STUDENT FIRST ATHLETE SECOND

It was a record-setting year for Division II academics and CMU ranked near the top of the nation.

A total of 280 Mavericks earned Division II Athletics Directors Association (DII ADA) Academic Achievement Awards, the second-highest number in the nation and the highest in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) by a wide margin.

This achievement put CMU behind only Tiffin University, which had 300 honorees, and more than doubled the next-closest RMAC school, CSU Pueblo, which had 139. In total, over 22,700 student-athletes from 202 institutions were recognized, marking the first time the awards surpassed 20,000 nationally.

The DII ADA Academic Achievement Award is one of the most respected academic honors in DII athletics.

In order to qualify, student-athletes must hold a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher, have completed at least two years of college coursework and have been active members of their team during the most recent academic year. It’s a standard that reflects consistency rather than short bursts of success. It rewards athletes who sustain excellence both on the field and in the classroom.

This surge in numbers highlights the growing emphasis on education within DII, where programs promote the “student” half of student-athletes as much as they do the athletic side.

For CMU, the recognition wasn’t limited to a few teams.

Mavericks from all 21 DII championship sports earned honors, from high-profile programs like football and basketball to smaller, but equally demanding sports, like tennis, swimming and golf.

Across the board, CMU student-athletes proved that their commitment to both athletics and academics were in balance.

Balancing coursework and training doesn’t always come with a color-coded planner for junior cross country athlete Autumn McQuity. She admits that she often crams many of her assignments into one day or knocks them out on the bus.

“I definitely don’t have a set schedule all the time,” McQuity said. “A lot of times I’ll leave homework until Sunday or get it done on the bus while we’re traveling. But I always make sure that it gets done.”

Her athletic experience has also taught her valuable lessons that she can apply to her academics, including discipline and time management.

“Our coach is super strict about being on time, and little things like recovery and eating right,” she said. “Cross country made it to nationals and track has so many people in different events, so it’s awesome to see so many of us on the list.”

For her, the motivation to stay on top of her academics relates back to her ultimate pursuit.

“It’s about my future, for sure, but also about my team,” McQuity said. “We always set a goal to have a higher GPA than we did the semester before. That pushes me, and all of us, to do better.”

For junior wrestler Payton Wade, academics and athletics have always gone hand in hand. A mass communication major on the tail end of earning his degree, Wade said that wrestling has shaped his approach to school just as much as it has his time on the mat.

“When I first came to school, I was very go-with-the-flow,” Wade said. “In high school I didn’t really have to study much. But college is different. As an athlete, you’ve got practices, lifts, meetings, it’s a lot. Planning out my week really helps, whether it’s partners in the wrestling room, my diet or schoolwork. For student-athletes, school should come first.”

That mentality is a reflection of the values in CMU’s wrestling program, which posted the highest GPA among all DII wrestling teams last year.

“I think it shows a lot about our program,” Wade said. “There are almost 150 Division II wrestling programs out there, and for us to finish at the top in academics is huge. Our coach really drills us on that. Freshmen spend their whole first year in study hall, and anyone with under a 3.3 has to keep going. I think that proves how important academics is here.”

For Wade, the lessons from wrestling carry over into his academics.

“Wrestling is a very hard-nosed sport. Some days you get your butt kicked in the room and then you have a test the next morning,” Wade said. “But the mindset is the same: work hard and do your best in every area.”

He hopes that younger athletes see that balance as the standard.

“When you come into our program, you’re expected to be a student before you’re an athlete,” Wade said. “School always comes first. You can’t compete unless you get good grades.”

CMU’s 280 honorees put the institution in rare company, trailing only Tiffin nationwide and sitting far ahead of anybody else in the RMAC. It’s a number that reflects the kind of balance DII athletics prides itself on. The program strives to ensure that students are competing hard while taking care of business in the classroom.

Whether it’s McQuity getting through homework on a bus ride or Wade juggling weight cuts with essays, this award highlights a simple fact: nearly 300 Mavericks are excelling in every part of their college experience.

And for a program that prides itself on being competitive in everything that it does, this national recognition is proof that CMU is setting a standard that goes beyond the scoreboard.