Kent State scores highly in annual NCAA APR report

Josh Johnson

None of Kent State’s 18 athletic teams will receive penalties from the NCAA this year, according to the Academic Progress Rate Public Report released last week.

A year after the NCAA docked five scholarships from the football team for a subpar score in the annual report, all of Kent State’s teams scored above the 925-point watermark. The women’s cross country team earned a perfect 1,000 in the report, which bases scores off eligibility, retention and graduation rates through a four-year period.

Six Kent State teams ranked in the top 30 percent nationally for their sports. In addition to women’s cross country, men’s cross country, baseball, women’s golf, soccer and gymnastics all scored above 985.

Within the Mid-American Conference, Toledo’s and Ball State’s men’s basketball teams received penalties. Nationally, USC made headlines after the NCAA handed down sanctions banning the Trojans from the postseason in both football (two years) and men’s basketball (one year).

Stutzman leaves Kent State

Women’s basketball player Jena Stutzman won’t be suiting up in a Kent State uniform this winter. After playing the last two seasons at Kent State, the junior guard will transfer to Ashland in the fall, according to a press release by the Ashland Athletic Department.

Known for her impressive 3-point shooting ability, Stutzman averaged 7.6 points in 60 games at Kent State in her two years. The 5-foot-8 guard finished fourth in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage her freshman year.

Other sports news:

• Sophomore Diana Dumitrescu earned United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Outdoor All-America honors by taking sixth in the heptathlon Thursday, June 10 at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

• The Flashes’ wrestling team followed that up with two more All-Americans in 2010 as senior Danny Mitcheff (133 pounds) and sophomore Dustin Kilgore (184 pounds) finished sixth and seventh, respectively on Thursday, June 10 in Omaha, Neb. Their performances gave the Golden Flashes four All-Americans in a two-year span for the first time in the 81-year history of the program.

• Kent State junior women’s golfer Martina Gavier was named to the 2010 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Women’s At-Large Third Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America on Thursday, June 10.

• Kent State junior John Hahn has been named to the PING Honorable Mention All-America team by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA). It’s the second consecutive year Hahn has achieved All-American status as be becomes just the sixth two-time selection in school history.

• Junior right hander Brett Weibley was selected with the 15th pick in the 19th round (586th overall) on June 8 by Texas in the 2010 Major League Baseball draft. Despite being the 71st Kent State player to be drafted, it is only the third time ever a Flash was chosen by the Rangers.

Contact sports editor Josh Johnston at [email protected].

Copy desk chief Jeremy Nobile contributed to this report.