Wells Places Fourth In NEAC Presidents' Cup Standings
DETAILED PRESIDENTS' CUP RESULTS (PDF)
GANSEVOORT, N.Y. – Out of the 14 North Eastern Athletic Conference colleges and universities, Wells College finished fourth in the annual Presidents’ Cup, NEAC Commissioner Candice Poiss Murray announced Monday afternoon. The award ranks the conference’s member institutions based upon athletics success, academics, sportsmanship and community service.
Wells earned 22.5 total points and placed fourth, falling short of a second place overall finish by only one-half of a point. Express student-athletes were ranked the third-strongest academically, earning three points, while their overall sportsmanship was slotted fourth in the 14-team league. From a community service perspective, Wells finished with 6.5 points (out of 14) and wrapped up the year ranked ninth in terms of athletics performance.
“I am very proud of the efforts produced by our student-athletes at Wells College this past academic year,” said Director of Athletics Michael Lindberg. “In collaboration with the faculty and administration, our coaches and staff have set high standards for their respective teams in all aspects of the Division III experience - scholarship, competition, sportsmanship, and service.”
Penn St.-Abington captured their second-straight Presidents’ Cup with 18 total points while Penn St.-Berks and Keuka College each tied for second place with 22 points.
In year’s past, the Presidents’ Cup evaluated success solely based upon athletics success. In an effort to reflect the core values of NCAA Division III, however, institutions are now evaluated on four specific categories to provide a well-rounded overview of their successes in the past academic year.
Each of the NEAC’s full-member institutions were given a ranking based on their results from each category, with the total rankings from all four then being added together to determine the overall winner, who is then crowned the overall Presidents’ Cup honoree. The lower the overall score, the better the rank.
FACULTY ATHLETIC REPRESENTATIVES’ CUP (3rd/14): Submitted by Wells FAR Jackie Schnurr, Wells placed third overall in the Faculty Athletic Representatives’ Cup. Student-athletes at Wells averaged a 3.109 grade-point average in 2014-15 while 43.8% of student-athletes at Wells earned NEAC Scholar-Athlete distinction this past year. Both figures ranked third when compared to other member institutions and the Express ended up trailing only Penn St.-Berks and the College of St. Elizabeth.
DIRECT REPORTS’ CUP (4th/14): Reported by the Provost and Dean of the College, Dr. Cindy Speaker, Wells teams ranked fourth out of 14 teams based upon sportsmanship. The Wells men’s lacrosse, men’s soccer and men’s and women’s swimming teams were voted by the league’s coaches as boasting the highest-demonstrated levels of sportsmanship in the prior athletics season of competition.
SENIOR WOMAN ADMINSTRATORS’ CUP (T-6th/14): According to Wells’ Senior Woman Administrator Trish George, Wells student-athletes raised the sixth-highest amount of funds and had over 408 individual participants in community service activities in 2014-15. Combining to post 481 total hours of community service, Wells posted a strong sixth-place finish when compared to other league members.
ATHLETICS DIRECTORS’ CUP (T-9th/14): After calculating each team’s finish in the standings (total points earned) divided by the total number of teams in each division, women’s sports teams at Wells posted a percentage of .600, their best performance in the women’s standings since the 2011-12 athletics seasons.
This new and unique approach to determine the NEAC Presidents’ Cup winner appears to be the first model of its kind across all 43 NCAA Division III conferences.
“I am very proud of the initial success and results of our new Presidents' Cup Award and especially the unique elements of each of the additional sub-cups,” said Commissioner Murray. “The NEAC Presidents’ Cup now truly represents the essence of an NCAA Division III student-athlete experience. We highlight the many outstanding accomplishments on each of our campuses and really highlight what Division III is all about. Every campus now has an opportunity to showcase their many strengths.”
