CLEVELAND – For the second time in school history, Carson-Newman has finished in the top 40 in the Learfield Director's Cup.  The Eagles garnered 394.75 points to finish in 40^th in the annual standings, released Wednesday. 

The Learfield 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 NCAA Championships.

Grand Valley State finished first, followed by West Texas A&M and Colorado School of Mines. 

The 40^th place finish with 394.75 points are both the second-best year-end finishes for the department. Only the 2017-18 campaign and its 21^st-place finish and 498 points best this season. 

The year started slowly for Carson-Newman. The Eagles only secured 25 points in the fall with a regional appearance from the volleyball team.  Carson-Newman was in 127^th place in the initial standings release. 

Business began to pick up in the winter though.  C-N jumped up to 36^th after scoring points with both genders of its swimming and indoor track programs.  The women's swim team's seventh place finish netted 71.25 points, followed by 58.5 points from the men's swim team.  The men's track team brought in 54.5 points, with 36 coming from the women's track team.

The Eagles brought home points in four more sports in the spring.  The outdoor track teams did the heavy lifting with the men's program-best seventh place finish, netting 72 points.  The women accounted for 24.5 points.

C-N's men's golf and softball teams also scored for making their respective regionals, garnering 28 and 25 points, respectively. 

All told, nine teams scored points for Carson-Newman with the women's swim and men's outdoor track teams both netting top 10 finishes.  The men's and women's track programs accounted for 187 of C-N's 394.75 points. 

C-N was the third-highest scoring athletic department in the Southeast Region behind South Atlantic Conference running mates Wingate, who finished fifth, and Lenoir-Rhyne, who finished 12^th. 

This year marks the fourth time in school history that Carson-Newman has finished in the top 45. It registers as a sixth time in the last seven times the director's cup standings have been released (no rankings came out in 2020 or 2021 due to CoVID) that C-N has been inside the top 60.