NATCHITOCHES – A trio of Northwestern State programs produced perfect single-year NCAA Academic Progress Rate scores as released by the national governing body Tuesday.
 
Tennis and both men's and women's cross country each hit the perfect mark of 1,000 in the APR report, which provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility and retention and provides a measure of each Division I team's performance compared to its peers.
 
"We remain extremely proud of how our student-athletes exemplify both parts of that term," Director of Athletics Kevin Bostian said. "The work put in by our student-athletes and the support provided by our student-athlete development staff are evident by the APR numbers. The continued success of our tennis program has been remarkable. Just as impressive has been the multi-year improvements in the APR marks from our women's track and field program, which has been equally as dominant away from the competitive arena as it has been during its three-season run as conference indoor champions."
 
In addition to the three perfect scores, both Northwestern's women's track and field team vaulted to a 990 mark, an increase of 19 points from the prior APR cycle.
 
Joining them in seeing double-digit increases in their APR scores were baseball (plus-22 to a 973) and women's basketball (plus-19 to a 957).
 
By virtue of extending its streak of perfect APR scores, tennis remains perfect in the multi-year rate, which covers team scores across a four-year period. In addition to tennis, volleyball is above a 980 in the multi-year rate, tallying a 984 mark.
 
Other teams at or above a 975 multi-year rate are soccer (977) and men's cross country (975).