INDIANAPOLIS – For the fourth time in school history and third consecutive, Lewis University has captured the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Commissioner’s Cup, it was announced by the league office on Wednesday. The Flyers earned the award for the 2024-25 academic year by posting the strongest finish in the nine sports that all 15 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, and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field.
Lewis earned 90 points over the course of the academic year to best runner-up Maryville University by 6.5 points with its total of 83.5. Drury University and Missouri S&T came in a close third with 80 points each, while University of Missouri-St. Louis tallied 77.75 in fifth place.
University of Indianapolis and University of Illinois Springfield finished sixth and seventh, respectively, with 76.5 and 71 points. McKendree University finished eighth with 67.5 points, while Truman State University and Rockhurst University rounded out the top 10 in ninth and tenth with 62.5 and 61.25 points respectively. The final five places were as follows: Upper Iowa University (45.25 points), Lincoln University (45), Quincy University (44.75), Southwest Baptist University (42.5), and William Jewell College (32).
Lewis made the GLVC Championship Tournament in eight of the nine sports this year, highlighted by a league title in women’s cross country, men’s soccer, and both indoor and outdoor track and field.
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). Lewis 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 2024-25 GLVC Commissioner’s Cup are as follows:
| 1. |
Lewis |
90 |
| 2. |
Maryville |
83.5 |
| 3. |
Drury |
80 |
|
Missouri S&T |
80 |
| 5. |
Missouri-St. Louis |
77.75 |
| 6. |
Indianapolis |
76.5 |
| 7. |
Illinois Springfield |
71 |
| 8. |
McKendree |
67.5 |
| 9. |
Truman State |
62.5 |
| 10. |
Rockhurst |
61.25 |
| 11. |
Upper Iowa |
45.25 |
| 12. |
Lincoln |
45 |
| 13. |
Quincy |
44.75 |
| 14. |
Southwest Baptist |
42.5 |
| 15. |
William Jewell |
32 |