Stonehill won its first NE-10 Men's Indoor Track & Field Championship in February to highlight the winter season. |
Skyhawks move within five points of first place with 106.5 total points
EASTON, Mass. (March 5, 2013) – Three-time defending Northeast-10 Conference Presidents’ Cup Champions Stonehill College has moved up one spot to fourth in the 2012-13 Presidents’ Cup standings, but more importantly slashed six points off its deficit from the top spot following the fall, at the conclusion of the winter season the NE-10 announced today.
Stonehill, which has won each of the last three Presidents’ Cups and four overall, has 106.5 points at the conclusion of the Northeast-10’s winter sports calendar. The Skyhawks, who have surpassed fall leaders American International College (105 points) who now sits in fifth place, trail co-leaders Bentley University (111.5) and the University of Massachusetts Lowell (111.5), with Southern Connecticut State University (110) in third place. Adelphi University (102.5) is also in the mix at sixth place heading into the spring season.
“Our current ranking in the Northeast-10 Presidents’ Cup standings is continued evidence of the broad based success of Stonehill athletics,” said Brendan Sullivan, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Stonehill. “With three Northeast-10 Conference Championships to date, including our first ever in Men’s Indoor Track & Field, our student-athletes continue to strengthen our tradition of excellence.”
Stonehill was 11.5 adrift of then first place American International after the fall season, five points behind Adelphi, 4.5 behind UMass Lowell and a half point behind Bentley. Stonehill added the Northeast-10 Men’s Indoor Track & Field Championship to its men’s and women’s cross country titles from the fall during the winter season. The women’s basketball team, ranked 11th nationally in Division II, finished second in the regular season, women’s track & field placed third at the NE-10 Championships, while the ice hockey team also made a postseason appearance. Stonehill ranked 54th in the NACDA Learfield Sports Directors Cup standings for overall performance at NCAA Championships following the fall championship season.
“With the spring season before us, we are poised to compete for our fourth straight Presidents’ Cup,” Sullivan continued. “I am grateful to our student-athletes and coaches for their continued hard work and I look forward to celebrating many Skyhawk victories this spring.”
Stonehill captured its fourth Presidents’ Cup in 2011-12 by accumulating a program-best 189.5 points during the academic year to edge second place Southern Connecticut State (177.0) by over 12 points. It marked the first time an institution has won the Cup three-straight years since Bentley won its last of three in a row in 2002-03. Stonehill has also finished in the top three in the final Presidents’ Cup standings eight straight years, but has not led after the fall season in any of the last three years.
In addition to capturing the NE-10 Presidents’ Cup for the third-straight year at the conclusion of the 2011-12 academic year, Stonehill finished ranked 68th in the final Learfield Sports Directors Cup standings which recognizes overall athletic achievement in NCAA championships. Stonehill, which received one of the inaugural Division II Presidents’ Awards for Academic Excellence last spring, has boasted an NCAA Academic Success Rate (ASR) over 97% each of the last three years. The athletic department was also recently ranked sixth in the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) Power Rankings used to assess the academic and athletic standards of all NCAA and NAIA athletic programs, marking a fourth straight top ten placement.
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