Western Kentucky’s sport programs posted strong marks again this year in the NCAA’s four-year Annual Progress Rate, which was released through the 2015-16 academic year Wednesday by the organization.

The APR tracks the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team’s academic performance. This year, the APR score was a multi-year average of the 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 academic years. 

Every WKU program exceeded the NCAA’s mandated 930 minimum by at least 14 points, with nine programs out of 14 posting marks of 980 or higher, up from the 975 threshold at this time a year ago. WKU is one of nine Conference USA member institutions to have all programs at 944 or higher in the 2015-16 APR report. 

Last week, WKU’s volleyball, women’s tennis and women’s golf teams were honored with the Public Recognition Award for having a perfect 1,000 APR score for the reporting year. It marked the first time since the Public Recognition Program began that WKU has had multiple teams receive the honor in three consecutive seasons.

Travis Hudson’s volleyball team has received the honor in 12 consecutive seasons, spanning the entirety of the Recognition program – one of only four Division I volleyball teams and 93 overall D-I sport programs in the nation to do so.

The D-I Board of Directors set a score of 930 as the threshold for teams to meet or face possible immediate and historical sanctions. Programs falling below the 930 benchmark face penalties such as practice time reduction, scholarship reduction and possible postseason bans. 

Over the past calendar year, 111 WKU student-athletes received their diploma from the university with 77 graduating in May 2016 and 11 over the summer session while 22 received their degrees this past December. The cumulative GPA of the 111 graduates was 3.19.

In April, 157 Hilltopper and Lady Topper student-athletes received C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll recognition while 53 received academic medals for posting 3.00 and 3.75 cumulative grade point averages, respectively.