The St. Mary’s College of Maryland women’s basketball team earned a special mention on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s 2025-26 Division III Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll, marking the fifth consecutive year the Seahawks have been recognized nationally for their classroom performance.
The WBCA announced the honor July 21, listing St. Mary’s College among the special mentions reserved for teams that posted at least a 3.0 combined team GPA and qualified for Top 25 consideration in their division without cracking the final ranked list. The Seahawks posted a 3.372 combined GPA across the full roster for the 2025-26 academic year. The Academic Top 25, now in its 31st year, evaluates every roster’s combined grade point average across NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA and two-year programs nationwide.
St. Mary’s College was one of five women’s basketball programs from the United East Conference to earn recognition this year, joining Cedar Crest College, Gallaudet University, Pennsylvania College of Technology and Penn State Harrisburg on the list — a showing that reflects the broader academic emphasis across the conference’s membership. The United East, which sponsors athletics for a mix of small liberal arts and technical colleges across the mid-Atlantic, has positioned academic achievement alongside athletic competition as a conference priority since its formation, and this year’s showing continued a pattern of multiple member schools appearing on national academic honor rolls across various sports.
The recognition capped a landmark season on the court as well. The Seahawks won their third conference regular-season championship in program history and second in a row, and captured their third tournament title overall and first since the 1998-99 season, when the team won back-to-back Capital Athletic Conference crowns. St. Mary’s beat Penn State Abington 73-47 in this year’s United East tournament championship game, with senior guard Sam Blaylock scoring a game-high 32 points and earning tournament MVP honors, while sophomore Keira Mason added 20 points in the win.
The tournament title sent St. Mary’s College to its third-ever appearance in the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament. The Seahawks finished the season 23-6 overall, matching the program’s single-season win total from 1999-2000, when the team went 23-4.
The team’s five-year streak of WBCA academic recognition reflects a consistency St. Mary’s College has maintained even as the program has undergone significant change on the court, transitioning from the Capital Athletic Conference into the United East Conference in recent years and building toward this season’s championship run. Combining strong classroom performance with postseason success is relatively uncommon nationally, particularly at the Division III level, where student-athletes do not receive athletic scholarships and must balance a full academic course load with training and competition schedules similar to those at higher divisions.
The women’s basketball team’s success was part of a broader banner year for St. Mary’s College athletics. The Seahawks captured 13 conference championships across their sports programs during the 2025-26 season, with every eligible program advancing to postseason play for a second consecutive year — building on three straight United East Conference Presidents’ Cup titles the college won from 2022-23 through 2024-25 under then-Athletic Director Crystal Gibson, who left the college in the spring to take an athletics leadership role at Widener University. Volleyball also won its first conference championship in program history during the 2025-26 season, while women’s cross country captured its fifth consecutive conference title, underscoring the depth of the athletic department’s success across multiple sports beyond basketball.
The WBCA, founded in 1981, serves as the professional association for coaches of women’s and girls’ basketball at every level of competition, offering educational resources, professional development and networking opportunities for coaches while recognizing standout programs and individuals across the sport each year. More information about the association and its recognition programs is available at WBCA.org.
