IRVINE, Calif. – Dominican athletics continued its reign in over a decade of dominance as the top academic program in the Pacific West Conference after earning the 2021-22 Academic Achievement Award on Wednesday.
"Congratulation once again to all our student-athletes," Dominican athletic director
Amy Henkelman said. "We have made academics a point of emphasis in every program of our department and everyone has bought into the goal of winning this award annually. As always we have to thank our [Faculty Athletic Representative]
Dr. Christopher Leeds. Also I want to recognize our new assistant athletic director,
Samuel Vogel-Seidenberg, who took over in working with Dr. Leeds this season and helped make adjustments to our internal academic programs that helped continue our success."
The Penguins have now won 11 PacWest Academic Achievement Awards, never finishing below second in the program's history as a member of the conference. This season Dominican finished with a program wide GPA of 3.505 to top Point Loma Nazarene University who finished with a 3.43 GPA. Chaminade finished third with a GPA of 3.42, beating out Azusa Pacific (3.354) and Biola (3.352) for a top-3 finish and setting a new program record.
Holy Names (3.28) and the University of Hawaii at Hilo (3.20) joined the Silverswords in setting program records while the conference as a whole finished with a 3.30 GPA.
"A streak of three-consecutive years with a 3.30 GPA or better for the entire conference is something for us to be very proud of as we continue building a tradition of academic excellence for our student-athletes," Commissioner Bob Hogue said. "Congratulations to Dominican on a historic 11th Academic Achievement Award and all our student-athletes on a job well done!"
