BAKER'S DOZEN; TRINITY WINS 13TH CONSECUTIVE SCAC PRESIDENTS' TROPHY IN RECORD FASHION

SUWANEE, Ga. -- By the largest margin in the 62-year history of the award, Trinity University won four of the league's eight contested spring championships to secure its 13th consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Presidents' Trophy. Final Results | Complete Story

The Tigers earned spring championships in women's golf, men's tennis, women's tennis and women's track and field - coupled with earlier titles in men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, women's basketball, women's soccer and volleyball - to easily post its record 24th overall all-sports trophy.

Trinity completed the 2023-24 campaign with 627.5 points, 210 points clear of second-place Colorado College. The Tigers finished no worse than third in any sport this season, posting second-place finishes in men's golf, women's track and field and softball and a third-place finish in baseball in the spring. In earlier action this year, Trinity tied for third in men's basketball - the only winter sport it didn't win - after posting second-place finishes in both men's and women's cross country as well as men's soccer in the fall. 

The only negative takeaway from the Tigers' record-breaking campaign, the program's streak of 10 straight seasons (excluding the COVID-abbreviated 2019-20 season) with 10 or more conference championships was snapped as Trinity had to settle for "only" winning nine of the league's 17 sponsored championships.

The previous all-sports record margin of victory was 195 points, established a decade ago (2013-14) when Trinity was in the early stages of its current streak of Presidents' Trophy titles - cruising to its third-straight crown at the time.

Colorado College, on the heels of its first-ever program title in women's track and field during the spring, completed the 2023-24 campaign with 417.5 points to earn a second-place team finish - which equals the program's best-ever all-sports finish. CC also posted a second-place Presidents' Trophy finish in 2019-20. Like Trinity, the Rocky Mountain Tigers, who only compete in 12 of the league's 17 sponsored sport, finished no worse than third in any sport this season, which included three team titles (men's cross country, women's cross country and women's track and field) and five runner-up finishes (volleyball, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, men's basketball and women's basketball).

Southwestern University, who posted three runner-up finishes during the spring (women's golf, men's tennis and women's tennis), finished just behind Colorado College in the all-sports race and placed third with 410 points. The third-place standing snapped a three-year run of runner-up Presidents' Trophy finishes for the Pirates.

Taking fourth-place was University of St. Thomas who completed the 2023-24 season with 357.5 points. The Celts' strongest performances during the spring season came from a pair of third-place team finishes in men's and women's golf. 

Just behind UST, Texas Lutheran University finished fifth with a season total of 355 points. Playing on their home field two weekends ago, the Bulldogs won their ninth softball tournament title in 10 years. TLU bolstered their all-sports efforts with runner-up team spring sport finishes in men's track and field and baseball.

Schreiner University, after winning its first men's golf title since earning back-to-back conference championships in 2014 and 2015, placed sixth in the Presidents' Trophy race with 270 points - the program's largest all-sports point total since joining the SCAC in 2013-14. Centenary College, which won its second SCAC baseball tournament title in three years, finished seventh with 207.5 points.

Rounding out the all-sports standings, University of Dallas placed eighth with 197.5 points and Austin College followed with 152.5 points.

SCAC PRESIDENT'S TROPHY QUICK FACTS

The symbol of conference supremacy is the 300-pound railroad bell which was donated to the SCAC by the Norfolk and Western Railroad. This bell, the "Presidents' Trophy", is a rotating award and goes to the school with the best overall sports record for the year.

The bell has been a part of the conference since its inception in 1962. In fact, the first conference logo, when the league was known as the College Athletic Conference, has the image of the bell incorporated into it.

The Presidents' Trophy is displayed for one year on the campus of the school with the combined men's and women's athletics program that accumulates the highest points total in the all-sports race.

The system used for distributing Presidents' Trophy points awards those points based off an institution's finish at the conference championship event. Points are awarded from the bottom up in increments of five for each place, with a last place finish in any officially recognized conference sport worth five points. A member institution must declare and sponsor the sport as varsity status with the NCAA to particiapte and score in any conference championship.

SCAC Presidents' Trophy - Archived Year-by-Year Results