After a successful spring sports season that saw the Big Red capture five conference championships, Denison put more distance between itself and the rest of the competition en route to its ninth consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference All-Sports Championship.
Denison collected 172 total points this year to pull away from the rest of the field in the 10-school NCAC. Denison's closest competition in 2005-06 came from runner-up Ohio Wesleyan University, which finished 18 points behind the Big Red with 154. Following the winter sports season, Denison held a nine-point lead over then second-place Wittenberg, but doubled its margin of victory thanks to an extraordinary spring. The Big Red captured seven NCAC team championships in the 2005-06 academic year, only one short of Denison's record of eight set in the 1998-99 academic year. This year, an impressive 19 of Denison's 22 varsity teams finished in the upper half of the NCAC standings.
The final 2005-06 NCAC All-Sports Standings are as follows: 1. Denison (172 points); 2. Ohio Wesleyan (154); 3. Allegheny (149.5); 4. Wittenberg (148); 5. Kenyon (140.5); 6. Wooster (136); 7. Oberlin (98); 8. Wabash (67.5); 9. Earlham (53.5); 10. Hiram (51).
Denison's unprecedented championship campaign was highlighted by team titles in women's cross country, women's soccer, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, softball, men's tennis and women's tennis. In addition, men's cross country, men's swimming and diving, and women's swimming and diving all turned in runner-up finishes at their respective conference championship meets.
The NCAC All-Sports Trophy is awarded annually to the school that performs the best across the NCAC's 22 sponsored sports. The goal is to recognize broad-based athletic excellence, and Denison has been setting the standard of late, with 87 percent of its athletic teams posting top five finishes in the conference standings over last decade. To place this feat in historical perspective, the last time Denison was not in possession of the conference's All-Sports Trophy (1996-97), the university's incoming first-year class was in third grade! In addition to DU's current nine-year streak as the NCAC All-Sports Champion, the Big Red also captured the title in 1985-86, bringing to 10 the total number of All-Sports Trophies in Denison's display case, another new conference record.
In calculating the standings, the NCAC awards 10 points for a first-place team finish, 9 for a second, 8 for a third, and so on. Men's and women's scores are combined, exemplifying the North Coast's commitment to equity and balance among programs. After the conference's founding in 1984-85, Wooster won three of the first four All-Sports championships, interrupted only by Denison in 1985-86. Ohio Wesleyan followed with a six-year championship run, leading to two more titles for Wooster and one for Wittenberg.