LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Thanks to top 10 finishes by men's and women's swimming and women's indoor track along with quarterfinal appearances by the men's and women's basketball teams, Biola University has moved up into third place in the Learfield Sports Director's Cup standings released on Thursday.
The Eagles match their highest-ever ranking in the Director's Cup Winter Standings and have now placed third in the winter standings three-straight seasons. The Director's Cup is designed to measure the overall success of a school's athletic department among the over 300 NAIA schools. Biola has 509.0 points overall, just 35 behind second place Oklahoma Baptist University. Azusa Pacific is in first with 673 points.
Biola received its most points in men's and women's basketball. Both teams advanced to the NAIA Quarterfinals, earning 70 points. For the women, it was the furthest the Eagles had ever gone in the tournament while the men made their third-straight trip to the round of eight.
The Biola swim teams also had great showings at the national championships. The men's swim team earned 63 points with a sixth-place finish with the women's team earning 64.5 points for an eighth-place finish.
The women's indoor track and field team earned 67.5 points by finishing 10th at the NAIA Championships, its fifth-straight top-10 finish.
Biola finished 11th in the Director's Cup standings last year--its best-ever finish.
The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in up to 14 sports--seven women's and seven men's.
The Director Cup program's philosophy is: “A program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, achieving success in many sports, both men's and women's, in which all sports that the NCAA or NAIA offers a championship, along with Division I-A football, and all student-athletes that compete in those sports, are treated equally,” according to the Learfield Sports Directors Cup website.
