35|35 #2: The Chase to the Championship
Celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Valley Conference
Jeff Smith, Assistant Commissioner
35|35 Anniversary Website
This is the second installment of a series of 35 moments, milestones, and facts that will be featured throughout the 2013-14 academic year to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
With GLVC action opening this past weekend in men’s and women’s soccer, the conference volleyball opener taking place last night, and the first league football matchup scheduled for Saturday, the chase for the GLVC Championship has begun.
Over the past 35 years, a total of 463 GLVC Championship trophies have been awarded to 17 of the 21 participating schools in 18 sports. When breaking down the all-time championship count among member schools, the league’s 35th season is poised to showcase quite the trophy race at the top.
Lewis University, which began competing in the GLVC in the 1981-82 season, enters the year as the conference’s all-time leader with 76 GLVC Championships. The Flyers captured the 2013 GLVC Women’s Basketball Championship last season, which proved to be a significant milestone in conference history as Lewis had shared the all-time championship count with the University of Southern Indiana.
The Screaming Eagles, one of six conference charter members, enter the 2013-14 campaign with 75 all-time conference crowns and could potentially tie or take the overall lead at the league’s first championship weekend of the season. The GLVC Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships, which will be held Oct. 25 in St. Louis, has been dominated in recent years by both USI programs. In fact, the men’s squad claimed its conference-record eighth straight GLVC title last season and 20th overall – a total that is the highest of any sport in league history. On the women’s side, USI took home its second straight and seventh overall crown.
The University of Indianapolis, also a charter member since 1978, owns 70 GLVC Championships and has captured the most conference titles of any school over the past two years. The Greyhounds have earned 13 crowns in the past two seasons in the sports of baseball, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, softball, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field and volleyball. UIndy’s men’s golf program has accounted for 14 of those 70 titles, which is tied with Kentucky Wesleyan men’s basketball for second all-time in the conference’s all-sport history.
Former GLVC members Northern Kentucky University and SIU Edwardsville sit fourth and fifth in conference history with 58 and 34 league titles, respectively.
In terms of gender, Southern Indiana has captured 54 titles in men’s sports, followed by Lewis with 41 championships and Indianapolis with 39 crowns. On the women’s side, Lewis holds 36 overall titles, just ahead of Northern Kentucky (33) and Indianapolis (31).
In addition to USI cross country and Lewis women’s basketball, GLVC Championships were earned by Bellarmine baseball and women’s indoor track and field, Drury men’s basketball and women’s tennis, Indianapolis football, men’s indoor and men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, and men’s and women’s golf, Missouri-St. Louis softball, Quincy women’s soccer, Rockhurst men’s soccer and volleyball, and Southern Indiana men’s tennis.
For a complete breakdown of all-time GLVC Championships,
click here. For a look at the 2013-14 GLVC Championship schedule,
click here.