Beginning its 11th year as a full member of NCAA Division II (Sept., 1998), Western Washington University ranked 10th in the Sports Directors' Cup standings during the 2008-09 academic year among nearly 300 schools in the division.

The placing was the highest in school history and the sixth straight Top 50 finish for the Vikings. They placed in the Top 100 in each of their first 10 seasons as a NCAA II member.

Western has made NCAA II national appearances in all but one of its 15 intercollegiate sports which include men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field, women's rowing, softball and volleyball.

The Vikings have won the last five NCAA II National Championships (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) in women's rowing, becoming the first school in any NCAA rowing division to accomplish that feat. Western placed second nationally in volleyball in 2007 and women's rowing in 2002 and 2003, and reached the national semifinals in men's basketball in 2001 and women's basketball in 2000.

A member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Western has won five All-Sports Championships in the eight-year history of the league (2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2008-09) and placed second the other three years.

In women's basketball, Western ranks among the top 15 in victories among all four-year schools. The Vikings had the fourth-longest league winning streak in NCAA II volleyball of 57 from 2002-04.

Western, which won the NAIA national softball title in 1998, had a 38-game victory string in women's soccer from 1982-84.

The Vikings' athletic history dates back over a century. Intercollegiate competition began in basketball in 1903. Today, nearly 300 student-athletes compete annually.

The 2008 NCAA Report found that 63 percent of Western student-athletes receive their degrees in six years or fewer. That was eight percentage points higher than the average for student-athletes in the nine-team Great Northwest Athletic Conference (55 percent), and eight points higher than the national average for NCAA II schools (55 percent).

Using the NCAA Academic Success Rate, which includes all freshman student-athletes from the fall of 2001 and also accounts for student-athletes who transfer into or out of the institution, Western posted an 84 percent success rate, compared to the NCAA II national number of 70 percent. The average ASR of GNAC schools was 75 percent.