CLEVELAND, Ohio - For the third time in four years, Carson-Newman has finished in the top 60 of the Learfield Director's Cup. The Eagles registered 315 points to finish 57th among all Division II athletic departments.
The standings, released by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), award points based on the finish of 15 men's and women's sports. Grand Valley State finished first followed by UC San Diego and West Texas A&M. The Eagles were the third highest ranked team in the Southeast Region behind fellow South Atlantic Conference schools Queens and Wingate.
"We are extremely proud of our teams' collective competitive success this year," Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said. "We hope to continue to build on them as we strive to be the apex of NCAA Division II athletic departments."
Carson-Newman registered points in eight different sports. The year started slowly for the Eagles. The women's soccer program was the only fall sport to log points. The Eagles advanced to the regional semifinals to collect 50 points. C-N sat in 107th place after the fall.
Business picked up in the winter with Carson-Newman registering points in women's basketball (25), women's swimming (32), men's swimming (52) and men's indoor track (20). That brought Carson-Newman up to 67th place before an ultra-successful spring brought C-N into the top 60.
Softball hosted its first ever regional and picked up a no-hit shutout win over Anderson to garner 38 points. Men's golf came up a few strokes shy of making the national championship to pick up 42.5 points. Finally, bolstered by a quartet of All-America runs, the men's outdoor track team carried a school-record 18th place finish at nationals and 57.75 points to log the most points of any athletic team on campus this year.
Carson-Newman's 57th place finish and 315 points trail last year's school-record 21st place finish and 498 points. In 2015-16, Carson-Newman finished 42nd with 356.5 points. The 2009-10 year had the Eagles in 45th with 353.5 points.