CLEVELAND – The Western Michigan University men's athletic program has received the 2022-23 Mid-American Conference Men's Faculty Representative (FAR) Academic Achievement Award, the conference has announced on Wednesday.

The FAR awards are designed to recognize the conference institutions with the overall highest grade-point average (GPA) and Academic Progress Rate (APR) rank by gender.

"It is an honor to be recognized by the Mid-American Conference FARs as the recipient of the Men's Sport Academic Award," said WMU Director of Athletics, Dan Bartholomae. "This award is a reflection of the hard work of our own FAR – Dr. Luchara Wallace – as well as our dedicated academic services team that create an unmatched support system for our student-athletes. This award is particularly meaningful because it represents not only academic excellence across all 16 of our sports, but also factors in the retention and graduation of our student-athletes at Western Michigan.  We have set aspirational goals in these areas, and of course our student-athletes and programs rise to the occasion."

This is the ninth time the men's program has received the award, more any other program in the conference. Only Toledo comes closest with four.

Three of WMU's men's programs posted the highest GPA in their sport in the conference for the 2022-23 season. Bronco Baseball came in at 3.607, Men's Soccer at 3.559 and Men's Tennis at 3.816. Both the tennis and baseball programs also had APR rates of 1000.