NCAA News Archive - 2004

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Notes


Jul 19, 2004 4:51:57 PM


The NCAA News

Conferences: The nine-year-old Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association is changing its name. The nine-member league, which also will welcome three associate members for football only this fall, will be called the Liberty League. "Our conference has evolved dramatically over the past 10 years, and we felt the timing was appropriate for this change," said Margaret F. Strait, director of athletics at St. Lawrence University and league president. "We came together as selective private institutions with shared values to bring out the best aspects of intercollegiate athletics. The name change and new marks will help us tell our success story and will better reflect who we are as a league." The league, which sponsors championships in 24 sports, includes eight founding members: Clarkson University, Hamilton College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the University of Rochester, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, St. Lawrence, Skidmore College and Union College (New York). Vassar College joined the league as a full member in 2000-01, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and Worcester Polytechnic Institute are joining as football-only members ... Two institutions have accepted invitations to join the Centennial Conference as associate members in wrestling. The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and Stevens Institute of Technology will join five other full members of the conference and an existing associate member to total eight wrestling institutions in the league. "The strong academic reputations of the two institutions were attractive to the conference's Presidents Council," said John A. Fry, president of Franklin & Marshall College and outgoing chair of the council. "The solid tradition in wrestling at the academy and the commitment to the sport at Stevens were also deciding factors as we enhance the conference both in wrestling and its overall membership." Conference teams will compete in round-robin dual meets during the regular season to qualify for the end-of-season championship meet.

Facilities: McMurry University recently used a pair of anonymous gifts to improve its baseball field and basketball/volleyball facility. The school installed an $18,000 message center at Walt Driggers Field and now has the capability to display such information as players' statistics, official scoring decisions, and promotional graphics. It also installed a $35,000 four-panel scoreboard and related features in Kimbrell Arena. Among the features are digital remote control, backboard lighting that is synchronized with the scoreboard clock, and game clocks in dressing rooms.

 

Milestones: Nick Boothe collected his 400th baseball coaching victory March 28 when Virginia Wesleyan College defeated Tufts University in the first game of a doubleheader. Booth, who recently completed his 18th year at the school, ended the season with a 417-270-5 career record ... Lee Driggers notched his 300th career baseball victory when McMurry University beat nationally ranked University of Texas at Dallas April 30 in the semifinals of the American Southwest Conference postseason tournament. A day later, the team claimed its third conference championship in six years, again beating Texas-Dallas. Driggers has won 239 of his career 301 victories at McMurry ... Jeff Jenkins collected his 400th career victory last season while leading his Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology team to its best-ever record of 38-4. The Engineers also won their second straight Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Eastern Division title.

-- Compiled by Jack Copeland


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