CLEVELAND – Behind stout showings in men's soccer, cross country and volleyball, Anderson is ranked 15th nationally and leads the South Atlantic Conference in the initial fall Division II Learfield Directors' Cup standings, as released by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), Thursday morning.
In the first set of fall Learfield Directors' Cup standings, Colorado School of Mines leads NCAA Division II with 315 points after capturing two top-10 finishes (5th-women's cross country; 2nd-men's cross country) and a 17th place finish in both men and women's soccer and women's volleyball. Grand Valley State is in second with 290 points after capturing a pair of national championships, men's and women's cross country and a second-place finish in women's soccer. Western Washington is in third with 256 points after taking 2nd in women's volleyball, 9th in women's soccer, 20th in women's cross country and 26th in men's cross country.
Shippensburg is in fourth with 218 points, taking home the national title in women's field hockey. The Raiders also placed 27th place in men's cross country, 28th place in women's cross country and 33rd in women's volleyball. Rounding out the top five in DII is West Texas A&M with 206 points, recording a pair of fifth place finishes in both women's and men's soccer, respectively, and a 15th place in men's cross country.
The Trojan men's soccer team nearly advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament earlier this month, while the volleyball squad made an appearance in the NCAA Southeast Region Tournament Semifinals. The Trojan women's cross country team finished third at the NCAA Southeast Regionals in mid-November and posted a 33rd-place finish at the NCAA National Championships last weekend.
The CCAA, GLIAC, and PSAC lead all Division II conferences with two institutions in the top 10 – CCAA – Chico State (8th) and Cal State Poly Pomona (10th); GLIAC - Grand Valley State (2nd) and Saginaw Valley (9th); and PSAC - Shippensburg (4th) and West Chester (7th).
The Learfield Directors' Cup, which was developed and launched in 1993 as a joint effort between NACDA and USA Today, is awarded annually to the nation's best overall collegiate athletics program. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in NCAA Championships.
The next fall standings will be released Thursday, Dec. 20. Official standings will be published upon the completion of the fall season.
Complete standings and the scoring structure can be found on NACDA's website at www.directorscup.org.
LEARFIELD DIRECTOR'S CUP STANDINGS - OVERALL
LEARFIELD DIRECTOR'S CUP STANDINGS – BY CONFERENCE
LEARFIELD DIRECTOR'S CUP STANDINGS – SOUTH ATLANTIC CONFERENCE
Rank Rank Points
15 Anderson 169.0
18 Queens 161.5
47 Lincoln Memorial 89.0
68 Wingate 73.0
T-95 Carson-Newman 95.0
T-95 Tusculum 95.0