June 28, 2012
CLEVELAND - Boston University placed fourth among Division I-AAA members in the 2011-12 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Standings. Eight programs contributed to the Terriers' total of 230 points.
The Terriers earned points in women's soccer (50), men's indoor track & field (44), women's indoor track & field (29), men's ice hockey (25), women's ice hockey (25), softball (25), wrestling (17) and men's outdoor track & field (15). Teams earn points by their standing in NCAA postseason competition.
Pepperdine was the highest-scoring I-AAA school in the Directors' Cup with 334.00 total points. UC Irvine was second with 274.00 points and St. John's took third with 258.00 points. The Terriers just edged Denver for fourth place by 2.5 points. BU also finished fourth amongst Division I schools in New England.
The recipient of BU's Mickey Cochrane Award as the top male athlete of the year, sophomore distance runner Rich Peters led the Terriers with a combined 59 points. He finished runner-up at the Indoor NCAA Championships in the mile run, missing out on an individual title by just 0.12 seconds. His second-place performance allowed BU to finish tied-for-26th in the team standings. Peters earned All-America status in the outdoor season as well with a sixth-place showing in the 1,500-meter run.
Winner of the last five America East championships, women's soccer advanced to the second round of the NCAAs after hosting its first-ever game in the first round, and fellow conference champion softball pulled out a victory as the No. 3 seed at the Cal regional. Women's ice hockey qualified for the postseason by capturing its second Hockey East title in the past three years, while men's ice hockey earned an at-large bid.
Wrestling featured two NCAA qualifiers with sophomore Kevin Innis earning a victory, and women's indoor track & field had junior Allison Barwise capture All-America honors with a fifth-place performance in the high jump at the NCAAs.
Division I-AAA consists of the 95 Division I schools across the country that do not sponsor football.