Grad rate for 2000-01 freshman class at 75 percent

The University of Tennessee men's and women's athletic departments announced Wednesday a graduation success rate of 75 percent for student-athletes who entered the university during the 2000-01 school year.

In 2005, the NCAA rolled out a new graduation success rate calculation to measure the academic success of student-athletes at NCAA member institutions. The graduation success rate for University of Tennessee student-athletes in the 1996-99 cohorts, which was released last year, was 73 percent.

The GSR allows institutions to add transfer students on scholarship that fit into the 2000-01 freshmen class and delete those students who choose to leave and are academically eligible according to Progress toward Degree Requirements.

UT also announced the student-athlete federal gradation rate for the 2000-01 freshman class was 52 percent and the student-athlete federal graduation rate for the four-year average was 57 percent.

UT already had an internal system in place to measure the academic success rate of its student-athletes. The success rate is similar to the GSR, but does not take out students based on transfer. Rather it looks at all scholarship student-athletes in the 2000-01 freshmen class and then calculates the rate based on their eligibility to be a student at the University of Tennessee. Instead of removing students from the calculation based on leaving the university, which would include athletes who leave to pursue professional careers or transfer to another college or university, it simply looks at the percent of students who were eligible to be students at the University of Tennessee. The academic success rate for this group was 93.4 percent, meaning 93.4 percent of the 2000-01 freshmen scholarship student-athletes were eligible to return to the university and complete their degrees.

"I am pleased with the success our students have in the classroom," said Eric Brey, director of the Thornton Center. "The new graduation success rate is a better indicator than the federal rate of the academic success our students have. The Thornton Center staff works hard to help our students move toward graduation."

Women's Golf: The No. 12 Lady Vols golf team moved into third place at 3-over-par 579 after the second round of the Las Vegas Showdown. Tennessee shot 297 and is nine strokes out of first.

"We did not follow up our great performance yesterday the way we wanted to," Lady Vols coach Judi Pavon said. "We are a very good team and just learning how to be at the top of the leaderboard. We are looking forward to tomorrow's round and have a chance to win the tournament."

UT's Marci Turner birdied three of the last five holes to finish at even-par 72 and is tied for second at 139, three shots behind Denver's Katie Kempter.

Angela Oh made four birdies but finished at 74 and tied for eighth at 144. Diana Cantu (76) is tied for 25th at 148. Nicole Smith (75) moved up to 37th from 41st and is tied with Rebecca Watson (75) at 150.

Men's Golf: The UT men's golf team finished in fifth place at the Callaway Golf Collegiate Match Play Championships after defeating Georgia 4-1 in the winners consolation B final at Reynolds Plantation Country Club in Greensboro, Ga.

UCLA defeated Georgia Tech 4-1 to win the team competition.

UT senior Philip Pettitt defeated Georgia's Adam Mitchell 2 and 1 to start the day. Pettitt and Mitchell were all-square for much of the match before Pettitt jumped ahead on the final six holes.

Junior Chris Paisley helped the Vols extend their lead, defeating Harris English 4 and 3. David Holmes secured a Tennessee victory with a dominating win over Rob Bennent, 6 and 5.

UT freshman Robin Wingardh defeated Hudson Swafford 4 and 2. Brian Harman defeated UT's Charlie Ford 1-up for Georgia's lone win.

Women's Swimming: Lady Vols senior Christine Magnuson has been named SEC Female Swimmer of the Week.

Magnuson won the 100-yard freestyle (50.64 seconds), 100 butterfly (54.53) and 200 butterfly (2:00.63) as UT defeated Kentucky and South Carolina on Friday in a double dual meet at UT.