Emory athletics finishes 4th in Directors' Cup

John Arenberg is sports information diretor.

Emory finished fourth in the nation among 395 NCAA Division III schools in the final standings for the 2001 Sears Directors’ Cup, presented to the school with the best all-around athletics program.

This is the sixth consecutive year Emory has finished in the top 25 nationally and is the Eagles’ best finish since 1997.

Standings are derived from a mathematical formula based on each school’s performance at the NCAA national championships. Emory benefited from four top-10 finishes at the nationals and 10 top-25 finishes overall.

Teams placing in the top 10 nationally were men’s swimming and diving (second), women’s tennis (third), women’s swimming and diving (fourth), and men’s tennis (quarterfinalist). Of Emory’s 18 varsity teams, 12 participated in their respective NCAA national championships.

Emory finished 14th in the 2000 Directors’ Cup standings, 22nd in 1999, 14th in 1998, fourth in 1997 and seventh in 1996, the first year standings were compiled for Div. III schools.

Emory is one of six schools in the nation regardless of division—Div. I Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame and UC-Berkeley, and Div. III Washington (Mo.) were the others—to place in the top 20 in both the Sears Directors’ Cup standings (4th) and the latest annual U.S. News and World Report rankings of best national universities (18th).

Baseball
Emory finished ninth in the final national rankings, its second consecutive year in the top 10. The Eagles advanced to the finals of the Div. III regional championship. The squad set a school record with 36 wins against only nine losses.

Golf
A school-record streak of four consecutive top-10 finishes at the national championships came to an end this season. Emory was eighth in the final regional rankings compiled by the golf coaches association. The team’s scoring average, 307.5 shots per round, was fourth best in school history.

Softball
Emory earned its first-ever invitation to the NCAA national tournament in just its third season of varsity competition. The squad was eliminated in the regional finals, won by eventual national champion Muskingum (Ohio), and finished with a 37-13 record.

Tennis (Men)
Emory wound up fifth in the final Div. III rankings. The Eagles were eliminated in the national quarterfinals by UC-Santa Cruz, eventual national runner-up. The team’s final record was 17-6.

Tennis (Women)
The doubles pairing of freshman Mary Ellen Gordon and junior Anusha Natarajan won the Div. III national championship, a first in school history. In the team competition, the Eagles placed third, losing to the eventual national champion Williams (Mass.). The squad compiled an
18-4 record in dual-match competition.

Track & Field (Women)
The women’s outdoor track and field team finished 18th at the Div. III championships, the best finish in school history. For the third time ever, the Eagles had two All-Americans in the same year: junior Danielle LeSure, who won Emory’s first national title in the hammer throw; and senior Kendra Robins, who placed fourth in the javelin.

Track & Field (Men)
The men’s outdoor track and field team finished 26th in the final national poll coordinated by the track coaches association. For the first time since 1996, Emory won both the University Athletic Association (UAA) indoor and outdoor championships. Six Emory athletes qualified as individuals for the Div. III national championships.

Emory varsity sports season recaps are available on the Web at www.emory.edu/SPORTS.