Covenant Finishes 6th In USA South Presidents Cup Standings

Thursday, April 19, 2018
Andrew Mindeman

The USA South released the final 2017-18 Presidents Cup standings earlier this week after the conclusion of the spring conference tournaments. Covenant placed sixth in the overall standings, sixth in the men's standings, and third in the women's rankings.

It is the second consecutive year that Covenant has placed sixth overall. The sixth place finish is tied for the second-highest for Covenant since joining the conference in 2013-14, while the third place finish for women's sports is tied for the highest in those five years.

On the year, Covenant collected two conference regular season divisional championships (volleyball and men's tennis), with one conference tournament title (volleyball).

Men's and women's cross country both placed second in the conference meet where Lilly Smith was runner-up in the women's meet, while men's basketball was the runner-up in the USA South Tournament.

The USA South Presidents Cup symbolizes the league's top men's and women's athletic program each year. The Presidents Cup is awarded by a points system where the first place team in each sport will be awarded the number of points that corresponds to the number of schools that sponsor teams in that sport. The second place team receives one point less than the first place team and so on, down to one point for the last place team that competes. Additionally for all sports, with the exception of football, the team winning the USA South Tournament championship will receive two bonus points for that sport while the runner-up will receive one bonus point.

In the sports of golf and cross country, the athlete placing first will earn two bonus points for his/her institution while the runner-up will earn one bonus point. If athletes from the same institution place first and second, that institution will earn the two bonus points for the first place finish only. Finally, for those sports with divisional standings, the Presidents Cup points are separated by divisions.

Piedmont was the overall winner and the women's winner, while Methodist took home the men's title.