BYU Up to Eighth in Latest Sears Cup Standings

PROVO, Utah (April 26) - Led by the sixth-place finish of the women's indoor track and field team, the Cougar athletic program scored 362 points in the winter season to move up to eighth overall in the final winter 2000 Sears Cup Standings.

The Sears Cup is awarded annually to the Division I school that demonstrates a high level of athletic achievement in a variety of men's and women's sports. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in up to 20 sports -- 10 for men and 10 for women. Each national champion receives 100 points.

Stanford, winners six of the seven years the Cup has been awarded, holds a commanding lead heading into the spring season. Stanford has 970 points, followed by Michigan (775.5), Nebraska (754), Penn State (753.5), and UCLA (716).

The women's track and field team provided the biggest scoring output of the winter season with 78 points for a sixth-place indoor finish. The men's track team picked up an additional 47 points for its 34th-place finish. Also coming up big was the women's gymnastics team, which contributed 64 points in narrowly missing the NCAA Super Six. An NCAA tournament appearance earned the women's basketball team 20 points, and the women's swim team (29th, 39 points) and men's swim team (33rd, 34.5 points) used solid NCAA showings to combine for 73.5 more. (In their final seasons, the men's gymnastics team (9th, 32.5 points) and the wrestling team (37th, 47 points) made significant contributions to round out the winter scoring.

BYU had been in the tenth position at the conclusion of the fall season, with 202 points. A national championship in women's cross country provided nearly half the scoring with 100 points, and a ninth-place finish by the women's volleyball team added another 50 to the total. Rounding out the scoring were women's soccer (17th, 30 points) and men's cross country (30th, 22 points).

The women's teams are providing the majority of the scoring this year, as their 381 points are more than double the men's total of 183. BYU continues to dominate the Mountain West Conference in Sears Cup performance. The Cougars are more than 200 points ahead of their nearest competitor, Utah, which is in 41st place with 245 points.

Spring scoring will include BYU's performances in men's and women's outdoor track, men's volleyball, baseball, softball, and men's and women's golf.