Athletics prides itself not only on its success on the field, but its success in the classroom, and the cross country team exemplifies that success.

In June, the NCAA ranked the cross country team’s academic progress rate among the top 10 percent of similar teams in the nation. High grade point averages and outstanding work in the classroom contributed to the Public Recognition Award distributed in the summer.

The team became the 10th Huskie team of all-time to receive the award. The academic progress rate looks at each athlete on a scholarship who is participating on any Div. I program around the nation. It then bases a team’s academic success on three components: eligibility, graduation and retention.

The ladies are back in the classroom and head coach Greg Hipp feels another recognition for his team’s stellar grades could be possible at season’s end.

“We have a group that I really think understands where their priorities need to be both in the classroom and on the practice field,” Hipp said. “Of course we want to run well all season, but there are more goals we are trying to achieve during the 2013 season than just that. We certainly feel we can have one of the best grade point average in the country this year [for a cross country team], and as long as we balance our priorities right I am confident that we can do that.”

The third-year head coach added how serious the team seems to be about academics.

“The ladies really understand they want to go above the average in the classroom, and take a lot of pride in being so exceptional in the lecture halls, trainings, exercises and meets,” Hipp said.

Juliane Totzke, who was born and raised in Germany, is entering her second year of running with NIU and loves how hard the team works to achieve high GPA’s. Totzke has been applauded by Hipp as a possible big contributor on the roster this season. She seems to have an idea on how important academics really are, and knows her teammates have the same knowledge.

“We are a really smart group of girls,” Totzke said. “It is nice to be around this group because I feel they know their priorities and are really intelligent when it comes to their class work. I want to not only be remembered for my running, but for my academics, as well. That is the mentality that I like to go into the season with.”

A possibility of winning back-to-back awards is something Totzke and the team are working toward.

“That is certainly something that is in the back of our mind,” Totzke said. “We would love to achieve the same thing again this year, but those type of things are hard to predict, we have it as one of our goals to reach this season so we will see.”