Learfield Sports sponsors the Directors’ Cup which is administered by NACDA.
The softball team posted an all-time program best third place finish at the NCAA Championships.
The women’s golf team contributed to the Directors’ Cup standings with a third place finish at the NCAA Championships.
The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and Learfield Sports have announced the final totals for the 2008-09 Directors’ Cup and Gustavus finished 8th out of 435 competing NCAA Division III institutions. The Directors’ Cup, which is the only all-sports competition in intercollegiate athletics, is awarded to four-year institutions in the NCAA and NAIA with the best overall athletic programs. In Division III, standings are based on national tournament finishes in 18 sports with points awarded based on the number of teams participating in each specific national championship.
Williams College (Mass.) won the Division III title for the 11th consecutive year with a total of 1066.50 points. Williams was followed by Middlebury (Vt.) with 923, Amherst (Mass.) with 910, Washington University of St. Louis with 873, and Cortland State with 861. Rounding out the top ten were Emory with 809.5, UW-Stevens Point with 779, Gustavus Adolphus with 765, the College of New Jersey with 759.5, and Tufts with 759.25.
Gustavus’ 765 point total is the most in school history (the previous high was 637 in 2002-03) and the most ever recorded by a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) institution in the NACDA Directors’ Cup competition. The eighth place finish is the second highest finish by the Gusties behind a sixth place finish in 2002-03. Gustavus scored 424 points in the spring season, which was the second highest total in Division III behind champion Williams, which scored 446 points.
Gustavus recorded national finishes in 12 sports including men’s ice hockey (2nd, 90), softball (3rd, 86.5), women’s golf (3rd, 85), men’s tennis (5th, 73), women’s tennis (5th, 73), women’s ice hockey (5th, 25), women’s track and field (6th, 73.5), men’s swimming (15th, 60), women’s nordic skiing (21st, 32), volleyball (33rd, 25), women’s swimming (35th, 39), men’s track and field (36th, 36.5).
The Gusties placed in the Top 10 for the fifth time in the past eight years and in the Top 25 for the 13th time in the 14-year history of the NACDA Directors’ Cup.