ATLANTA, Ga. (July 23, 2019) – For the seventh time in school history and the fourth time under now-retired head coach Joe Legerski, the Cowgirl basketball team earned a spot among Division I institutions on the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll, it was announced on Tuesday.
 
The Cowgirls rank sixth with a team GPA of 3.688, and are the only Mountain West team on the list. The No. 6 ranking is the second-highest in program history, after owning the top GPA in 2002.
 
The Cowgirls recently had nine student-athletes earn Academic All-Mountain West honors, including five repeat selections from a year ago. Wyoming finished the year with a 25-9 record, and the 25 victories are tied for the second-most in program history. Additionally, the team reached the quarterfinals of the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) for the second time in school history and won a school-record-tying 13 league games.
 
Bailee Cotton was named the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year and was a part of the all-defensive and all-MW teams. Marta Gomez finished as the NCAA leader in three-point field goal percentage on her way to all-MW honors. Karla Erjavec earned a spot on the all-freshman team and set a Cowgirl freshman record with 124 assists on the year.
 
The WBCA Academic Top 25 recognizes NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA and two-year GPAs inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2018-19 season is the 24th in which the WBCA has compiled the honor rolls.
 
Western Illinois, coached by JD Gravina, finished first among NCAA Division I members with a 3.767 cumulative team grade-point average. Tiffin, coached by Jessie Ivey, led NCAA Division II members with a 3.809 GPA. Shenandoah, coached by Melissa Smeltzer-Kraft, took top honors in NCAA Division III with a 3.764 GPA. Indiana Tech, coached by Jessie Biggs, was No. 1 in the NAIA division with a 3.817 GPA. And Snow, coached by Mike Russell, led all two-year college members with a 3.712 GPA.
 
A team's GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of quality points (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0) earned by the total number of academic hours attempted by all team members in the academic terms (semesters or quarters) that the season spans. Weighted grades are converted to a 4.0 scale. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by the WBCA-member head coach. A team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.
 
Founded in 1981, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association is the professional association for coaches of women's and girls' basketball at all levels of competition. The WBCA offers educational resources that coaches need to help make themselves better leaders, teachers and mentors to their players; provides opportunities for coaches to connect with peers in the profession; serves as the unifying voice of a diverse community of coaches to those organizations that control the game; and celebrates those coaches, players and other individuals who excel each year and contribute to the advancement of the sport. Visit www.WBCA.org for more details about the Association.