cross country squads were both honored recently as U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic teams. The be eligible for the annual award, teams need to compete at their NCAA regional meet in the fall and have a cumulative team grade point average of at least 3.00 following the fall semester.

The Montana men finished the fall semester with a cumulative GPA of 3.27, the second-highest mark in the department. Their term GPA for the fall semester was 3.31.

Of the 13 members on the men’s team, nine had fall semester GPAs of at least 3.00 and six made the Dean’s List.

The UM women have a cumulative team GPA of 3.25. They had a 3.23 GPA for the fall semester.

Nine of the 12 athletes on the women’s team had a fall semester GPA of at least 3.00 and three made the Dean’s List.

“Obviously they are student-athletes, with the ‘student’ coming first,” UM cross country coach Courtney Babcock said, “so their academics are something that we really try to stay on top of.

“The women’s team has perennially done pretty well, whereas the men’s team has really stepped it up recently. It helped that we had a couple of guys come in that are really strong academically, but the guys that were already here really brought their grades up. They’ve really done a good job of holding themselves accountable.

“The men’s team went from having one of the lowest team GPAs to now having the second-highest of all the men’s and women’s teams in the department. It’s really nice to see their hard work not only paying off with better grades but also getting recognized at the national level.”

There were 176 Division I women’s teams that made the list, led by the USTFCCCA Scholar Team of the Year, Villanova, which has a 3.38 team GPA and won the 2009 NCAA championship.

Oklahoma State, which won the 2009 NCAA championship and has a 3.06 team GPA, was the USTFCCCA’s men’s Scholar Team of the Year. One hundred thirty five men’s teams were recognized.