Sports News: Spring 2002

Thursday, June 27, 2002

MORAVIAN FINISHES IN TOP THIRD NATIONALLY IN SEARS DIRECTORS' CUP;
Greyhounds Have Highest Finish Ever with 82nd Place

BETHLEHEM, PA --- The Moravian College athletic teams helped the Greyhounds to an 82nd place finish, its highest finish ever, with 174 points in the 2001-02 NCAA Division III Sears Directors' Cup Final Standings.

Moravian was in the top third of the 270 schools that scored points this season and second among the 14 schools in the Middle Atlantic Conference that received points. The only MAC school to finish ahead of Moravian was Messiah College in 25th.

In the Lehigh Valley, Moravian was first of the three Division III schools while Muhlenberg College was second in the Lehigh Valley and tied for 152nd overall with 95 points and DeSales University was 180th with 71 points.

This year marked the third straight time in the seven-year history of the Sears Directors' Cup that Moravian has cracked the top 100 in the nation. The Greyhounds were 94th last year, 84th in 1999-2000, tied for 101st the two previous years, tied for 141st in 1996-97 and 114th overall in the first year of competition, 1995-96.

For a school to receive points, sports must compete in the NCAA National Championships (for individual sports) and the NCAA Tournament (for team sports).

Moravian earned 94 of its total points this spring with the softball team earning 30 points for finishing tied for 33rd in the nation while the women's outdoor track and field team had two All-Americans and tied for 9th at the national championships, good enough for 74 points. Last fall, earned 80 points in women's cross country with a 3rd place finish at the national championships.

Developed as a joint effort between USA Today and NACDA, the Sears Directors' Cup program is the only all-sports competition that recognizes the institution in each of the four categories with the best overall athletics program. The Sears Directors' Cup is part of the Sears Collegiate Champions program which annually awards more than 2,200 conference and sport champion trophies and a quarter-of-a-million dollars in academic scholarships.

While Williams College (MA) took home the Waterford Crystal Sears Directors' Cup for winning the NCAA Division III competition for the fourth straight year and sixth time in seven years, the 2001-02 winners in the other categories include:  Division I - Stanford University; Division II - University of California-Davis; NAIA - Oklahoma City University.

Through the Sears Directors' Cup program, Sears and NACDA annually award $100,000 in postgraduate academic scholarships. Five $5,000 scholarships in each division assist students who support their institution's athletics departments, including team managers, athletics trainers, band members, cheerleaders, assistant coaches, sports information assistants, facility staff and academic support personnel. For each category, four outstanding recipients are selected by a nationwide nomination process, administered by NACDA, while the fifth recipient is a student at the institution that wins the Sears Directors' Cup.

Sears and NACDA also awarded each of the second through fifth place institutions in all four divisions with Sears Directors' Cup plaques, commemorating their program's dedication to athletics greatness. This year's runner-up institutions in the NCAA Division III include: Ithaca College (NY), The College of New Jersey, Middlebury College (VT) and Emory University (GA).

Of the 395 eligible colleges and universities in the NCAA Division III, a total of 270 (68 percent) scored points in the Sears Directors' Cup competition. Complete final rankings on all of these institutions are available on NACDA's Web site at www.nacda.com.

NACDA, now in its 37th year, serves as the professional and educational association for more than 6,100 collegiate athletics directors, associates, assistants and conference administrators at more than 1,600 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. is a broadline retailer with significant service and credit businesses. In 2001, the company's annual revenue was more than $41 billion. The company offers its wide range of apparel, home and automotive products and services to families in the U.S. through Sears stores nationwide, including approximately 870 full-line stores. Sears also offers a variety of merchandise and services through its Web site, www.sears.com.