ROCHESTER, NY – Ithaca College has won the Empire 8 Commissioner’s Cup for the 2012-13 year; marking the 13th consecutive year the Bombers have won the all-sports award.
Standings for the Commissioner’s Cup are determined by schools’ standings in conference sports. Ithaca, which sponsors 22 of the league’s 23 sports, totaled 130 points out of a possible 148 – good for a percentage of .878.
The top two rankings in the standings the last five years has always been a battle between Ithaca and Stevens Institute of Technology. The 2012-2013 academic year was no different and it all came down to the spring championships. Four hundredths of a percentage (.043) following the winter season separated the Bombers and Ducks but it was the Bombers who claimed top honors in three spring sports and runner-up points in three others to secure the Cup.
The Bombers had a strong showing across the board during the fall season to get the year started, winning six conference titles, which included men’s and women’s cross country, women’s golf and women’s tennis. Their conference titles in men’s and women’s soccer were shared with Stevens and Nazareth, respectively.
Ithaca won four more E8 titles during the winter season, which included men’s and women’s basketball, and men’s and women’s indoor track and field. The Bombers wrapped up the 2012-13 athletic year with an Empire 8 Championship in baseball and men’s and women’s outdoor track and field.
Stevens finished in second place with a percentage of .778, totaling four championships and eight second-place finishes. The .778 percentage is the highest total for the Ducks in any Commissioner Cup standing since joining the Empire 8. The previous highest was .729 during the 09-10 season.
Stevens shared the men’s soccer title in the fall and made the finals of the conference tournament in field hockey, women’s tennis and volleyball. The Ducks also finished as runner up in men’s cross-country and took third in women’s soccer. The winter season proved to be very successful for the Ducks as they won the men’s swimming and diving title for the second time in program history, and claimed the women’s conference crown for the first time, ending Ithaca’s 13-year streak. The Ducks also finished as runner up in men’s and women’s indoor track and field and men’s basketball. Stevens completed the academic year winning the conference title in men’s tennis for the fourth straight year.
Finishing in third place, sponsoring 21 conference sports, achieving three conference titles and one second-place finish are the St. John Fisher Cardinals. Fisher has earned its highest finish in the cup standings since the 09-10 year. The past two years the Cardinals have finished fourth.
Fisher kicked off the academic year with a third place finish in field hockey as a second-year program. The Cardinals also improved to third place in men’s soccer after not making the tournament the previous two years. Fisher placed third in men’s basketball and fourth in women’s basketball to headline the winter season. But it was the spring season when the Cardinals took flight. The men’s golf team won its eighth E8 title in the last nine years and softball won its fourth title in the last six years. The women’s lacrosse team defeated Ithaca in the championship game for the second straight year.
Nazareth finished .034 behind Fisher to place fourth in the final standings. In the fall, the Golden Flyers won the women’s volleyball title for the second straight year and earned a share of the women’s soccer title. The Golden Flyers finished second in women’s golf and took third in women’s cross country and women’s tennis. Nazareth consistently finished in the middle of the sports standings during the winter season but won its season E8 Championship title of the year during the spring. The men’s lacrosse team won its first championship since 2009.
Utica, Hartwick, Elmira and Alfred complete the standings.
Commissioner's Cup points are awarded based on each team's finish in the Empire 8 standings at the completion of the season. Points are awarded on a scale dependent upon the number of schools that sponsor the sport (affiliate members are not calculated into the point scale. Houghton is also not calculated into the standings based on NCAA provisional status). The conference championship team in each sport receives the highest amount of points, followed by the runner-up. Teams tied for a position are ranked based on tiebreaker scenarios. The actual amount of points earned is then divided by the amount of possible points for each school based on conference-sponsored sports to determine percentage.
|
Final 2012-2013 |
Actual Points |
Possible Points |
Percentage |
|
Ithaca |
130 |
148 |
.878 |
|
Stevens |
112 |
144 |
.778 |
|
St. John Fisher |
85 |
141 |
.603 |
|
Nazareth |
82 |
144 |
.569 |
|
Utica |
70 |
149 |
.470 |
|
Hartwick |
47 |
102 |
.461 |
|
Elmira |
42 |
94 |
.447 |
|
Alfred |
36 |
133 |
.271 |
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