In its highest rating ever, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College athletics program has been ranked 19th out of 420 in the NCAA Division III winter rankings.

The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics introduced the Sports Academy Directors’ Cup (formerly called the Sears Directors’ Cup) in 1995-96 as a measure of the overall athletic success of colleges and universities in the three NCAA divisions as well as in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Besides awarding a trophy cup to the top school, the organization ranks the top 100 schools in each of the NCAA’s three divisions.

“This places us squarely among the top 5 percent of all Division III athletics programs,” said ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Director of Athletics Suzanne Coffey. “Our successes have come in both team and individual sports.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is one of four schools in the top 20 that are all members of NESCAC (the New England Small College Athletic Conference). “We compete in the strongest conference in Division III, and our ranking is evidence of our ability to win at both the NESCAC and national levels,” Coffey said. She noted that one year ago, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ was ranked 34th among the 420 NCAA Division III athletics programs.

The three other NESCAC teams are Williams (ranked first), Middlebury (fifth) and Amherst (11th). The only other Maine teams in the top 50 are Colby (24th) and Bowdoin (36th). The rankings are conducted three times a year: after fall, winter and spring sports seasons.

These winter standings include the sports of fencing, skiing, women’s and men’s basketball, ice hockey, swimming, track and field, and men’s wrestling.

The Sports Academy Directors’ Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and USA Today. The United States Sports Academy, based in Daphne, Ala., is the program sponsor. Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in up to 18 sports — nine women’s and nine men’s.

The ranking was announced at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ April 10 before 546 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student-athletes at the college’s annual All-Sports Awards Banquet. Varsity athletes constitute almost one-third of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student body.

In like a lion, out like a…

Champion?

It’s possible.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College women’s basketball team continues to play through March for the first time since the 1999-2000 season, advancing to the Division III Sweet 16 with an 83-64 win over Emmanuel in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Bobcats will take on the University of Southern Maine Friday at 8 p.m. in Gorham. The winner will face the winner of Springfield-Wesleyan in the Elite 8 on Saturday, also in Gorham. for directions to the USM campus.

Tickets to Friday’s game ($7/adults and $5/students and senior citizens) go on sale Wednesday, March 9, in the USM Ice Arena lobby starting at noon. There is a maximum of four tickets per person. Tickets can also be purchased at the door on Friday.

Advance tickets will be sold at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in the front office of Alumni Gym on Wednesday from 2-4 p.m., and Thursday noon to 5 p.m. Fan busses will depart from Chase Hall at 6 p.m. Friday. To reserve a seat, sign up when you purchase tickets.

The winner of the NCAA sectional advances to the Final Four, held the weekend of March 18 in Virginia Beach.

Making its fifth appearance in the NCAA tournament, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has advanced to the Sweet 16 once, but lost to Johns Hopkins, 69-56, during the 1997-98 season.

The ’97-98 squad set the school record for wins in a season (22).

It was a record that stood until this year.

Ranked No. 3 in the D3hoops.com national poll and No. 4 in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches’ poll, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is 25-2, having lost only to top-ranked Bowdoin. The Bobcats began the season unranked and climbed to as high as No. 1, a ranking they held from Feb. 8 to Feb. 29.

Last week, four Bobcats were honored by the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

A first team selection, Olivia Zurek ’05 (Arlington, Mass.) was named NESCAC player of the year, while Meg Coffin ’07 (Westford, Mass.) was named to the second team. Sarah Barton (Portsmouth, N.H.) earned co-rookie of the year honors, and Jim Murphy was named conference coach of the year.

It has been a season marked by records and milestones.

• Against Bowdoin on Feb. 1, Murphy recorded his 200th career win in 11 seasons.

• Against USM, Zurek scored her 1,000th career point. She is the No. 1 rebounder in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ history (869) and ranks second in scoring (1,424). She was named NESCAC player of the week three times and Maine player of the week twice. She is a finalist for the Josten’s player of the year award.

• ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ tied the school record for consecutive wins, winning 12 games from Nov. 19 to Jan. 11.

• ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ finished No. 2 in NESCAC for the third straight year and won three tournaments (at Salem State, St. Joe’s of Maine, and Williams).

• The Bobcats set the school record for points allowed in a game, holding the University of Maine at Presque Isle to 18 on Dec. 10. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ also set the school record for largest margin of victory (91), beating the Owls, 109-18.

The Bobcats beat USM and Wesleyan in the regular season, making them the favorite in sectional play. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ beat USM, 61-37, on Nov. 23, and Wesleyan, 84-49, on Jan. 29.

Despite all the individual accolades this season, Murphy attributes ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ success to selfless team play, evidenced by the assist record set this season (504). It is the sixth time the assist record has been broken during Murphy’s tenure.

Murphy emphasized the team-first approach before the NCAA tournament.

Practicing in Alumni Gym the night before the Emmanuel game, he gathered his players around the center circle and said:

“Remember, if you shoot too much, people say you’re a gunner. If you dribble too much, people call you a ‘hot dog’. If you pass too much, people say you’re not aggressive enough. If you rebound too much, people call you a champion.�

It may look like a lion, but it’s Bobcat basketball.

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The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College men’s cross country team advanced to the 2004 NCAA Division III Championship with a fourth place finish at the New England regional on Saturday afternoon at Twin Brook Recreation Center.

Fifth-ranked Tufts won the meet, placing all five runners in the top 20 to score just 62 points. Williams, ranked 10th, was second with 83 points, while Keene State was third with 112. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ scored 145 points, edging Wesleyan (189) and 20th-ranked MIT (190) for the final qualifying spot.

Dan Johnson ’06 (Detroit Lakes, Minn.) led the Bobcats, finishing 13th in the 280-runner field with a time of 26:29.5 on the five-mile course. MIT’s Ben Schmeckpeper beat Williams’ Neal Holtshulte by less than two seconds in 25:37.6.

Joel Anderson ’05 (New Brighton, Minn.) and Steve Monsulick ’07 (Kents Hill, Maine) were both less than 25 seconds behind Johnson in 26th and 27th, while Michael Downing ’05 (Gorham, Maine) was 34th. Matt Biggart ’06 (Cheshire, Conn.) was 45th to round out the scoring for the Bobcats, who will return to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 1999.

The national championship meet will be held next Saturday at the Chippewa Valley Convention & Visitor’s Bureauin in Eau Claire, Wis.

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The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College men’s cross country team is ranked ninth nationally among NCAA Division III institutions, and the women’s soccer team made its debut in the national polls on Tuesday, ranking 21st.

The men’s cross country team has won three meets this season, including the State of Maine championship last weekend. The Bobcats’ lone finish outside of first came at the Open New England Championships, where ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ was 12th overall and fourth among D-III schools. The Bobcats have been ranked nationally all season, with this week’s ranking the highest in the tenure of head coach Al Fereshetian, in his ninth season at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

The women’s soccer team is ranked third in New England, moving up from sixth last week. The Bobcats, now 8-2-1 overall, 3-2-1 NESCAC, posted a 6-0 win over Skidmore and a 4-0 win over Wesleyan last week. With three games remaining in the regular season, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ sits in fourth in the NESCAC standings.

The men’s soccer team is also regionally ranked, sitting in ninth place in the New England polls. The Bobcats, who tied Wesleyan 1-1 on Saturday, are 7-2-1, 2-2-1 and are in sixth place in the conference standings with four games remaining.

Both soccer teams play a pair of road games this week, facing Trinity on Wednesday and Middlebury on Saturday. The men’s cross country team has this weekend off, but will compete for the NESCAC title next weekend at Colby.

Visit the for the latest information on ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ varsity sports.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College junior Justin Easter of Jay, Maine, has produced the College’s second national champion in as many days, winning the 3,000-meter steeplechase today at the NCAA Division III track and field championships at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Senior hammer thrower Jaime Sawler of Stratham, N.H., won his second career national championship on Thursday, capturing the hammer throw.

Easter, the top seed in the steeplechase headed into the national championships, won the race with a time of 9:02.02. He defeated second-place finisher Ryan Reed of Pacific Lutheran College by just over three-tenths of a second. Easter jumped out to an early lead during the first lap, then fell back into the pack for the next three laps. With about a mile to go, he returned to the front of the pack, stretching his lead to about 15 meters. Easter held off a hard-charging Reed to earn his first national championship. He had finished seventh and third in his previous NCAA steeplechase races in 2000 and 2001.

Sawler, the top seed in the hammer entering the meet, won Thursday’s competition with a throw of 188 feet, six inches. He defeated runner-up Justin Minor of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater by seven-and-a-half feet.

Sawler completed the 2002 season undefeated against Division III competition, also winning the 35-pound weight during the indoor track and field season. Sawler is the third athlete in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ history to win multiple NCAA titles. He joins Wayne Pangburn (class of 1966), who won the NCAA College Division championships in the hammer in 1965 and 1966, and John Fitzgerald (class of 1987), who won the indoor 5,000-meters in 1986 and the outdoor 10,000-meters in 1987.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has now won 12 individual national track and field titles all time. Easter’s is the eighth outdoors and the fourth under current head coach Al Fereshetian. He is the first Bobcat runner to win a national title since Fitzgerald’s in the 10,000. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ previous four titles were won by field athletes, including Sawler’s two.

Behind the two championship performances, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ scored 20 points, the most-ever by a Bobcat team. They were eighth overall and second among New England teams. The University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse won the meet with 64 points, while Wheaton College was the top New England team in fifth place with 29 points. The eighth-place finish was also the school’s best-ever finish at the NCAA outdoor track championships and matches the second-highest in any championship. The 1977 men’s cross country team’s sixth place is the college’s standard as a member of Division III, while the 1996 women’s soccer team also finished in a tie for eighth.

Junior Kelley Puglisi of Scotia, N.Y., earned her first career All-America honor May 25 by finishing third in the 1,500-meter run. Puglisi, who entered the NCAA championships as the 11th seed, finished third with a school-record time of 4:37.92. She broke her own record, set at the New England Division III championships on May 7, by nine-hundredths of a second. Puglisi was the top finisher from New England in the event. She placed seven seconds behind champion Missy Buttry of Wartburg (Iowa) College. Puglisi is the fifth woman in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ outdoor track and field history to earn All-America honors and the first in the 1,500-meter run. Her third-place finish was the highest by a Bobcat woman at the championships since Heather Bumps (class of 1997) placed third in the javelin in 1996.

The six points scored by Puglisi helped the Bobcats to a six-way tie for 38th place. The finish was the highest for the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ women since 1996, when they finished in 37th place.

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ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College junior Justin Easter of Jay, Maine, finished 19th out of 215 runners Nov. 17 at the NCAA Division III cross country championships at Augustana College, earning his first All-America honor in cross country and the third overall in his career.

Easter finished the five-mile course in a lifetime best 24:43. Running near the 30th position after four miles, he ran 4:41 in the final mile to improve nearly 15 spots. “Justin ran a fantastic race,” said head coach Al Fereshetian. “The conditions were difficult, around 70 degrees. That made his peformance all the more impressive.”

Easter was the fourth runner from New England to finish the race and the ninth junior. His previous best finish at the NCAAs was in 37th place last year.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College junior Justin Easter of Jay, Maine, finished 19th out of 215 runners Nov. 17 at the NCAA Division III cross country championships at Augustana College, earning his first All-America honor in cross country and the third overall in his career.

Easter finished the five-mile course in a lifetime best 24:43. Running near the 30th position after four miles, he ran 4:41 in the final mile to improve nearly 15 spots. “Justin ran a fantastic race,” said head coach Al Fereshetian. “The conditions were difficult, around 70 degrees. That made his peformance all the more impressive.”

Easter was the fourth runner from New England to finish the race and the ninth junior. His previous best finish at the NCAAs was in 37th place last year.

The National Association of Collegiate Women’s Athletic Administrators (NACWAA) has recognized ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Director of Athletics Suzanne Coffey as its 2001 NCAA Division III Administrator of the Year. Coffey will be honored at the Jostens Administrator of the Year banquet Oct. 15 in Wilmington, N.C.

Coffey has served as Director of Athletics at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ since 1991, after serving as interim director in 1990. She has been active on the national level of intercollegiate athletics, serving as Chair of the NCAA Division III Interpretations Committee and Legislative Committee. She has chaired the NCAA Lacrosse National Championships Committee, served on the Division III Management Council, and has served as an executive board member and as vice president of the Lacrosse Coaches Association.

Coffey received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Art from the University of New Hampshire and received her Masters in public policy from the Edmund Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. She came to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1986 as the Bobcats’ third head coach of women’s lacrosse. In 10 years coaching the Bobcats, Coffey compiled an 88-46 record, leading ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to its only appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament in 1992.

Coffey has overseen the expansion of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ athletic facilities with the opening of the James Wallach Tennis Center and the Campus Avenue AstroTurf field in 2000 and the Russell Street Track and Soccer Field in 2001.

“We are both pleased and proud that Suzanne has received this recognition,” said ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Donald W. Harward. “Her accomplishments and significant responsibilities are ample evidence of how deserving she is of this award.”

The other administrators recognized for the 2001 award are J. Elaine Hieber, Iowa State University, Marilyn McNeil, Monmouth University, M. Dianne Murphy, University of Denver, Pam Gill-Fisher, University of California-Davis, Norma Dycus, Sinclair Community College and Carol Iwaoka, Big Ten Conference.