ACU finishes 9th in Director's Cup race

Wildcats post 10th-straight top-15 finish

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - One of the best athletic years in recent Abilene Christian history culminated Friday with the Wildcats officially finishing ninth in the United States Sports Academy Directors' Cup standings in NCAA Division II.

The Wildcats finished with 514 points while Grand Valley State (Mich.) won its second straight title with 801 points.  Nebraska-Omaha was second with 607 points, followed by Cal State-Chico in third with 588.5 points, North Dakota in fourth with 584 points and Cal State-Bakersfield in fifth with 561 points.

ACU moved up six spots from last year's 15th-place finish to once again finish in the top, making it seven times in the 10-year history of the race for the Directors' Cup that ACU has finished in the top 10.  In fact, ACU and Cal State-Bakersfield are the only two NCAA Division II programs to have finished in the top 15 in all 10 years of the program.

The Wildcats have never won the Directors' Cup, but have finished second three times, and if not for a quirk in the scoring structure, they would have finished second in 2004-05.  The scoring structure does not differentiate between indoor and outdoor track, and only gives points for one or the other, depending on placement.

So the ACU men were only credited with one national championship (worth 100 points), while the women's second-place finish at the indoor meet (90 points) was better than its third-place finish at the outdoor meet.  Because of the scoring structure, the Wildcats were deprived of 180 potential points in the race for the cup.  Those points would have given ACU 694 points and vaulted them into second place, well ahead of Nebraska-Omaha.

ACU enjoyed a phenomenal athletic year with 13 of its 15 programs reaching NCAA post-season competition, including every women's program (cross country, volleyball, basketball, softball, tennis and track).  The Wildcats won six Lone Star Conference championships, seven LSC South Division titles, two regional championships and two NCAA Division II national titles on their way to their 10th straight LSC all-sports championship.

During the 2004-05 athletic year, 68 Wildcats were named all-Lone Star Conference, eight were named MVPs in their sport, 23 were named to all-region teams and 34 earned all-America honors.  On the academic side, 44 Wildcats were named academic all-LSC, four athletes were named LSC Academic Athlete of the Year in their sport, six were named academic all-District VI, and one -- senior pole vaulter Katie Eckley -- became the 24th ACU athlete in history to win the prestigious NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship.

In addition, in August the women's basketball program was ranked No. 5 in the NCAA Division II Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for the 2003-04 season.  And, former Wildcat basketball star Melanie Carter became just the third Wildcat ever to win the Texas Woman of the Year Award from the NCAA.  Carter joined former Wildcat stars Jennifer Clarkson and Jackie Bucher on the short list of ACU honorees.