Ephs top Learfield Sports Directors' Cup competition after fall season

CLEVELAND, OH -- The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) announced today that the Williams College Ephs lead the NCAA Division III Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings at the conclusion of the 2009 fall championship season.

Points are awarded in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup competition based on an institution’s finish at NCAA Championship events. This fall the Ephs scored in five of the seven NCAA team championship events.

Williams, winners of the last 11 consecutive Directors’ Cups and 13 of the 14 awarded in NCAA Division III, tallied 367 points to post an 18 -point lead over runner-up Calvin College (MI), which has accumulated 349 points.

Washington University (MO) holds down third place with 319 points. Messiah College is in fourth place with 290 points and Johns Hopkins University is fifth with 278 points

Archrival Amherst and Middlebury are the other two NESCAC teams in the top 10. The Amherst Lord Jeffs are sixth (225), while the Panthers of Middlebury are in10th with 197 points.

Men's Cross Country 2nd at NCAAs

Men's Soccer 3rd at NCAAs

Leading the five Eph scoring teams was men’s cross country, which accumulated 90 points based on its second place finish at the NCAA Championship Race. Men’s soccer’s third place finish added 83 points, while the women’s cross country team contributed 66 points with an 8th place finish.

Women’s cross country is the only Eph fall team to score in all fifteen years of the competition. The Eph women harriers have finished in the top 10 every year except 1997 when they came in 14th. Additionally the women’s team has finished in the top five nine times and won the NCAA title in 2002 and 2004.

Women’s soccer and women’s volleyball both chipped in 64 points with 9th place finishes.

This marks the seventh time in the 15 years that Williams has led at the end of the fall season and it is the first time since 2004 the Ephs held the lead this early in the academic year.

The Ephs 367 points is just nine short of their all-time fall best of 376 posted in 2002.

Top 10 NCAA Div. III Teams – Fall 2009

1.   -- Williams -- 367
2.   -- Calvin  (MI) -- 349
3.   -- Washingtion U. (MO) -- 319
4.   -- Messiah (PA) -- 290
5.   -- Johns Hopkins -- 278
6.   -- Amherst -- 225
7.   -- Christopher Newport (VA) -- 224
8.   -- Salisbury (MD) -- 214
9.   -- Lynchburg (VA) -- 200
10. -- Middlebury -- 197

Women's Cross Country 8th at NCAAs	Women's Soccer 9th at NCAAs	Volleyball 9th at NCAAs