Cleveland, Ohio – After seeing multiple programs and individuals excel this past fall, the Lewis University Athletic Department landed in the top 50 nationally and first amongst all Division II Illinois schools in the NCAA Division II Learfield Directors' Cup fall sports standings.
Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in NCAA Championships. Overall, 15 sports are counted in the final Division II standings. Seven of those came this fall with women's and men's cross country, women's and men's soccer, women's field hockey, women's volleyball and football. This fall, the Flyers tallied 126 points to place 40
th nationally and second in the GLVC.
Four Flyer programs reached the postseason with women's volleyball, women's soccer and both men's and women's cross country all qualifying within the fall sports Lewis offers. Of those four, two, men's and women's cross country, advanced to their respective NCAA regional races where they scored points for Lewis in the Learfield Cup standings.
Looking at women's cross country, the Flyers collected their fourth consecutive GLVC Championship and advanced to the Midwest Regional. In the regional race, junior
Mary Edwards led the charge for Lewis, crossing the line in 21:08.0 and placed seventh overall. Senior
Josephine Bober followed close behind in 15th at 21:29.8, while senior
Madilyn Calloway finished 18th in 21:30.7. Their performances helped the Flyers place third and qualify for nationals. At nationals, the red and white placed 14
th overall, the highest finish of any GLVC program. Their 14
th place finish scored the Flyers 61.5 points in the Learfield Cup as well.
As for the men, they earned their third consecutive and 18
th overall GLVC Men's Cross Country Championship. Individually, junior
Evan Horgan won the race with a final time of 23:26.27, shattering the Lewis course record by 23 seconds. At the regional, Horgan led again with a second-place finish. Along with Horgan's second-place finish,
Jack Roberts placed 20th (31:25.37) to collect All-Region honors aside Horgan. The Flyers ended the year with a 12
th place finish at nationals with Horgan placing 7
th nationally to earn All-American accolades for the second time in his career. Lewis was the only GLVC program to place withing the top-15 and have an All-American at nationals as well. The Flyers performance at nationals helped net Lewis 64.5 points in the Learfield cup standings.
Along with both cross country programs, the women's volleyball and women's soccer team each qualified for the GLVC Tournament as well.
Within the state of Illinois, the Flyers outpaced McKendree (106
th), Quincy (124
th) and Illinois Springfield (Unranked) in the fall standings. Since 2014, no other Illinois-based Division I or II institution has averaged a better finish in the overall standings, making the Flyers the #1 performing NCAA program in the state over the past decade. In the same window of time, only 17 schools in Illinois—across all NCAA divisions—have appeared in at least five of the last ten standings updates. Among them, Lewis boasts the highest average finish.
The Learfield Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup trophy, commonly known as the all-sports trophy, is presented to the top athletic department in the country each year.
Standings published midseason are unofficial. Official standings will be published upon the completion of the spring season. Complete standings and the scoring structure can be found on NACDA's website at
www.directorscup.org.
For the latest news and updates on Lewis athletics, visit LewisFlyers.com and follow the Flyers on social media at @golewisflyers on Instagram and @LewisFlyers on X.
