CLEVELAND – For the first time in the history of Western Michigan Athletics, the women's programs have been named the winner of the Mid-American Conference Women's Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) Academic Achievement Award.

The FAR Awards are designed to recognize the Conference institution with the highest overall combination of both grade point average (GPA) and Academic Progress Rate (APR) rank by gender.  The GPA was based upon the 2022-23 academic year. The Broncos swept the awards this season, with the men's athletic programs also earning the honors.
 
The Conference FAR's worked with the Athletic Academic Advisors to compute an award that best represents the academic achievement of student-athletes in a competitive setting.  The FAR Awards are given to those institutions male and female programs with the highest overall combination of GPA and APR within the Conference.  Only MAC sponsored sports are used.

"We are thrilled to have swept the Mid-American Conference FAR Sport Awards for 2022-23, having won the Women's Sport FAR Award for the first time in our history," said Western Michigan Vice President / Director of Athletics Dan Bartholomae. "This award is a testament to the student-athlete experience at WMU.  To have won 5 conference championships, led the MAC in community engagement and now to be recognized as the conference leaders in academics, student-athlete retention and graduation is an amazing accomplishment. This is an exceptional team effort that is led by our student-athletes, and supported by our coaches, academic services staff, and our entire department.  It's a great day to be a Bronco!"

Every single women's program had a cumulative GPA of at least 3.30. The golf team (3.813), gymnastics (3.755) and women's tennis (3.888) were the top of their respective sports. The gymnastics team also boasted the seventh-highest GPA in the nation. Eight of the nine teams also earned a perfect APR score of 1,000.