Westminster College (Utah) - Athletics

Athletics

Westminster College teams, nicknamed athletically as the Griffins, are part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division I level, primarily competing in the Frontier Conference. Men's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, skiing, snowboarding, soccer and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, skiing, snowboarding, soccer, track & field and volleyball. The Griffins men's and women's alpine skiing and snowboard teams compete in the United States Ski Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA), men's lacrosse competes at the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) Division II level in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference (RMLC), and women's lacrosse competes in the US Lacrosse Women's Division Intercollegiate Associates (WDIA) in the Rocky Mountain Women's Lacrosse League (RMWLL).

Prior to 1979, Westminster College athletic teams were called the Parsons, and the school was a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), which the conference was then part of the NAIA at the time. Football, basketball, and other team sports were offered at the intercollegiate level. That year, however, a financial crisis at the school caused it to discontinue its intercollegiate athletic program. Beginning in the 1990s, Westminster gradually began to restore an intercollegiate athletic program, and the school's mascot is now the griffin.

In the 2006–07 academic year, Westminster began fielding a men's lacrosse following the completion of a new athletic field on campus. The Westminster men's lacrosse won the 2008 Division II MCLA National Championship held in Irving, Texas at Texas Stadium with a 17–10 win over Grand Valley State. The program won the first national championship in the school's 130-year history, in only its second year. The Men's Basketball team has had notable success as the Griffins have gone 216–99 (.684) overall while proving even more dominant in Frontier Conference play with a 105–33 (.761) mark on their way to six of the last eight Frontier Conference titles while earning a spot in the NAIA National Tournament eight times.