Thursday, January 11, 2001

CLEVELAND, OH --- The Moravian College athletic teams have helped the Greyhounds to 45th place with 71 points after the fall season in the 2000-01 NCAA Division III Sears Directors' Cup Standings.

Moravian is in the top third of the 150 schools that scored points this fall and third among the eight schools in the Middle Atlantic Conference that received points.  The only two MAC schools currently ahead of Moravian were Messiah College in 13th and Widener University in a tie for 43rd.

In the Lehigh Valley, Moravian was first of the three Division III schools while Muhlenberg College was tied for 91st and DeSales University had not received any points.

Last year marked the first time in the six-year history of the Sears Directors' Cup that Moravian had cracked the top 100 in the nation, finishing 84th.  The Greyhounds were tied for 101st in 1998-99 and 1997-98, 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 its 71 points this fall from the women's cross country team's fifth place finish in the NCAA Division III National Championships.  Last year, Moravian was in 40^th place after the fall.

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.  It is administered by NACDA and sponsored by Sears, Roebuck and Co.   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. 

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh has closed the fall championship season with a nine-point lead in race for the Division III Sears Directors' Cup, presented by the nation's athletics directors.  Wisconsin-Oshkosh scored in four of seven sports, placing third in men's cross country and soccer; fourth in women's cross country and ninth in women's volleyball to earn 280 points. 

Right behind is Williams (MA), a four-time champion, with 271 points.  Rounding out the top five are the College of New Jersey, third with 236 points; Trinity (TX), fourth with 205 points; and tied for fifth were Hobart/William Smith (NY) and Ithaca (NY), each with 190 points. 

These final fall standings include the sports of women and men's cross country, field hockey, football, women's and men's soccer and women's volleyball. Winning national championships were Middlebury (VT) in women's cross country; Calvin (MI) in men's cross country; Hobart/William Smith in field hockey; Mount Union (OH) in football; The College of New Jersey in women's soccer; Messiah (PA) in men's soccer; and Central (IA) in women's volleyball.

Of the 393 eligible colleges and universities in the NCAA Division III, a total of 150 (38 percent) scored points in the Sears Directors' Cup competition this fall.  Complete rankings on all of these institutions are available on NACDA's Web site at www.nacda.com.