With the 2016-17 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) athletic season finally concluding, the league has announced Shippensburg University as the winner of the Dixon Cup for the top overall athletic program.
The Dixon Cup has been awarded each of the last 22 years to the school in the PSAC that has the top average score for each of its athletics teams. The championship team in each sport is awarded 18 points with decreasing point values for each subsequent conference position (17 for second, 16 for third, etc.).
For the eighth time, Shippensburg was awarded the trophy for a league high, barely edging out Indiana University (Pa.) with an overall average of 12.82 to 12.65.
Shippensburg was victorious, in part, because of a dominating year on the track. The Raiders won the men and women’s cross-country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field championships, gaining 18 points for each.
Looking at just men’s sports, IUP had the highest average at 12.94 with a championship in golf and a third place finish in baseball. Bloomsburg had the highest average for women’s sports at 13.94 with second place finishes in cross-country, indoor track and field and softball.
Slippery Rock won its only Dixon Cup in the 2007-08 athletic year, powered by championships in both men and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field.
The Rock finished seventh in this year’s standings with highlights coming again in indoor and outdoor track and field on both the men’s and women’s sides. Also highlighting SRU’s year was women’s soccer, the lacrosse team and the baseball team, who all made it into the PSAC playoffs.
