Wingate Clinches Seventh-Straight Echols Athletic Excellence Award

ROCK HILL, S.C. – For the seventh-straight season, Wingate University has won the SAC Echols Athletic Excellence Award, which annually recognizes the member athletic department with the highest point total based on cumulative final standings in each of the conference's sports.

Wingate has won the award outright in six of the seven years during its streak, and split the title with Carson-Newman in 2009-10.

Regular-season finish is used in the sports of men's and women's soccer, volleyball, football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, baseball and softball, while SAC Championship results are used for men's and women's cross country, and men's and women's golf.

Wingate entered the SAC spring sport season with just a 0.5-point lead over Lenoir-Rhyne in the standings, but a conference title in women's tennis and second-place finishes in baseball and men's golf increased the Bulldogs' final point total to 109.5 – 20 points higher than runner-up Tusculum.

WU also finished tied for third in men's tennis, fifth in women's golf and seventh in softball during the spring.

Tusculum's second-place finish in the Echols Award standings is the school's best since 2008-09, when it also placed second. The Pioneers were eighth in the standings following winter sports, but won the softball title, shared the men's tennis title, and finished second in women's tennis and women's golf to shoot up the standings.

TC's impressive collective spring performance was also aided by a third-place finish in baseball and a fifth-place showing at the SAC Men's Golf Championship.

Lincoln Memorial, which won the SAC Men's Golf Championship and finished No. 3 in women's golf, placed third in the final Echols Award standings, followed by No. 4 Lenoir-Rhyne and No. 5 Anderson.

Lenoir-Rhyne's top spring performance was a third-place finish in men's golf, while Anderson shared the men's tennis title and finished second in softball.

SAC baseball champion Catawba at No. 6, followed by Carson-Newman at No. 7.

Completing the standings are SAC women's golf champion Newberry at No. 8, No. 9 Mars Hill and No. 10 Brevard.

The Echols Athletic Excellence Award, named after former SAC Commissioner Doug Echols, will be presented at the conference's Hall of Fame banquet on June 6 in Asheville, N.C.

2012-13 SAC Echols Athletic Excellence Award Standings - Final