NCAA Division II Pacific West Conference student athletes recorded an overall grade point average of 3.34, the highest in the 16-year history of the PacWest Academic Achievement Award — with UH-Hilo also recording its own highest average GPA since joining the PacWest, 3.246.
Additionally, Point Loma Nazarene University broke a string of Dominican University victories by claiming the 2022-23 title with a sizzling GPA of 3.55 —the second highest total in the history of the award.
Overall, four schools posted GPA’s that made the all-time Top Ten list. In addition to Point Loma (second), Dominican’s 3.482 ranks fifth, HPU’s 3.467 is ninth and Biola’s 3.452 is 10th.
Point Loma won its second Academic Achievement Award, the other coming in 2020.
Dominican has won five of the last seven, including in 2021 and 2022. Penguin student-athletes have won 11 of the 16 Academic Achievement titles since the award was created in 2008.
“Congratulations to Point Loma for winning this year’s Academic Achievement Award with the second-highest GPA in conference history,” said retiring PacWest Commissioner Bob Hogue. “I couldn’t be more proud, that in this year in which I retire, our PacWest student-athletes as a whole have recorded the highest overall GPA in conference history.
“I can’t thank the student-athletes, coaches, administrators and executives enough for the tremendous academic environments they have created — this is a record-setting year in the PacWest classrooms to remember for all time. Keep it up.”
This is the fourth consecutive year that the total GPA of the conference is 3.3 or better.
In addition to UH-Hilo, five other schools had their highest athletic GPA since joining the PacWest, including aforementioned Point Loma, HPU, Biola and Fresno Pacific (3.243). Six of the 11 athletic programs improved from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
PacWest GPA Rankings
(1) Point Loma – 3.55
(2) Dominican – 3.482
(3) HPU – 3.467
(4) Biola – 3.452
(5) Chaminade – 3.365
(6) Azusa Pacific – 3.322
(7) Concordia University Irvine – 3.267
(8) Holy Names – 3.261
(9) UH-Hilo – 3.246
(10) Fresno Pacific – 3.243
(11) Academy of Art – 3.082