CLEVELAND, Ohio --- The Moravian College athletic teams' successful spring on the national level helped the Greyhounds to an 83rd place finish with 234.5 points in the 2010-12 NCAA Division III Learfield Sports Directors' Cup final standings.
Seven of the eight Landmark Conference schools received points, however; Moravian was the only school in the conference to finish in the top 130. The Catholic University of America was 132nd with 148 points while The University of Scranton was tied for 153rd with 123 points and Juniata College was tied for 161st with 114 points.
Moravian has been in the top-100 ten times in the 17-year history of the Directors' Cup including a 48th place finish in 2009-10, the best in school history. Moravian first cracked the top 100 in 1999-2000, and the school has been in the top 100 in ten of the last 13 years.
For a school to receive points, sports must compete in the NCAA National Championships (for individual sports) and the NCAA Tournament (for team sports). Schools in NCAA Division III can earn points in nine men's and nine women's sports. If a school earns points in more than nine sports, the top nine point totals are counted. A total of 318 of the 440 NCAA Division III institutions earned points in this year's standings.
Moravian earned 53 points from the men's outdoor track & field team's 21st place finish in the NCAA Division III National Championships, 51.5 points from the women's outdoor track & field team, 50.5 from the women's indoor track & field squad, 50 points from the softball team and 29.5 points from the men's indoor track & field squad.
Middlebury (Vt.) College captured its first title as the best athletics program in NCAA Division III competition by winning the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup, the prestigious award presented annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and Learfield Sports to the best overall collegiate athletics programs in the country.
The 2011-12 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup winners will be honored at NACDA's 47th Annual Convention in Dallas, Texas next week, and the four winning institutions -- one in each of the NCAA Divisions (I, II, and III), and the NAIA – will be awarded with their Learfield Sports Directors' Cups.
Middlebury recorded 1,040.75 points, 60.5 points ahead of runner-up Washington (Mo.) University with 980.25 points while Williams (Mass.) College, 15 time winners of the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup and the winner of 13 straight until 2011-12 was third at 964.5 points, Amherst (Mass.) College was fourth at 950.75 points and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater was fifth in 815.5 points.