UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University athletic department finished 23rd in the final standings of the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup. SVSU was the third institution from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to finish in the top 25, as Grand Valley State University finished first overall in the standings, and Wayne State University was 22nd.
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. Overall, 15 sports are counted in the final Divison II standings, four of which must be women's volleyball and basketball and men's basketball and baseball. The next highest (11 max.) sports scored for each institution, regardless of gender, are used in the standings.
The Cardinals tallied 480 points total. Some highlights for the SVSU athletic department included the women's soccer program advancing to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history, and the softball team winning the GLIAC Tournament Championship and advancing to the NCAA DII Midwest Regional. The SVSU women's golf team advanced to the NCAA East Regional for the first time in program history, and the women's cross country team took 14th at the NCAA Championships last December.
Individually, Cheyenne Williamson from the women's track and field team won the indoor pentathlon national title with a record 4292 points, before adding her second straight national championship in the outdoor heptathlon last month with a school-record 5757 points. On the men's side, CarLee Stimpfel was third at the NCAA DII Cross Country Championships and was the Midwest Regional Champion in cross country.
The 23rd-place finish for SVSU is the highest since the development of the DII LEARFIELD Directors' Cup in 1995-96. It was announced earlier this month by the GLIAC that the Cardinals finished second in the league's President's Trophy standings, the highest finish for SVSU in 35 years.
