June 12, 2007

Report: Amherst fourth in final Directors' Cup standings

Although, at the time of this entry, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) has not yet formally released the final results of the Directors’ Cup, which is awarded to the college with the best intercollegiate athletic department (based on a scoring system that awards points based on a school’s performance in NCAA Division III tournament competition), Williams College, via its sports information department, announced that it has won the Directors’ Cup for the ninth consecutive year.

Also contained in the press release (scroll down to the bottom) is a list of top 10 finishers. Amherst placed fourth on the list. Middlebury was second and SUNY Cortland was third.

This would be the highest finish ever for Amherst in the history of the award. Once the NACDA posts the official list, I’ll have a couple more comments. In the meantime, congratulations to the athletes, coaches and all their supporters for a great year!

UPDATE (5:18 CST): It’s official, Amherst has placed fourth in the Directors’ Cup.

Although Brian highlighted the national championship won by the Amherst men’s basketball team, we fell behind in discussing some other special athletic accomplishments from the winter and spring which added points to Amherst’s Directors’ Cup score. Here they are in no particular order.

Women’s swimming and diving finished second at nationals, behind Kenyon College, but ahead of defending champion Emory University and NESCAC champion Williams. Brittany Sasser ‘08 was named Swimmer of the Meet and Head Coach Nick Nichols took home Coach of the Meet.

Women’s ice hockey qualified for the Division III Frozen Four, after a breakout season which featured its first NESCAC Championship, earned after stunning national runner-up Middlebury in triple overtime. Goaltender Krystyn Elek ‘10, who was outstanding all season, stopped 65 of 66 shots on goal in that contest alone.

2007 marked another outstanding year for Coach Jackie Bagwell and the women’s tennis team which also finished second in the national tournament, falling to Washington and Lee University in the final. In the individual tournament, Alicia Menezes ‘08 and Brittany Berckes ‘10 won the national doubles title, the first such win in Amherst history . Women’s tennis has advanced to at least the quarterfinal round of the national tournament every year since 1998.

Women’s track and field took fourth place at the NCAA Championships. Shauneen Garrahan ‘07 capped off an outstanding career by winning three individual championships in the three day meet.

Did we overlook any special team or individual performances? Please let us know in the comments.

Again, congratulations to all!

Dave Nardolillo '98 | June 12, 2007 12:11 PM | Athletics | Student Life

Comments

Parker Morse '96 | June 12, 2007 10:50 PM:

Garrahan was athlete of the meet at D3 Nationals for her triple win; I think it was the first time a woman had won that triple, though Widener's Macharia Yuot pulled it off on the men's side last year. Like the swim team, she was not expected to pull that off. Garrahan was also part of the women's XC team which was 2nd at their national meet in November. (When I was at Amherst, we struggled to not finish dead last in New England. How quickly things change.)

I talked to Sasser's mother at the New England Masters swim meet last March (where a very interesting alumni photo was taken, if I can ever get hold of a copy,) and she said they referred to Kenyon as "the pros." They dominate D3 swimming. But Amherst qualified a few more swimmers than they might have expected, and everyone swam their best on the day - a sort of "dream meet" where everyone peaks at just the right time and nothing goes wrong.

Dave Nardolillo '98 | June 12, 2007 11:26 PM:

Thanks, Parker. Along with the miss of women's XC, I passed over women's soccer, men's soccer and volleyball. All three sports had solid NCAA tournament runs earning 73, 50 and 50 points respectively towards the Directors' Cup.

Dave Nardolillo '98 | June 13, 2007 02:10 PM:

The press release from the Amherst SID is here:

http://www.amherst.edu/sports/current/misc/0612_SpringDirector'sCup.html

The release contains a rundown of all the point-scoring teams for the Jeffs.

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