1/15/2016 other sports Edit

Notre Dame Ranked Ninth In Fall Directors’ Cup Standings

Jordan Wells • InsideNDSports

Staff

Notre Dame’s collective fall sports programs ranked among the best in the country this year, according to the Directors’ Cup standings.

Brian Kelly’s squad picked up the second most fall points for Notre Dame in the Directors’ Cup.

The Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup awards points for the finish of up to 20 sports teams — 10 men’s and 10 women’s — at each Division I school. Points are calculated differently depending on each sport — for example, the Football Bowl Subdivision uses a scale for teams ranked 1-25 in the USA Today coaches poll, followed by bowl game winners and losers.

Following the conclusion of all fall sports programs, the Irish check in at ninth place nationally in the initial release of the rankings. That ranks fourth in the ACC, trailing Syracuse (second), North Carolina (third) and Virginia (sixth).

Other teams in the top 10 are annual leader Stanford (first), Michigan (fourth), UCLA (fifth), Minnesota (seventh), Washington (eighth) and Penn State (10th).

Notre Dame’s highest scoring team was women’s cross country, which earned 70.5 points in the initial standings after an eighth-place team finish at the NCAA Championships. Its postseason highlights also included an individual NCAA champion in senior Molly Seidel, who won the 6,000-meter NCAA Championships race with a time of 19:28.6. Freshman Anna Rohrer placed sixth (19:59.7) at nationals in just her rookie season.

Other season highlights included a third place finish at the ACC Championships (Seidel and Rohrer finished one-two individually in the race,) and a team victory in the National Catholic Championships.

Brian Kelly’s squad was next in the contributions, picking up 64.5 points for finishing 12th in the final USA Today poll. The football team was 10-3 overall, with its only losses coming to No. 2 Clemson (24-22), No. 3 Stanford (38-36) and No. 4 Ohio State (44-28).

Men’s soccer added 64 points for a ninth-place slot following a 2-1 loss to Maryland in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Women’s soccer also contributed 50 points for a 17th-place showing after it fell 2-0 to UConn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Men’s cross country rounded out the Irish programs with 26 points following a 32nd-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

Notre Dame’s collective ninth-place ranking following the fall is an improvement on last year’s position, when the Irish were slotted 17th at this stage. In 2013-14, the Irish were ranked eighth following the fall results, fourth in 2012-13, 58th in 2011-12 and 14th in 2010-11.

Looking ahead to winter sports, both fencing programs rank in the top three in the country. Women’s basketball sits third nationally in the polls as of Jan. 15, and hockey checks in at 13th. The men’s and women’s swimming programs also both rank in the top 40 nationally.