School-record point total lifts Grizzlies to second in RMAC All-Sports Cup

Grizzlies fall just 2.8 shorts shy in closest ever battle

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— After winning four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championships while claiming four other top-4 finishes, the Adams State College Grizzlies finished a strong, yet agonizingly close second in the RMAC Wells/Fargo All-Sports Competition Cup standings for the 2010-11 academic year.

The Grizzlies, who won conference titles in men’s cross country, women’s indoor track and field, men’s outdoor track and field and women’s outdoor track and field, scored a school-record 824.2 points, just short of the 827 that Nebraska-Kearney recorded to win the cup for the second straight and 14th overall time.

The 2.8-point margin of victory was the closest in the history of the competition, which dates back to when the RMAC made the move to the NCAA Division II ranks in 1992.

The Grizzlies, who fell 13 ½ points short of the Lopers despite scoring a previous school-record 811 ½ points in 2009-10, have now finished second in each of the last four years and have been in the top 3 of the 14-school standings for an impressive eight straight years.  No other RMAC institution can make such boisterous claims.

ASC also ranks second for the most overall titles winning three straight from 1993-95 before the Lopers, who will leave the RMAC for the Mid-America Athletic Association after the 2011-12 academic year, started a run of 11 straight titles.  The Lopers also won the cup in 2007-08 in between two Metro State victories.

The Roadrunners finished third in this year’s standings with 789 points while Colorado Mines took fourth with 778.

Institutions earn points in a total of 10 sports, partially of their choosing.  100 points are awarded for each championship while other points are handed out on a sliding scale based on the number of institutions that contest that sport.  Each institution must count points from the RMAC’s four core sports and then counts points from six “wild card” sports— three men’s and three women’s.

The RMAC’s four core sports are men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball and football or men’s soccer.  Institutions that sponsor both football and men’s soccer can count points from whichever team earns more points.

The Grizzlies scored a conference-high 292 points in the women’s wild card section of the competition, earning 100 for both track and field titles and another 92 thanks to their runner-up finish in women’s cross country.  Nebraska-Kearney tallied just 255 in that section.

The Lopers did tally a maximum 300 points in the men’s wild card sports winning titles in baseball, men’s indoor track and field and wrestling.  The Grizzlies were just behind in that section with 286 points, earned thanks to the cross country and outdoor track and field titles and a second place finish in men’s indoor track & field.

The Grizzlies also fared well in the core sports tallying 246.2 points.  The women’s basketball team tied with Colorado Christian for third place in the RMAC regular season standings and earned 82.5 points while the Grizzly men’s basketball team was part of a 3-way tie for third, good for 78.7 points.  The football team finished fifth and tallied 60 points while the volleyball squad tied for 12th overall and scored 25 points.

With several of the spring sport championships yet to be decided, the Grizzlies have already won the RMAC’s 45th NCAA Division II National Championship as they won a third straight men’s cross country national title.  ASC, which has won 25 of those 45 titles, also have four other national-top 10 finishes thus far in 2010-11 and stand a RMAC-best third in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Standings at the end of the winter sports season. 

That nation-wide all-sports competition, conducted by NACDA (National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics) is based on teams’ finishes at the National Championship level where the RMAC/Wells Fargo Cup is based on finishes at the conference level.

Related Item: Complete Conference Release/Scoring Structure