Sports News: Spring 2001

Wednesday, June 13, 2001

MORAVIAN FINISHES IN TOP THIRD NATIONALLY IN SEARS DIRECTORS' CUP

BETHLEHEM, PA --- The Moravian College athletic teams helped the Greyhounds to a 94th place finish with 149 points in the 2000-01 NCAA Division III Sears Directors' Cup Final Standings.

Moravian was in the top third of the 271 schools that scored points this season and third among the 14 schools in the Middle Atlantic Conference that received points.  The only two MAC schools to finish ahead of Moravian were Messiah College in 25th and Widener University was tied for 89th.

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 128th overall with 100 points and DeSales University tied for 230th with 30 points.  

This year marked the second straight time in the six-year history of the Sears Directors' Cup that Moravian has cracked the top 100 in the nation.  The Greyhounds were 84th last year, 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 78 of its total points this spring with the softball team earning 30 points for finishing tied for 32nd in the nation while the women's outdoor track and field team had two All-Americans and tied for 23rd at the national championships, good enough for 58 points.  Last fall, earned 71 points in women's cross country with a 5th 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 third straight year and fifth time in six years, the 2000-01 winners in the other categories include:  Division I - Stanford University; Division II - University of California-Davis; NAIA - Simon Fraser University [B.C.]. 

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. 

"The scholarship component of the Sears Directors' Cup program recognizes the dedicated students who support their colleges' athletics programs behind the scenes," said Lee McElroy, chair of the Sears Directors' Cup Committee and director of athletics at American University.  "By rewarding academic and athletics success, the Sears Directors' Cup program encourages students to excel both on and off the playing fields." 

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: Middlebury College (VT), The College of New Jersey, Emory University (GA) and Ithaca College (NY). 

Of the 409 eligible colleges and universities in the NCAA Division III, a total of 271 (66 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 http://www.nacda.com.