By: Jamal Smith
Sports Editor

The Western athletes of the 2015-16 school year have had a historically successful year, and for the first time in the school’s history, the men took home the GNAC Men’s All-Sport Championship. The honor is awarded at the end of each year to a school in the conference that demonstrates excellence throughout all three athletic seasons.

With a combined score of 92 points, the Wolves beat out Western Washington University, a team who won the prestigious award the last seven consecutive years. Western Washington tied with the University of Anchorage Alaska for second place, and each school had a combined total of 79 points.

The success of the men’s basketball team was just one of the reasons the Wolves took home the Men’s All-Sport Championship. After claiming the GNAC title, the Wolves surged into the NCAA Division II Playoffs and advanced all the way to the Final Four, just one benchmark the Wolves set in their historic season. Senior forward Andy Avgi was awarded the GNAC Player of the Year award, and head coach Jim Shaw was awarded the GNAC Coach of the Year award in his inaugural season at the helm.

Western’s football team defied the expectations placed on them before the start of the season and finished second place in the GNAC. The football team had an opportunity to take home the conference title on the last game of the season against Humboldt State University, but ultimately fell short in the second half of the matchup.

The men’s indoor track and field team also placed second in the conference, and the men’s outdoor track and field team finished in third place. A week before the GNAC Indoor Championships, sophomore Kaleb Dobson broke the school record in the 60-meter hurdles with a blistering time of 8.30 seconds. In the same meet, sophomore David Ribich also bested the school record in the 400-meter with a time of 4:07.38.

The men’s baseball team finished the season in third place behind Northwest Nazarene University and Montana State University of Billings. Senior catcher/first baseman Trevor Podratz was awarded the ABCA/Rawlings First Team All-West Region award and the GNAC Newcomer of the Year award. Podratz led the Wolves in batting average, slugging percentage, on base percentage, hits, runs batted in, and doubles.

Although Western only took home one conference title, the combined effort of all of the teams proved that Western is dedicated to success in their athletic program. Hopefully the Wolves can keep the momentum heading into next year, and this award is the first of many GNAC All-Sport Championships.

Contact the author at jsmith15@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalsportWOU