GRINNELL, Iowa – Another banner year of athletics has guided Grinnell College to a repeat sweep of the Midwest Conference All-Sports Trophies.
 
The Pioneer men's and women's teams, who also won both awards in the 2023-24 campaign, are the only college to repeat  the sweep since Coe College won three in a row from 1992-93 through 1994-95.
 
Grinnell's men have now won the Ralph Shively Cup for the 10^th time, but only twice since 2014-15, and the women boosted their total to eight including four years in a row.

All-sports points are awarded on a 9-8-7, etc. basis in all sports except for football, which is done on a 10-9-8, etc. basis, and tennis 7-6-5, etc. The University of Chicago is skipped in football and St. Norbert in women's and men's swimming and diving.
 
Places are determined by regular-season standings for men's and women's soccer, volleyball, men's and women's basketball, softball, men's and women's tennis, football and baseball. Championship meets are used to determine points for the other sports.
 
Grinnell's women easily won the all-sports standings, piling up 64.5 points compared to runner-up Lawrence University's total of 52. On the men's side, Grinnell edged Monmouth College 54-51.
 
Grinnell won four of the 18 MWC titles, taking first in tennis and swimming and diving on both the women's and men's sides.
 
The Pioneers received second-place points in volleyball, women's cross country, women's basketball and men's basketball, and third-place points in men's cross country, men's soccer, women's soccer and women's indoor track and field.
 
Fourth-place points came in baseball, women's outdoor track and field and softball.
 
The all-sports trophies are named for Ralph Shively, former Chair of the Mathematics Department at Lake Forest College. He was actively involved in the MWC as a Faculty Athletic Representative beginning in 1974 before becoming the Conference commissioner in 1982. He held that post until 2004.

Grinnell College Director of Athletics and Recreation said, "I am profoundly honored to acknowledge and congratulate our incredible scholar athletes with whom we celebrate more than championships and records, but the daily victories of persistence, growth, and character that define the true Grinnell athletic excellence. I want to express my sincere appreciation to our committed faculty, staff, and coaches, and supportive families who have helped our programs achieve this success of retaining the All-sports trophies in back-to-back years."