Story by Nick Kendall
Contributing writer
For the first time since the 2008-09 season, Murray State Athletics won the Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner’s Cup.
The 12 members of the OVC were tracked during the 2018-19 season by their finishes in regular season and conference tournament competition in order to name the victor of the OVC Commissioner’s Cup
To participate in the running for the Cup, the members are required to have four automatic counters (men’s & women’s basketball, football, football) and then the next eight highest place finishes among teams in the remaining men and women’s sports.
Teams that don’t have football teams can count baseball as a main sport. Any school that wins the Championship in men’s & women’s basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, men’s & women’s Tennis receive one additional point to their total points earned for that sport. The scores are adjusted for rifle, men’s indoor & outdoor track and men’s tennis.
The Racers tied the school mark from 1990-91 winning seven OVC Championships and set the OVC point total record of 128, outperforming Eastern Kentucky’s previous record of 124.5 points in the 2014-15 season.
“Murray State University is a special place because of the people in our program; the student-athletes, coaches and administrators who work tirelessly to represent our State and Region,” said MSU Director of Athletics Kevin Saal. “2018-19 marks one of the most successful in the history of our program. Seven OVC Championships, tied for the best in program history, a Top-80 ranking in the National Director’s Cup per the latest release and this, the first OVC Commissioner’s Cup for our program in ten years. We’re all very proud to earn this accomplishment.”
The Racers have matched classroom excellence with their athletic prowess.
“Those remarkable athletic achievements come as the Racers completed the spring semester with a 3.13 GPA, our 30th consecutive semester with a department-wide GPA above a 3.0,” Saal said. “We talk daily about ‘The Racer Way’, which is a comprehensive dedication to our core values, the student-athlete experience and broad-based competitive excellence.”
This is Murray State’s second “All-Sport” win for the department. While this is the second time the Racers have won the award, this was the first year the league started the current points system by combining men’s and women’s sports.
The OVC Commissioner’s Cup will be presented to Murray State Athletics at the OVC Awards Brunch Friday, May 31 in Nashville, Tennessee.
