Dec. 24, 2008

Complete Standings in PDF Format

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The recent fall athletic season was one of the most successful in University of Washington history and, according to the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings, is currently the third-best among 342 Division I schools in the country.

The Huskies rank third in the current Directors' Cup standings, released today by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), and are just four points behind second-place North Carolina. The standings do not include football, which is currently in the midst of bowl games.

Washington's ranking is the highest in school history at this point in the season. The previous best was a number eight rating following the fall 2003 season (including football), which was the only other top-10 ranking for the Huskies since the competition was started in 1993.

With four of its six fall sports teams participating in NCAA postseason competition, Washington compiled 261 points during the fall. Stanford leads all schools thus far in the season with 394 points, while North Carolina is second with 265.

Showing the strength of the Pacific-10 Conference, a total of six league schools are ranked among the top-15 in the ratings: Oregon (4th), USC (9th), UCLA (13th) and California (14th). The Atlantic Coast Conference was close behind with five, while the Big Ten Conference was third with three. Notre Dame was the only school not from one of those three conferences to be listed among the top 15 schools in the rankings.

The UW women's cross country team earned maximum points (100) with its first-ever national championship last month in Terre Haute, Ind. Washington placed five finishers among the top 40 and each runner earned All-America honors in one of the most dominating seasons in collegiate women's cross country history. Not surprisingly, coach Greg Metcalf was named the National Coach of the Year.

Washington's volleyball team advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for the fifth time in six seasons, narrowing missing out on a Final Four appearance after dropping a heartbreaking 3-2 decision to Nebraska. UW finished fifth in the final national rankings.

In one of the more remarkable turnarounds in women's college soccer, the UW advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. After a program-best NCAA Elite Eight finish and in 2004, UW went 0-17-3 in 2005 then won seven and five games the next two seasons. Last month, the Huskies defeated Louisiana State in the NCAA first round before dropping a 3-1 decision to host Texas A&M.

Despite missing its top runner due to injury, the Husky men's cross country team finished 18th at the national championships. The result was the UW's second top-20 finish for the men's program in the past three seasons, a feat the program had not achieved since 1994.