NE-10 Women's Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Champions |
NE-10 Men's & Women's Cross Country Champions |
NE-10 Football Regular Season Champions |
NE-10 Ice Hockey Regular Season Champions |
Skyhawks finish in top three for tenth straight year following six championships
EASTON, Mass. (June 3, 2014) – Four-time Northeast-10 Conference Presidents’ Cup Champions Stonehill College finished in second place by just 4.5 points in the final 2013-14 Presidents’ Cup standings announced by the Conference office at its annual awards dinner as part of the NE-10’s end of the year meetings being held at Essex Resort & Spa in Essex, Vermont, on Monday night.
It marks the tenth straight year Stonehill has finished in the top three of the final NE-10 Presidents’ Cup standings, which includes four Presidents’ Cup titles, having won three straight Cups from 2009-10 through 2011-12. The Skyhawks, who led the Presidents’ Cup standings with 110 points following the winter sports season after ranking third at the conclusion of the fall season (68 points), finished the year with 176 points – nine more than its 2012-13 point total. Adelphi University captured its second-straight Presidents’ Cup in just its fifth year as a Northeast-10 member with 180.5 points, an increase of 3.5 points over last year’s winning total. Rival Bentley University finished third with 168 points, with Merrimack College fourth (159) and Southern Connecticut State University rounding out the top five (145.5).
“I would like to congratulate our student-athletes, coaches, and the entire Skyhawk athletic community on our continued success in the NE-10 Presidents’ Cup Standings,” said Brendan J. Sullivan, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Stonehill. “Our second place finish represents ten consecutive years of a top three finish for Stonehill in a very competitive Division II athletic conference. Broad based athletic success coupled with high academic achievement is what we aspire to each year. Because of the hard work of our student-athletes and coaches we once again have met our high expectations for success.”
Stonehill finished the 2013-14 academic year with six Northeast-10 Championships, a total surpassed by just Southern New Hampshire University’s eight. Stonehill’s men’s and women’s cross country teams swept the NE-10 Championships in October for the third straight year, marking the women’s’ 12th title and seventh overall for the men, while women’s track & field captured its first two NE-10 titles by sweeping the indoor and outdoor championships, football claimed a share of its first NE-10 regular season title and ice hockey also won its first regular season crown with a perfect 11-0-0 record over the winter.
Women’s basketball and field hockey both earned NCAA Tournament bids over the course of the year, with men’s and women’s cross country both reaching the NCAA Division II Championships in Spokane, Washington, and the Skyhawks sending a program record 12 men’s and women’s student-athletes to the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in March and then three student-athletes to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, in Allendale, Michigan. Stonehill also sent two riders to the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IWLCA) National Championships, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with sophomore Emma Zamierowski (Winchester, Massachusetts/Winchester) capturing an individual national championship for walk-trot equitation.
Stonehill, which won the NE-10 Presidents’ Cup for the 2005-06, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years, earned nine more points than its final 2012-13 total, which was good for third place finish in the final standings. The Presidents' Cup is presented annually to signify overall athletic excellence in the Northeast-10. The honor is awarded to the institution that compiles the most cumulative points, based on finishes in the regular-season standings, from all of its programs competing in league championships. Points for men's and women's cross country, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track & field, and men's golf are awarded based on placement in those sports’ respective conference championships.
With 20 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. In addition to finishing in the top three in the final NE-10 Presidents' Cup standings ten straight years, the Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first three years of the program's existence of honoring programs with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. The Stonehill has earned a 97% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for fifth among all NCAA Division II institutions, with ten Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%. In addition, the Skyhawks are 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.
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