CMS Stands in Ninth Place in First Learfield Cup Standings
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletic program stands in a tie for ninth place in the first Learfield IMG College Directors' Cup standings for the 2019-20 academic year, which were released on Wednesday morning.
Only four sports have concluded their fall seasons, one of which (field hockey) isn't offered at CMS, but the Stags and Athenas earned top 20 finishes in the other three sports calculated in the current rankings, giving CMS 177.50 points. Johns Hopkins, which won national championships in women's cross country and volleyball, leads the way with 358 points, followed by MIT with 211 and Chicago with 208.50.
CMS men's cross country came in sixth place at the NCAA Division III Championships last weekend, earning 73.5 points, while women's cross country came in 20th to net 54 points. The CMS volleyball team, meanwhile, also earned 50 points by reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament, defeating WashU in the opening round before falling to No. 4 Carthage in the second round.
CMS will also get more points when the final standings from the fall are released on Dec. 12, with both men's and women's soccer reaching the Round of 16 after winning their regionals. The Stags won the regional at Trinity (Texas) with victories over Texas Lutheran and host Trinity, while the Athenas picked up two wins over Emory and Cal Lutheran.
The 128 points from the two soccer teams will give CMS a total of over 300 points in the fall, a big jump from last year when it came out of the fall with 178 points.
CMS is two years removed from its highest-ever finish in the Learfield Cup at third place after winning national championships in volleyball, women's tennis and women's golf during the 2017-18 academic year. Last year, CMS finished 12th behind a strong spring season, including runner-up finishes from men's and women's tennis and top-10 finishes from men's and womens' golf, marking the eighth straight year that it has finished in the top 15.