ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference announced the final standings for the 2025-26 Kruse Award on Wednesday following the completion of the academic year. The University of Northwestern placed second among the conference's seven full-member institutions with 87.5 points, finishing behind only the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

The full UMAC release can be found here.

The award, which is named after Jerome Kruse, a longtime athletic director at the former Northwestern College (Wis.) and Martin Luther College, is awarded to the full-member institution with the most points accumulated by the place finishes of the college's athletic teams in the final standings of 18 conference-sponsored sports.

Northwestern put together a dominant fall season on the women's side, sweeping conference titles in cross country, soccer, volleyball, and golf. The Eagles also secured a share of the regular-season title in both softball and men's tennis. Additional top-three conference finishes included runner-up honors for women's tennis and third-place finishes from men's cross country, men's soccer, men's golf, and baseball.

Since the Kruse Award was established in 1996-97, Northwestern has earned the conference's top all-sports honor seven times: 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2007-08, and 2008-09.