Notre Dame Finishes 11th in Sears Directors’ Cup Competition

A national championship in women’s soccer and a runner-up finish at the men’s and women’s combined fencing team championship helped the University of Notre Dame place 11th in the 1995-96 Sears Director’s Cup competition.

Irish athletic teams earned an 11th-place finish in the inaugural Director’s Cup competition two years ago (1993-94) and were 30th a year ago following the 1994-95 school year.

The Sears’ Director’s Cup, sponsored by the National Association of Collegiate Director’s of Athletics (NACDA) and promoted by USA Today, annually recognizes the top Division I schools in 22 sports — nine of both men and women — plus two wild sports for both men and women.

Notre Dame finished with a 566.5 point total. Stanford won the competition for the second straight year with 961.5 points. Stanford was followed by UCLA (836.0), Florida (731.5), Texas (700.0), Michigan (689.0), North Carolina (673.5), Arizona (629.5), Penn State (626.0), Nebraska (623.0) and Southern California (598.9).

Below is a listing of Notre Dame’s place and point totals for each of the 12 sports which competed in post-season competition:

                         NationalSport                          Finish  Pts. ReceivedWomen's Basketball:            17th      40.5Baseball:                      25th      36.0Men's Cross Country:            8th      56.5Fencing:                       2nd      63.0Football:(CNN/USA Today Poll)  13th      52.0 Men's Lacrosse:                 9th      54.5 Women's Soccer:                 1st      64.0 Softball:                      25th      36.5Women's Swimming:              31st      34.0 Women's Tennis:                 5th      58.5 Men's Tennis:                  41st      18.5 Volleyball:                     9th      52.5