McGill athletes ranked second in CIS academic prowess

McGill University ranked second in the nation for academic prowess among its intercollegiate sports programs in the 2006-07 school year. The Department of Athletics produced 121 student-athletes who earned Academic All-Canadian status under Canadian Interuniversity Sport guidelines.

It marked the eighth straight year that McGill had gone over the century mark and the figure accounted for 34.2 per cent of McGill's 354 student-athletes who competed in CIS-sanctioned sports.

In order to qualify, a student-athlete must be full-time and have achieved a minimum of 80% in their studies while using a year of athletic eligibility in a CIS sport.

In the 17 years since the program was initiated, dating back to 1990-91, McGill leads all CIS universities with 1,526 Academic All-Canadians, edging out Alberta (1,477), followed by Queen's (1,236), Calgary (1,153), Western (1,073) and Waterloo (1,058). McGill also owns three of the top four CIS single-season results, with 148 honorees in 2006, 144 in 2005 and 144 in 2002.

Laval led all universities last year with a CIS record 156 students who qualified, followed by McGill (121), Queen's (119), Alberta (102) and Waterloo (98) to round out the top five. Over the school year, 51 CIS member institutions combined for a total of 2,040 Academic All-Canadians.

The Redmen hockey squad proved to be the smartest of all McGill teams with 16 honorees, followed by women's swimming (11), plus men's soccer and women's rugby (10 each). The football team was next, tied for the fourth highest total with the men's track and volleyball squads (9 each).

Rounding out the list was women's track (8), plus women's field hockey and soccer and men's swimming (all with 7 apiece), women's hockey and basketball (6 each), men's volleyball (4), men's basketball and women's wrestling (1 apiece).

The list, which was composed of 62 women and 59 men, featured a geographical breakdown by residence of 96 Canadians and 18 Americans, plus one apiece from France, Germany, Nigeria, Serbia, Trinidad & Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

The distribution by province had 54 from Quebec, followed by Ontario (26), Alberta (11), British Columbia (4) and Nova Scotia (1).

In terms of academic discipline, science led all McGill faculties with 38 honorees, followed by arts (23), education (19), management (18), engineering (10), arts & science (6), medicine (3) and social work (2), plus agriculture and music (1 each).

The breakdown by class was 25 freshmen, 34 sophomores, 35 juniors and 27 seniors (including post-graduate students).