CMS Stands in 19th Place in LEARFIELD Directors' Cup Standings after Fall Season

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Claremont-Mudd-Scripps earned a spot in the top 20 (19th) in the NCAA Division III LEARFIELD Director's Cup standings in the fall season, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics announced today.

CMS was the highest-ranked team in the West Region, with Trinity (Texas) in 26th, Colorado College in 30th, and Pomona-Pitzer the second-best SCIAC school in 33rd. Johns Hopkins ranks first, followed by Middlebury, Cortland, Tufts and UW-La Crosse in the top five. NYU, Emory, Williams, Amherst and MIT place in the 6-10 spots. 

CMS has 227.5 points after the fall, with three of its programs earning high point totals at their respective NCAA Championships. Volleyball tied for third by reaching the NCAA Division III Semifinals, which were held at Roberts Pavilion, and earned 83 points. Women's cross country was fourth in the nation and collected 80 points, while men's cross country placed 12th and earned 64.5 points. 

All three programs exceeded their performances from a year ago, when women's cross country was 10th, men's cross country was 15th, and volleyball tied for ninth as regional finalists. CMS had 191.5 points after the fall last year, but exceeded that by 36 this time around. 

Adding to the success of the department, CMS men's water polo won its national championship, but did not factor into the LEARFIELD Cup standings, which calculates performance in NCAA competition, since the Division III water polo postseason tournament is sponsored by USA Water Polo. 

The 19th place finish after the fall puts CMS ahead of where it stood last year, when it was in 21st place in December, and then surged to a 10th place finish after a very strong spring season. A year ago, women's tennis (national champions), men's tennis (semifinalists), men's golf (third) and women's golf (third) all finished in the top four in the nation to help CMS vault from 28th after the conclusion of the winter season, up into tenth in the final standings, thanks to the second-highest spring point total in the country. 

The highest that CMS has ever finished in the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup was in third place in 2017-18, after women's tennis, women's golf and volleyball all won national titles. CMS has finished in the top 15 in each of the last 10 years the standings were compiled (not counting a two-year hiatus for the pandemic), and has been in the top 10 in five of the last six years.