The NCAA released its annual report of graduation success rates among Division I instititions and, once again, the University of Washington showed it ranks second in the Pac-10 and second among all public institutions on the West Coast.  Washington's football federal graduation rate is just two percent shy of the rate for all Division I student-athletes.  For the complete story and links to the NCAA reports, visit this piece posted yesterday on GoHuskies.com.  The Associated Press also wrote a good story on the topic, which you can find here.

A couple of facts that were not widely reported included the graduation success rate (GSR) among football programs in the Pac-10.  Among scholarship athletes, the Huskies rate second in the league in both graduation success rate and the four-year rolling federal graduation rate average.  Below is a chart showing how the UW fares against league rivals.

School	GSR	Fed Rate
Stanford	89	85
Washington	69	61
California	64	57
Washington State	62	58
Arizona State	58	49
USC	58	52
Oregon State	57	43
UCLA	51	40
Oregon	49	45
Arizona	41	35

A couple of other key facts that the report revealed about the academic success of various UW sports programs:

 

• The graduation rate for UW scholarship student-athletes who exhausted their eligibility at the school during this reporting period was an impressive 90 percent.  A total of 503 student-athletes fit into this category.
• Six UW sports achieved a GSR of 100 percent:  Men's golf, women's basketball, women's golf, women's soccer, softball and women's tennis.
• 10 of the 18 sports calculated (men's crew is not a NCAA sport and track/cross country are counted as one sport. The discontinued swimming program is also included), achieved a GSR of 90 percent or better.

Golfweek.com was in the region for the PING/Golfweek Invitational in late September and while visiting, Lance Ringler and Jared Clemons from the website visited the brand new Husky Golf Center in Bank of America Arena.

They spent the morning with men's coach Matt Thurmond and several of the players, including Nick Taylor, Chris Killmer and Darren Wallace. The guys showed them the facility and Golfweek.com captured the essence of the facility excellently.

Check out the video of the Golf Center by clicking here.

Recently, Washington Husky athletic department officials and student-athletes showed their appreciation to its scholarship donors at its annual luncheon in the Don James Center.  Husky student-athletes Victor Aiyewa and Danielle Lawrie presented thanks to the benefactors on behalf of all of the UW's scholarship student-athletes. 

Check out this great photo gallery from the event.

Women's soccer coach Lesle Gallimore gave a passionate speech that outlined the tremendous responsibility each coach accepts as they makes decisions on who and when to award athletic scholarships.

"As a coach I am entrusted with the task of awarding scholarships to young women whom my staff and I determine are worthy of your generosity," said Gallimore. "This is a responsibility that I do not take lightly. I have done nothing for the dollars that I am doling out. It is not my hard work that has made these scholarships possible and yet it is my duty to select people that will live up to their commitment of striving for athletic and academic excellence.

Despite not having a Washington Husky football game, there are still a ton of athletics-related activities taking place this week.

• The Husky men's soccer team hosts Cal in a huge Pac-10 game Friday night at 7 p.m.  The Dawgs defeated the Bears 2-0 in Berkeley a couple of weeks ago, knocking Cal from its No. 4 national ranking!  A special promotion provides 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs and 4 sodas for just $25.  Call (206) 543-2200 for information.

• The Husky Ticket Office reports that approximately 64,000 tickets have been sold for the Nov. 28 Apple Cup game between rivals Washington and Washington State.  Tickets are available by calling (206) 543-2200 or through GoHuskies.com.

• Huskies All-Access is scheduled for eight airings on FSN Northwest this week, starting with Wednesday's debut at 7 p.m.  The show will also feature at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. that night, 12:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Thursday and at 12:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Friday.

• The nationally-ranked men's and women's cross country teams are participating in the Pac-10 Championships Saturday in Long Beach, Calif.  The No. 1 ranked women will be looking to win its second-straight title while the 13th ranked men are the third-highest ranked team in the league behind No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Oregon.  Check out GoHuskies.com for complete coverage.

• The UW men's and women's golf teams are in action today.  The men are making a late run at the Isleworth Invitational, while the women are in the hunt at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown.

• Women's soccer is on the road at Oregon Friday night, while the volleyball team is playing at Arizona.  Live coverage of those events is available on GoHuskies.com.

Both the UW men's and women's golf teams are on the links today participating in tournament on opposite sides of the country.

The men are playing in the second round of the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational outside of Orlando. They are still trying to find their footing and are 14th out of 15 teams. You can follow them live on Golfstat.com by clicking here.

Meanwhile, the women are preparing to tee off for the first round of the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown at Boulder Creek Golf Club.  Junior Anya Alvarez is aiming for her third-straight top-10 finish and is currently ranked 12th in the latest Golfweek individual rankings. Follow the Dawgs from Las Vegas by clicking here.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Husky women's golf head coach Mary Lou Mulflur will be inducted into the Grant High School (Portland, Ore.) hall of fame on Monday.

The Porland-area school is honoring 53 former athletes and 10 former coaches in the inaugural event. Mulflur is one of several speakers for the event. Former NBA basketball player Terrell Brandon will also be inducted into the school's hall of fame and be a featured speaker.

The public is invited to this free event. The school is located at Northeast 36th Avenue and Thompson Street in Portland.

While attending Grant, Mulflur won state high school titles in 1974 and 1975. She also won the 1975 Oregon junior championship. Mulflur won Southern Oregon titles in 1980, 1982, 1995 and 1997 as well as the Oregon Coast Invitational in 1979, 1982, and 1990. Mulflur has competed in five United States Golf Association events - The U.S. Open in 1979 and 1980 and the U.S. Amateur in 1979, 1980 and 1982. In addition she competed in four National Collegiate Championships.

Mulflur, regarded as one of the most successful golfers to come out of the UW, came to Washington in 1976 and was one of the first female athletes to receive a scholarship at Washington.

During her collegiate career Mulflur won three regular-season tournaments, including the inaugural Ihlanfeldt Invitational in 1980. To date, Kamimura is the only Husky golfer with more career wins than Mulflur.

Mulflur is entering her 27th season as the head coach at the University of Washington.

 

The Husky women's golf team is heading to the Stanford Intercollegiate, which starts on Friday and runs through Sunday. We'll have more details later, but here are the early nuts and bolts:

 For Stanford our lineup is:

1. Anya Alvarez
2. Molly Aronsson
3. Sadena Parks
4. Darcie Richmond
5. Brittany Tallman

The field is as follows:

1. Stanford
2. Arizona
3. ASU
4. Cal
5. Denver
6. Hawaii
7. Oklahoma State
8. San Jose State
9. USC
10. Texas
11. UCLA
12. UNLV
13. San Francisco
14. Vanderbilt
15. Washington

Our first round starts at 8:30 Friday and we are paired with Denver and Vanderbilt.

PRATTVILLE, Ala. - Paige Mackenzie shot a 1-under 71 on Friday and is 4-under 140 overall and tied for 33rd after two rounds of the Navistar LPGA Classic. Mackenzie is six strokes behind a pack of five -- including Lorena Ochoa, Laura Davies and 14-year-old Alexi Thompson --  that are 10-under for the tournament,

Mackenzie had three birdies and two bogeys on the Robert Trent Jones golf course. She made her fifth-straight cut after making only four in the the first 10 tournaments she had entered.

Mackenzie will tee off at tomorrow at 10:15 a.m. local time.

PRATTVILLE, Ala. - Husky alum Paige Mackenzie shot a 3-under 69 and is tied for 25th after the first round of the Navistar LPGA. Mackenzie shot a 1-under on the front nine and backed that up with three birdies and a bogey on the back nine.

She is five strokes behind leader Janice Moodie, who blazed through RTJ Golf Trail in Prattville, Ala., at 8-under 64. Moodie holds a one-stroke lead over 14-year-old Alexis Thompson.

Mackenzie, who is trying to make her fifth-straight cut, will be the first to tee off on Friday at 6:50 a.m. local time.

Husky assistant coach Andrea VanderLende checked in from New Zealand for GoHuskies.com after day 11. Here is her wrap-up from the 11 day trip.

 • Check out the latest photos in the updated Photo Gallery!

Our final round in New Zealand was at Paraparaumu Golf Club. This course has hosted the New Zealand Open 12 times in the history of the Championship. Once again we had terrible weather but played through it and ended up having a great time. We paired up with a group of Paraparaumu locals who were very accommodating and helped us navigate our way around the course. This round concluded our final portion of qualifying. The girls worked hard to battle in the wind and rain to prepare for the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational at Sahalee Country Club in Redmond. After playing many difficult courses, we are ready to tackle our first home tournament and want to begin the year with a win on our territory.