Wingate Maintains Lead in Updated SAC Echols Award Standings

ROCK HILL, S.C. – With the men's and women's basketball regular seasons now complete, Wingate remains on top of the 2013-14 SAC Echols Athletic Excellence Award standings. WU has won the award seven years in a row.

The SAC Echols Athletic Excellence Award is named after former commissioner Doug Echols. Cumulative points are calculated based on final regular-season standings in men's and women's soccer, football, volleyball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's lacrosse, softball and baseball, while SAC Championship results are used in men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, and men's and women's track and field.

Wingate maintained its top spot in the Echols Award standings after sharing the SAC women's basketball regular-season title and finishing tied for seventh in men's basketball. The Bulldogs shared the women's basketball championship with Lenoir-Rhyne, which also remains in second place in the standings.

SAC men's basketball champion Lincoln Memorial is third in the updated standings, followed by No. 4 Queens, No. 5 Carson-Newman and No. 6 Anderson.

Rounding out the winter standings are No. 7 Mars Hill, No. 8 Catawba, No. 9 Tusculum, No. 10 Newberry, No. 11 Brevard and No. 12 Coker.

The 2013-14 standings will be finalized at the conclusion of the conference’s spring sport regular season.

2013-14 SAC Echols Athletic Excellence Award Standings (Winter)

1. Wingate (78.5)

2. Lenoir-Rhyne (72)

3. Lincoln Memorial (61)

4. Queens (58)

5. Carson-Newman (56.5)

6. Anderson (53.5)

7. Mars Hill (48.5)

8. Catawba (44.5)

9. Tusculum (44)

10. Newberry (41.5)

11. Brevard (31.5)

12. Coker (24.5)