Western student athletes, coaches, staff and faculty gathered in-person for the first time in three years on the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 1 to celebrate the 427 Mustangs who attained an 80 per cent or above academic average while representing the university on a varsity sport or varsity club team.
“Approximately 40 per cent of our student-athletes at Western achieved over an 80 per cent average while competing on a varsity team last year,” said Christine Stapleton, director of sports and recreation at Western.
“We have seen an increase of 11 per cent over the last nine years in the number of Mustangs who achieved scholar-athlete status, which we attribute to the amazing dedication of our student-athletes to their academic as well as their athletic pursuits.”
The Mustangs team with the largest number of scholar-athletes was the men’s rugby team with 26 members, followed by women’s swimming and women’s track and field with 20 scholar-athletes each.
The top three faculties at Western for the number of scholar-athletes include the Faculty of Social Science with 61 scholar-athletes, the Faculty of Science with 64 student-athletes and the Faculty of Health Sciences with 94 scholar-athletes.
“Our faculties, schools and affiliated university colleges are incredible partners with Sports & Recreation in the student-athlete journey,” said John Doerksen, vice-provost (students).
“Our student-athletes work hard, in their sport and in the classroom, and it is wonderful to see them recognized for this dedication.”
Scholar-athletes include U SPORTS Academic All Canadians, OUA (Ontario University Athletics) Achievement Award Winners and Western Mustangs scholar-athletes (athletes on teams that are not part of U SPORTS or the OUA).
Overall, Western is consistently ranked in the top two of Canadian universities for the number of Academic All-Canadians. For this year, of the 49 (of 56) schools who have submitted their results so far, Mustangs rank second.
