Laura Jansone led ETSU to a win the A-Sun Women's Golf Championship and boosted their standing in the race for the Bill Bibb and Sherman Day Trophies. Courtesy ASunPhotos.com
Date Posted: 5/8/2008
MACON, Ga. - On the heels of strong performances in golf and tennis, ETSU has overtaken Belmont atop the standings for the 2007-2008 Bill Bibb Trophy, the combined all-sports trophy for the Atlantic Sun.The Buccaneers made up a 36-point deficit after the winter sports and now lead the previous pace-setter Belmont by 40.5 points.
ETSU has also taken over the lead in the men's and women's all-sports races. In the Jesse C. Fletcher Trophy Standings for the men's all-sports race, ETSU sits in first with 142.5 points; 18 ahead of Belmont. The Buccaneer women own a slim six-point advantage in the Sherman Day Trophy Standings for the women's all-sports race on Belmont with Jacksonville sitting in third, 1.5 points behind the Bruins. The Buccaneers charged up the standings by winning A-Sun Championships in men's tennis and women's golf. Men's golf took second and the women's tennis team placed third accounting for 111 points while Belmont's teams struggled, amassing only 46.5 points in those same sports.
The Sherman Day Trophy will be decided at next week's Outdoor Track and Field Championship. Jacksonville, in third by 7.5 points, has won the last two Outdoor Track and Field Championships and won this year's Indoor title. The Dolphins can claim their first Sherman Day Trophy with a win and ETSU finishing fourth or worse. At the 2008 Indoor Championships, the Buccaneers finished fifth. Should these three remain within 7.5 points of each other at the conclusion of the spring season, it would represent the closest three-way finish for the Sherman Day Trophy since 1991-92 when Florida International edged out Stetson by 1.5 points with Georgia State finishing three points behind the Hatters.
The Buccaneers own a slightly larger lead in the race for the Jesse C. Fletcher Trophy, an 18-point margin on Campbell, who also passed Belmont since the winter sports. The Camels took fourth in tennis and tied for third in golf, making up 36 points on the Bruins to lead the battle for second by 16.5 points. The 16.5-point margin between second and third also represents the gap between third and seventh. Stetson closed to within 1.5 points of Belmont by finishing second in tennis with Gardner-Webb three points in back of the Hatters.
The conference awards points for the all-sports race on a descending basis in three-point increments according to a particular team's finish in relation to the number of teams competing in that sport. In team sports, an institution's position in the final regular season standings denotes their total points for a particular sport. In individual sports, (cross country, golf, track & field) the final A-Sun Championship Standings determine a school's point total. Any teams who tie split their allotted points.
The Atlantic Sun Conference is a 12-member league committed to Building Winners for Life, with a focus on academic and athletic integrity and a balance between the two for the student-athlete, and maintaining a high level of sportsmanship. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun encompasses six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun consists of some of the most dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Gardner-Webb University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.
