CLEVELAND, Ohio --- Biola is traditionally at its strongest point athletically in the fall season, with its consistently ranked volleyball team and soccer teams in action, but phenomenal performances by the Eagles' Indoor Track & Field and Swimming & Diving programs have Biola Athletics in a place it has never been before.
As the first winter rankings of the Learfield Sports NAIA Directors' Cup are released, the Eagles sit in fifth place in the nation in cumulative points with 394.50 points.
The Directors' Cup is a program put in place in the 1990s to honor collegiate athletic programs that are broad-based and develop a consistency of success throughout their athletic seasons.
Each institution is awarded points for each qualifying sport they compete in. The points are awarded based off of national finish in each sport, the higher the finish means the higher point total.
The Eagles earned their historic jump into the top-5 by getting 219.50 total points out of the finishes of men and women's swimming and diving and men and women's indoor track and field.
Biola has increased its standing in the Directors' Cup standings in each of the three releases throughout this academic year. In the first fall rankings Biola slotted in at 12th place, and then they moved up to seventh in the final fall ranks before attaining the fifth-place mark in these standings.
The Eagles have averaged a 16th place finish in the Learfield Sports NAIA Directors' Cup over the last five years, with their best finish being 11th place in 2010-11 and their worst finish coming with a 29th-place mark last year.
Their will still be plenty of shifting in the standings before the final rankings are released in early June, because men and women's basketball, men and women's golf, men and women's tennis, baseball, softball and men and women's outdoor track & field are still in action and give teams a chance to pick up plenty of points.
Rankings updates are released on March 27, May 29 and June 10.
Oklahoma Baptist currently sits atop the Directors' Cup standings with 548 points. The Bison won the title last season, and before that the award was won by Azusa Pacific for eight consecutive years.