by California Baptist Athletics on 2016-08-03
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Ever since California Baptist University transitioned to the NCAA Division II, it has become a force to be reckoned with. In just three years as a fully-fledged member, the Lancers jumped 22 spots up the leaderboard and grabbed their highest placement in the Division II Learfield Directors' Cup with not only a top-10 placing, but fourth overall.
The Learfield Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in up to 14 sports - seven men's and seven women's. In CBU's first year at Division II, it finished 26th overall. The next year, the Lancers jumped up 10 spots to No. 16 and followed that up with a 12-place bump this season.
CBU finished with 611.25 total points, scoring in 12 total sports, for its highest mark to date. A bulk of the Lancers' points came in the winter after both basketball teams qualified for the West Region tournaments, wrestling took sixth overall at the Division II Championships, men's swim/dive grabbed 12th and women's swim/dive placed 13th. Together, the winter sports accumulated 291 points for CBU.
This past spring, the Lancers hosted their first-ever NCAA Division II West Regional with the Lancer baseball team advancing to the regional final. CBU's softball team made its third consecutive appearance at the West Regional. In golf, the men qualified as a team for nationals for the first time and took sixth overall, while the women reached regionals and sent its second representative to the national championship. CBU track also contributed to the spring sports tally after putting two runners on the national podium, boosting CBU's position from ninth to fourth with 225 total spring points.