By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – The Spring 2018 semester saw several amazing performances from the Tennessee Tech athletics teams, with championships won and plenty of hardware coming back to Cookeville.
In the spring semester alone, Tech sent student-athletes to four NCAA postseason events and won four Ohio Valley Conference championships with tennis, women's indoor track and field, women's outdoor track and field and baseball all winning league championships.
With those efforts, it was no surprise to see Tech athletics surge to a sixth-place finish in the OVC Commissioner's Cup race when the league office announced the results on Tuesday.
It is the third straight year that the Golden Eagles finished in the top six in the league's final standings. The 93.75 points gathered by Tech is the second-most since the OVC combined the men's and women's all-sports trophies in 2008-09, eclipsed only by the 101.5 points scored last season in 2016-17.
"The feats accomplished by our student-athletes this year show that we are maintaining a standard of excellence in our program," said Tech director of athletics Mark Wilson, "but we know the sky is still the limit. We strive to reach newer heights and all of us in the Tennessee Tech Department of Athletics know that it is well within reach."
Tech received the full 12-point allotment in women's indoor and outdoor track and field and baseball, by virtue of winning the regular-season championship. Tennis took home 11.25 points, while soccer had 10.5.
Eastern Kentucky won the OVC Commissioner's Cup for the fifth-straight time and sixth of the last seven years with 118.5 points, followed by Murray State (114.5). The Colonels had six first-place finishes (men's and women's cross country, men's indoor and outdoor track and field, women's tennis and softball), while finishing second in three sports (women's indoor track and field, men's golf and soccer).
Belmont (111.25) was third, while Jacksonville State (110) and Austin Peay (101.5) rounded out the top five and above the century mark. Eastern Illinois (91.75), Southeast Missouri (88.5), Morehead State (74.5), SIUE (73), UT Martin (72.5) and Tennessee State (58.5) placed behind the Golden Eagles in the standings.
Points are awarded for each of the 18 OVC-sponsored sports. Under the current scoring system, the OVC institutions are required to count point totals for four main sports (football, volleyball, men's basketball and women's basketball) along with their next eight highest point totals from the remaining sports, regardless of gender. Belmont, Morehead State and SIUE do not compete in football in the OVC, so those schools count baseball as one of their four required sports.
For all sports – except rifle, men's tennis and men's indoor and outdoor track and field, which have fewer teams – the first-place team earns 12 points, second place 11, and so on. For rifle, men's tennis and men's indoor and outdoor track and field, the first-place team earns 12 and subsequent point increments are calculated by dividing the total number of OVC member institutions by the number that sponsor the sport (rifle is three less, men's tennis and men's indoor track are 1.75 less, and men's outdoor track is 1.5 less). The scoring system also includes a bonus point for the winner of the OVC tournaments for soccer, volleyball, basketball, tennis, softball and baseball.
