Thirty-Two Utah Student-Athletes Earn 1A FAR Academic Excellence Awards

SALT LAKE CITY – University of Utah student-athletes earn their degrees at rates that rank among the highest in the nation, and a significant number of those graduates do so carrying grade-point averages of 3.80 or higher, as highlighted in this week’s release of the 2023 1A FAR Academic Excellence Awards.
 
A total of 32 former Utah student-athletes were included in the recognition, which comes on the heels of the NCAA’s release last month of the 2023 Graduation Success Rate (GSR), in which Utah recorded a score of 94 percent, tying for fourth among all power five public institutions and ranking second-highest in school history.

The 1A Faculty Athletics Representatives (1A FAR) is an organization of faculty athletics representatives at NCAA Division I institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division 1A. The mission of the 1A Faculty Athletics Representatives is to advocate for effective interaction and academic and fiscal balance between an institution’s academic mission and its intercollegiate program.

 

The 32 former Utah student-athletes recognized include a high of nine from Kyle Kepler‘s women’s cross country and track & field program. The program earned significant distinction earlier this week when the women’s cross country team posted the highest Fall 2023 grade-point average among all Utah Athletics programs, at 3.861. The Utes earned a 13th-place finish at the 2023 NCAA Championships, second-highest in school history.

 

The next-highest total among Utah’s athletics programs includes five from the women’s soccer program and four women’s skiers from the four-time defending NCAA champion Utah skiing program.

 

The complete list of Utah recipients can be found below.

 

Utah Athletics Graduates Earning 2023 1A FAR Academic Excellence Awards