March 23, 2011

ELMHURST, Ill. - At the conclusion of the 2010-11 winter season, Oakland University continues to lead the race for The Summit League Commissioner's Cup with 73.0 points, 11.5 ahead of South Dakota State's 61.5 points. The Golden Grizzlies are also atop the Men's and Women's All Sports Award standings.

"Our teams continued to excel during the winter season with the swimming and diving teams winning their twelfth consecutive league title and men's basketball having yet another dominating season, winning the regular season and tournament titles," said Director of Athletics Tracy Huth. "We had one of the best fall seasons I can ever remember and that just carried over in to the winter season."

The Golden Grizzlies posted their second straight record-setting basketball season with a 17-1 mark in men's hoops, tying last year's record. OU went on to its second straight NCAA tournament, falling to No. 8 Texas, 85-81, in Tulsa, Okla. The men's and women's swimming and diving teams dominated the conference championship once again by scoring 999 and 1,060 points, respectively.

Sitting in third place behind Oakland and SDSU is North Dakota State with 57 points. Oral Roberts is in fourth place (51.0 pts.), Southern Utah stands fifth (45.0 pts.), IUPUI sixth (41.0 pts.), IPFW seventh (39.0 pts.), UMKC eighth (38.5 pts.), Western Illinois ninth (30.0 pts.) and Centenary 10th (16.0 pts.).

The Commissioner's Cup is given annually to the member institution that collects the most combined points in relationship to placement in league-sponsored sports between its men's and women's athletic programs, while the All Sports Awards are given to the institutions that accumulate the most points in men's sports and women's sports. The men's award is named for former Valparaiso Director of Athletics Dr. William Steinbrecher, who guided the Crusaders from 1979-2004, while the women's award is named for former Western Illinois Director of Athletics Dr. Helen Smiley, who headed WIU's athletic program from 1994-2001.

-OAKLAND-