For Immediate Release
March 24, 2016
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By Jordan Alves, sports information director
CLEVELAND, Ohio —After the completion of the winter sports, Campbellsville University athletics continues to improve its ranking in the Learfield Directors’ Cup. The Tigers jumped from 11th to No. 5 in the standings, which were released on Wednesday evening.
The Top 5 ranking is the highest-ever for CU, as the Tigers and Lady Tigers were No. 9 after the fall season. Before that, CU’s history mark was set in 2014-15 with a No. 34 ranking.
After a record-breaking fall season of 185 points, Campbellsville one-upped that record with 262 points in this winter. The Tigers and Lady Tigers now have447 points and are68 points out of fourth place.
The Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in up to 20 sports in Division I – 10 men’s and 10 women’s; and 12 sports in the NAIA – six women’s and six men’s.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers have now accumulated 447 total points throughout the fall and winter. Before both basketball teams competed in the NAIA Tournaments this past week, CU had earned a total of 109 points for its winter sports. CU picked up 75 points for men’s wrestling finishing in fifth place at the NAIA National Championship with the only other point-getter came from women’s swimming, who gained 34 points with a 20th place finish at their respective national championship.
Both men’s and women’s basketball made deep runs in their national tournaments, earning 153 points combined. The Lady Tigers reached their 10th NAIA Quarterfinal before falling in Benedictine (Kan.), earning 70 points.
The Tigers, who were one of the final at-large teams in the field, turned a lot of heads with a third-place finish and earning 83 points. Coach Keith Adkins’ ball club pulled multiple upsets, reaching the NAIA Fab Four for the second time in history before falling to eventual national champion Mid-America Christian (Okla.).
Biola leads the all-sports standings with 560 points. The Eagles earned 53 points in women’s basketball with a ninth-place finish. Olivet Nazarene has climbed two spots from fourth to No. 2 with a total of 538 points and 376 of those points coming in the winter. Mid-South Conference foe Lindsey Wilson College remains at No. 3 with 529.5 points. The Blue Raiders earned 306.5 points from their winter sports. Wayland Baptist made the biggest jump in the winter standings. The Pioneers went from 46th to fourth with 438 points this past season.
The Mid-South is the only conference in the country with multiple institutions in the Top 5. In addition to the MSC, the Sooner and Cascade Conferences lead all NAIA conferences in the Top 10 with two institutions each – Lindsey Wilson (3rd) and Campbellsville (5th) from the Mid-South, Wayland Baptist (4th) and Oklahoma City (8th) from the Sooner Conference and from the Cascade, Southern Oregon (6th) and College of Idaho (10th).
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