Hope College has continued its long consecutive streak of winning the prestigious Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Commissioner's Cup by historic proportions.
Hope College has continued its long consecutive streak of winning the prestigious Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Commissioner's Cup by historic proportions.
The Commissioner's Cup is presented annually to the MIAA-member college that has the best cumulative performance in the league's 18 sports for men and women.
The final 2011-12 standings announced by the league today has Hope claiming the Commissioner's Cup by 31 points, the widest margin since men's and women's standings were combined to determine the winner in 1981-82. Hope also topped the men's and women's all-sports standings.
Hope has now won the Cup 12 consecutive years and for a league-record 34 times since the award was initiated by America's oldest collegiate athletic conference in 1934-35.
By contrast, Hope won the Cup in 2010-11 by only four points over rival Calvin and in 2009-10 the margin, again over Calvin, was a single point. In 2007-08 Hope and Calvin tied in the Cup race standings. This year Hope scored 213 points with outright league champions in men's golf, men's basketball, men's track & field, women's cross country and women's tennis and a co-championship in women's track & field.
The finishes of other teams were: football, second; men's soccer second; men's cross country, second; men's swimming & diving, second; volleyball, second; women's golf, second; women's basketball, second; women's swimming & diving, second; baseball, tied for second; men's tennis, third; women's soccer, tied for fourth; and softball, fifth. Hope qualified eight out of a possible nine teams for the MIAA's post-season tournaments which determine the conference automatic qualifier to the NCAA championships.
Commssioner's Cup Standings: 1. Hope 213, 2. Calvin 182, 3. Adrian 135, 4. Alma 121, 5. Albion 119, 6. Trine 115, 7. Kalamazoo 95, 8. Olivet 78.
Men’s All-Sports Standings: 1. Hope 101, 2. Calvin 76, 3. Trine 66, 4. Adrian 63, 4. Albion 63, 6. Kalamazoo 44, 7. Alma 42, 8. Olivet 35.
Women’s All-Sports Standings: 1. Hope 112, 2. Calvin 106, 3. Alma 79, 4. Adrian 72, 5. Saint Mary’s 66, 6. Albion 56, 7. Kalamazoo 51, 8. Trine 49, 9. Olivet 43.