Oct. 20, 2006

VILLANOVA, Pa. - The Office of Academic Support for Athletics announced the winners for the 2005-06 academic awards today. The women's cross country team was honored with the Nnenna Lynch Award for the highest team GPA and the men's tennis team received the Daniel T. Regan Award for the most improved team GPA.

The Nnenna Lynch Award will be presented as part of Homecoming Weekend festivities at the Villanova football game against Towson on Saturday afternoon. Kickoff for the game will be at 3 p.m. from Villanova Stadium.

For the 2005-06 academic year, the 12 members of the women's cross country team registered a cumulative GPA of 3.497. The team now wins the Nnenna Lynch Award for the third time, adding to the back-to-back awards they received in 2003 and 2004.

Both the men's and women's tennis teams had strong showings in the classroom as well. The men's tennis team won the Daniel T. Regan Award for the second time in the seven years that the award has been presented. In addition, the women's tennis team had a cumulative GPA of 3.384 and finished second to the women's cross country team.

The women's cross country team is a fitting recipient of the Nnenna Lynch Award, which is named for one of the team's former standouts. Nnenna Lynch was the Wildcats first Rhodes Scholar and was named the 1993 NCAA Woman of the Year. Villanova won NCAA titles in each of Lynch's four years on the team (1989-92), while Lynch was the 1990 BIG EAST champion.

The Daniel T. Regan Award is presented in honor of Villanova's faculty athletic representative. Other winners of the award in addition to the men's tennis team include men's soccer (2001), men's basketball (2002), women's swimming (2003), women's basketball (2004) and golf (2005).