INDIANAPOLIS – For the third time in school history and second consecutive, Lewis University has captured the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Commissioner’s Cup, it was announced by the league office on Monday. The Flyers earned the award for the 2023-24 academic year by posting the strongest finish in the 10 sports that all 14 league members sponsor at the intercollegiate level.
Points are allocated for the Commissioner’s Cup based on the athletic department’s finish in the GLVC’s postseason tournaments and league standings in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, and volleyball.
Lewis earned 113 points over the course of the academic year to best runner-up University of Indianapolis by 21.5 points with its total of 91.5. Maryville University came in a close third with 83.5 points, while Drury University tallied 79 in fourth place. Rounding out the top five was McKendree University with its best finish since joining the league in 2011, totaling 71 points.
University of Missouri-St. Louis and Missouri S&T finished sixth and seventh, respectively, with 70.5 and 68.5 points. S&T was just 0.25 points ahead of University of Illinois Springfield that finished eighth with 68.25 points. The final six places respectively in ninth through 14th were as follows: Rockhurst University (61 points), Truman State University (53.5), Upper Iowa University (47.25), Southwest Baptist University (46.5), Quincy University (46), and William Jewell College (43.5).
Lewis made the GLVC Championship Tournament in all 10 of these sports this year, highlighted by a league title in cross country, volleyball, women’s basketball, and both indoor and outdoor track and field. The Flyers also finished as runners-up in men’s soccer and men’s basketball.
Instituted prior to the 2002-03 season, the Commissioner’s Cup has had six different institutions stake claim to the award. Former league member Bellarmine became the sixth school in 2018-19 with its first win in its final year of league membership, while former member Southern Indiana earned its second Cup in 2017-18 and first in 2003-04. Rockhurst picked up its first honor in 2016-17. UIndy scored its second Cup in 2015-16 after the first came in 2013-14, which was bookended by other first-time winners Drury (2014-15) and Lewis (2012-13). Drury also won last year’s Cup. Following the 2011-12 season, former GLVC member Northern Kentucky took home its fifth-straight and eighth overall Cup over a 10-year span, while SIU Edwardsville – another former member – earned the Commissioner’s Cup in 2007. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that suspended spring sport competition in 2020, the 2019-20 Cup was not awarded.
The standings for the 2023-24 GLVC Commissioner’s Cup are as follows:
| 1. |
Lewis |
113 |
| 2. |
Indianapolis |
91.5 |
| 3. |
Maryville |
83.5 |
| 4. |
Drury |
79 |
| 5. |
McKendree |
71 |
| 6. |
Missouri-St. Louis |
70.5 |
| 7. |
Missouri S&T |
68.5 |
| 8. |
Illinois Springfield |
68.25 |
| 9. |
Rockhurst |
61 |
| 10. |
Truman State |
53.5 |
| 11. |
Upper Iowa |
47.25 |
| 12. |
Southwest Baptist |
46.5 |
| 13. |
Quincy |
46 |
| 14. |
William Jewell |
43.5 |