Beacons Lead Conference with 11 Scholar Teams

August 4, 2008

EUGENE, Ore.  – Northwest Christian University was honored by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics last week with the awarding of NAIA Scholar Team recognition to eleven teams. The Beacons garnered nearly 1/4^th of the total scholar team awards given to teams in the Cascade Collegiate Conference and led all schools with eleven teams honored. Only Oregon Tech and Concordia Portland were within striking distance within striking distance, grabbing ten and nine honors respectively.

Four Northwest Christian teams led their sport in GPA for the conference. Additionally, the NCU women’s cross country and distance track teams took a three-way tie for the best GPA in the conference, at 3.60. The Cascade College women’s cross country team also earned a 3.60 team GPA.

To be recognized for scholarly excellence by the NAIA, teams must achieve a 3.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) during the academic year. The following teams were recognized from Northwest Christian University:

Sport                                     GPA    Head Coach

Men’s Basketball                     3.00     Dave Lipp

Women’s Basketball                3.07     Liz Turner-Bolton

Men’s Cross Country               3.10     Heike McNeil

Women’s Cross Country          3.60     Heike McNeil

Men’s Golf                              3.08     Tommy Limbach

Women’s Golf                         3.35     Tony Joyner

Women’s Soccer                     3.28     Vern Stewart

Softball                                   3.26     Tim Hood

Men’s Track                            3.16     Heike McNeil

Women’s Track                       3.60     Heike McNeil

Volleyball                                3.13     Dale Weigandt