CHARLOTTE – Just over a week after earning Academic All-MACJC honors, six Northwest athletic programs have earned academic team honors by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), the organization announced on Thursday morning.

Softball posted the highest grade point average of any Northwest team, finishing the 2019-20 academic year with a cumulative 3.53 GPA. Women's soccer was close behind with a 3.5 GPA, followed by the Lady Rangers' basketball squad (3.48), Ranger baseball club (3.41), football (3.02) and men's basketball (3.01).

Although neither team took home the outright title of NJCAA Academic Team of the Year, football was one of only three teams nationally to finish with a 3.0 GPA or higher, finishing second behind East Mississippi (3.05) and ahead of Mississippi Gulf Coast (3.0).

Northwest women's basketball was named MACJC Academic Team of the Year last week for the second consecutive season and finished 16th out of 105 teams on the national scale. The Lady Rangers were also one of only seven Region 23 teams to earn national recognition.

Finishing with a 3.53 GPA, the Northwest softball program ranked 28th nationally out of 182 softball programs and was one of 15 Region 23 teams selected. The Northwest baseball program finished 19th out of 134 teams on the national scale with its 3.41 GPA and fifth out of 14 other Region 23 programs.

With its 3.5 team GPA, the Northwest Lady Rangers' soccer squad finished among the top 20 nationally and was one of 10 other Region 23 soccer programs to garner national recognition. The Ranger men's basketball team was also one of only four Region 23 teams to finish with a 3.0 GPA or better on a national scale.

Individual NJCAA All-Academic honors will be named at a later date. The Rangers had a school-record 87 student-athletes earn Academic All-MACJC honors earlier this month.