Director’s Cup Final Winter Standings
University Park, Pa. — Penn State’s winter sports teams were 11 of 11 in scoring in their respective NCAA Championships, keeping the Nittany Lions firmly in the Top 5 in the final winter Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings.
Penn State remains No. 3 in the Directors, Cup compilation, which adds results from the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Gymnastics Championships. The Nittany Lions earned their sixth consecutive Top 5 finish in the winter standings and have 13 Top 5 winter finishes in the 18 years of the Directors, Cup competition.
All 11 of Penn State winter sports teams qualified for and earned points in their respective NCAA Championships: men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s fencing (NCAA combined championship), men,’ and women’ gymnastics, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s indoor track and field and wrestling.
Penn State was the nation’s only school to have the above 11 sports all qualify for their respective NCAA Championship.
The Nittany Lions have accumulated 864.05 Directors, Cup points during another highly-successful athletic year, significantly higher than their total of 726.8 points in the final 2010 winter standings. Stanford leads with 1,048.5 points and is followed by Ohio State (886.3), Penn State (864.05), North Carolina (769.5) and Michigan (727.0). Oklahoma, Florida State, Duke, Wisconsin, and California round out the Top 10.
The Big Ten Conference leads the nation with four institutions in the Top 10 of the final Directors, Cup winter standings.
Coach Randy Jepson,s men,s gymnastics team placed sixth at the national championships to earn 64 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup points. Four Nittany Lions earned All-America honors with top eight finishes in the individual finals: Parker Raque, Miguel Pineda, Scott Rosenthal and Wasef Burbar. A junior, Pineda was selected for the prestigious NCAA Elite 88 Award for his remarkable 3.99 cumulative grade point average.
The Penn State women’s gymnastics team tied for 13th in the national championships to earn 59.3 Directors’ Cup points for first-year coach Jeff Thompson. A two-time first-team All-Big Ten honoree, sophomore Sharaya Musser placed 12th in her session of the all-around at the NCAA meet.
Earlier this winter, Penn State won its first NCAA Wrestling Championship since 1953 to garner 100 Directors’ Cup points. Penn State was the 2011 NCAA Fencing runner-up after winning the last two national titles.
Penn State has won 10 NCAA Championships since March 2007, the most of any school in the nation.
Penn State has finished in the Top 25 in each of the previous 17 Directors’ Cup competitions. The Nittany Lions are one of only 10 programs nationwide that has finished in the Top 25 in every ranking joining Arizona State, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio State, Southern California, Stanford, Texas, and UCLA.
The Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings are unveiled following the fall, winter and spring seasons. The award 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 20 sports — 10 women’s and 10 men’s.
