NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – They're students first and foremost.
That commitment to academic excellence was on full display throughout the 2025-26 academic year as Merrimack College student-athletes surpassed a 3.5 collective GPA for the academic year, posting a 3.56 GPA in the Fall 2025 semester before following with a 3.506 GPA in the Spring 2026 semester. Also in the spring, approximately 450 student-athletes earned a spot on either the President's List or Dean's List while 146 student-athletes recorded a 4.0 GPA.
"I'm incredibly proud of how our student-athletes performed in the classroom this past year," Merrimack athletic director Joe Foley said. "Balancing the demands of Division I athletics with the rigors of academics is no easy task, especially with the time spent training, competing, and traveling. The academic success of our student-athletes is a testament to their dedication, discipline, and commitment to excellence both in the classroom and in competition."
The academic accomplishments extended well beyond Merrimack's campus, too, as 335 Warriors were recognized on the Metro Conference Academic Honor Roll. To earn the conference distinction, student-athletes were required to achieve a GPA of 3.2 or higher.
The men's golf team had all nine of its golfers honored by the conference, the lone team with 100 percent recognition. Not far behind was the women's rowing team, which had 96 percent of its student-athletes (23 of 24) recognized by the conference, while the women's basketball team had 14 of its 15 student-athletes awarded. The men's tennis team, which won the LEAD Award at Merrimack College as the "Men's Academic Team of the Year," recorded a 3.85 cumulative GPA and had seven of its eight student-athletes recognized by the conference. Other programs with more than 80 percent of their roster recognized by the Metro Conference included the women's bowling team, men's soccer team, women's soccer team and women's lacrosse team. The women's cross country team, which compiled a 3.83 GPA during the academic year, was named the "Women's Academic Team of the Year" during the LEAD Awards at Merrimack College.
The hockey programs represented Merrimack equally well. The women's hockey team, which recorded a 3.793 GPA in the spring semester, had 96 percent of its roster (25 of 26 players) awarded Hockey East All-Academic honors. The men's hockey team, in the midst of a second-half turnaround and the program's first-ever Hockey East Championship, had 93 percent of its roster recognized by the conference after 25 of 27 student-athletes registered a 3.0 GPA or better.
"To do that through the times we were traveling, the distractions we were having, the things that were going on in our lives, it was pretty impressive," men's hockey coach Scott Borek said while citing the team's 3.7 GPA during the spring semester with 16 players on the President's List.
Those conference honors were complemented by regional and national recognition.
In addition to having 28 student-athletes named to the Metro Conference Academic Honor Roll, the women's lacrosse team had 10 players – Lindsay Atkinson, Grace Boneu, Abbey Burchfield, Kristina Castella, Sydney Cogliano, Mia Juvelier, Allison Lamphere, Dylan Lee, Casey Mitchell and Kaitlin Roche – earn a spot on the 2025-26 IWLCA Division I Academic Honor Roll. The prestigious honor recognizes junior, senior and graduate student-athletes who achieved a GPA of 3.5 or higher. The Warriors recorded a team GPA of 3.53 during the spring semester with 14 players eclipsing a 3.75 GPA.
The men's basketball team, which had nine of its 15 players earn recognition from the conference, was honored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) for posting a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. Additionally, six Warriors – Aliou Cisse, Andres Marrero, Ernest Shelton, KC Ugwuakazi, Malik Edmead and Todd Brogna – were recognized as part of the NABC's academic honorees.
The men's lacrosse team had 35 student-athletes named to the Metro Conference All-Academic team while the men's track and field/cross country team had 31, baseball team had 20, softball team had 19, women's swimming team had 17, women's volleyball team had 14 and both women's golf team and women's tennis team had six.
Additionally, the field hockey team earned a 3.51 GPA during the spring semester while the football team recorded a 3.201 GPA behind 19 players who were named to the President's List.
Many of the student-athletes who excelled during the previous academic year will step back on the field this fall. What's not to be forgotten, though, is that they'll also return to the classroom.
