BALTIMORE, MD – Fueled by top-15 finishes in NCAA Championship competition by nine teams, Johns Hopkins University accumulated 620.50 points and finished 18th in the final 2008-09 U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup standings. The 18th-place finish is the fifth top 20 finish for JHU in the last seven years, while the 620.50 points the Blue Jays accumulated rank as the second-best total in school history. Williams grabbed first place with 1,066.50 points to claim its 13th Directors’ Cup, while Middlebury, Amherst, Washington (MO) and Cortland State round out the top five. Johns Hopkins was the only school from the state of Maryland to finish in the top 20 and the only school from the Centennial Conference to finish in the top 45.
The Directors’ Cup is awarded annually by the National Association of College Directors of Athletics (NACDA), the U.S. Sports Academy and USA Today to the top overall athletic programs (Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA) in the country. Points in the standings are accumulated based on an institution’s finish in up to 18 sports (nine men • nine women) in NCAA Championship play. Johns Hopkins was represented in NCAA play by 13 of its 26 teams this year.
Hopkins finished off another highly successful year with a strong spring as six of the Blue Jays nine spring teams competed in the NCAAs. The baseball team made a late run, winning 15 of its last 20 games to advance to the regional championship game and pick up 64 points. The men’s and women’s tennis teams also grabbed 64 points apiece with NCA Sweet 16 appearances. The men’s lacrosse team added 60 points from its NCAA Quarterfinals appearance as the spring campaign contributed 252.00 points to the overall total of 620.50.
The efforts in the spring came on the heels of a winter that produced 164.50 points. The men’s and women’s swimming teams anchored JHU’s efforts in the winter as the women’s team earned 67.5 points with a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Championships, while the men totaled 66 points with an 11th-place showing. The Johns Hopkins men’s and women’s swimming teams have combined for over 100 points in the Directors’ Cup in each of the last 11 years. Junior Laura Paulsen took seventh in the one-mile run while the distance medley relay team also placed seventh, as the Blue Jays grabbed 31 points with a 39th-place finish.
Hopkins started off the year on a strong note as the men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey and women’s cross country teams combined to accumulate 204 points. The men’s and women’s soccer teams grabbed 64 points apiece by advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, while the field hockey team added 25 additional points with an appearance in the first round of the NCAAs. The women’s cross country team made its second straight trip the NCAA Championships and added 51 points with a 13th-place finish.
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