By: Cayden Acord
Sports Editor
After strong fall and winter seasons that included a national championship in men’s cross country and an individual NCAA indoor track title from Hamza Chahid in the 5,000 meters, the Wingate’s athletic program has climbed to third in the 2023-24 Learfield Directors’ Cup rankings.
The Learfield Directors’ Cup is an annual competition among NCAA schools that awards points based on each institution’s finish in national postseason championships at the Division 1, 2 and 3 levels. There are 213 Division 2 schools like Wingate that are eligible to compete for the Cup.
The Bulldogs trail only first-place Grand Valley State (792.5 points) and No. 2 Colorado School of Mines (632.5) in the Division 2 race. The Bulldogs are third with 539 points, while West Texas A&M (481.5) and Colorado Mesa (465.5) are fourth and fifth, respectively. Notably, Wingate is the only school in the Southeast Region ranked among the top 10. The next-highest South Atlantic Conference school rival is No. 14 Lenoir-Rhyne with 367 points.
Wingate has three top-10 finishes in Learfield Directors’ Cup history, finishing eighth in 2018 and sixth in 2015. Due to Covid-19, there was no Directors’ Cup in the 2020-21 season, when Wingate won a national championship in baseball.
Wingate teams picking up significant points during the fall and winter seasons included men’s cross country (100 points for winning the NCAA title), women’s cross country (70.5 for an eighth-place finish), men’s indoor track (69 for a ninth-place showing), men’s swimming (66, 11th), women’s swimming (58.5, 16th), volleyball (50) and and men’s soccer (50).
Wingate entered the spring with eight programs ranked in the Top 25, so there’s still time to rack up many more points, as men’s and women’s tennis have both clinched the SAC regular-season title and are No. 16 and No. 6 in the rankings, respectively. Men’s track ranks No. 6 and men’s lacrosse sits at No. 7. Softball is No. 10 nationally and currently on a 19-game winning streak at 39-6 overall. Women’s lacrosse is ranked No. 16 and women’s golf is No. 18. The always-strong Bulldog baseball team is second in the SAC at 16-6 with nine regular-season games left before postseason play begins in early May.
“We are looking forward to finishing strong in the spring,” said Wingate Athletic Director Joe Reich.
Wingate Triangle 