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Williams Continues Run of Success in Directors' Cup
09:19AM / Thursday, June 04, 2015
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Last year Williams College led the NCAA Division III Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Race from start to finish, but this year was different as the Ephs only led at the end of the year.
 
MIT had a 6.5-point lead over the Ephs at the end of the fall and at winter's end Williams trailed archrival Amherst 26.50 points: Amherst 664.0, Williams 637.50.
 
Sitting in third place, 21.50 points behind second place Johns Hopkins University (659.00), the Ephs needed a strong spring campaign to retain the Cup. The Ephs rattled off NCAA Championships in women's golf and women's tennis and then the women's crew team capped off the spring season with a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Division III Rowing Championships for Women at the end of May.
 
The Ephs scored in six spring sports and tallied 415.5 points to vault from third place to first place in the Cup standings. The Ephs' final point total was 1,053.00, edging the second place Blue Jays of Johns Hopkins University (1,106.75) by 36.25 points.
 
The 1,053.00 points scored by the Ephs was their lowest total since 2012 when they scored 965.00 points and finished third.
 
Points are awarded in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup based on team finishes at NCAA Championships. Each school can score in a maximum of nine men's and nine women's sports.
 
Williams has won 18 Directors' Cups in the 20-year history of the competition in NCAA Division III, which is the NCAA's largest division with 438 member institutions.
 
The Ephs' 36.25-point margin of victory over Johns Hopkins University is the second smallest margin of victory in Cup history.
 
The closest Directors' Cup competition occurred in 1995-96 under a different scoring structure that also involved fewer sports. The Ephs won the 1995-96 Cup competition by just 15 points. Williams tallied 604 points to the 589 scored by The College of New Jersey (TCNJ).
 
"Wow, this year was a close competition in Division III," commented Eph Interim Athletic Director Bud Fisher. "We're pleased to once again be the Cup recipients as it serves as a fitting tribute to our student-athletes' efforts and our coaches' dedication to the education of students at Williams."
 
This year the NESCAC placed four teams in the top 10 in the final 2015 Directors' Cup standings with Williams (1), Amherst (5), Middlebury (7), and Tufts (9).
 
The 2015 Directors' Cup, sponsored by Learfield Sports and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), will be presented at NACDA's annual convention in Orlando on Tuesday, June 16.
 
NCAA Division III
Top 10
1. Williams 1,053.00
2. Johns Hopkins 1,016.75
3. MIT 961.00
4. Washington University (MO) 944.00
5. Amherst 918.50
6. Wisconsin-Whitewater 877.75
7. Middlebury 821.50
8. Emory 807.50
9. Tufts 766.25
10. Wisconsin-La Crosse 731.00
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