Saints Dominate Joby Hawn Cup Once Again!

For the second straight year, Limestone College has been crowned the Conference Carolinas Joby Hawn Cup champion as announced by the league office on Thurday, May 12.

The Saints took the overall cup for the aforementioned second time in a row, the third in the last four years, as well as the women's individual sports award for third time in a row.

The Hawn Cup is awarded to the league members that show the highest rating of excellence in all men's conference-sponsored sports, all women's conference-sponsored sports, and both the men's and women's conference-sponsored sports combined. The Hawn Cup is tallied after each sport season (fall, winter, and spring) and then awarded each year in honor of former Commissioner H.C. "Joby" Hawn for his many years of service to the former Carolinas Conference.

Limestone College again went wire-to-wire, leading the Hawn Cup standings from the fall through the spring in order to retain the cup.

With a .932 rating, Limestone was close to its overall standings record of .937 set last year. The Saints won championship titles and bonus points in men's soccer, women's basketball, men's indoor track & field, men's and women's golf, men's and women's lacrosse, and with runner-up finishes in women's cross-country, men's soccer, women's volleyball, women's indoor track & field, softball, women's tennis, and men's and women's outdoor track & field. The Saints earned 185.5 points out of a total possible of 199, which was enough to give them the nine point difference and more importantly the Hawn Cup title.

The University of Mount Olive finished second in the overall standings for the second straight year with a .887 mark. In their fifth year of conference membership King University finished third overall for the fifth straight year with a .628 rating. Pfeiffer repeated their finish from last year with another fourth place overall finish and rating of .578 with their men's soccer team highlighting their year with an NCAA National Championship. Erskine, North Greenville, Belmont Abbey were close behind with ratings of .576, .535, and .515 correspondingly. Rounding out the schools in order were Barton .497, Lees-McRae .390, and Converse .335 respectively.

Limestone broke its own record set from last year to take the individual title in the women's conference-sponsored sports. The Saints were able to do the improbable and actually increase their efficiency from a league record of 1.024 last season, to a whopping 1.057 in this year of competition. The Blue and Gold were able to finish in either first or second place in every conference sponsored sport this year. The Saints took home titles in basketball, soccer, golf, and lacrosse while picking up runner-up honors in cross country, volleyball, softball, and tennis as well as both indoor and outdoor track & field. Rounding out the top three, Mount Olive finished with a .868 rating followed by King at .629.

The Saints fell short of taking home all three cups as Mount Olive was able to take away the men's individual title. The Trojans picked up four conference titles on the season as well as two runners up finishes. Limestone was able to tally a mark of .753 on the season while taking home three conference titles this year. The Blue and Gold were able to take home their first ever indoor track and field championship this year while the golf team took home their second title and lacrosse taking home their tenth straight conference title. King (.605) and Pfeiffer (.511) round out the top-four on the men's side.

This is the sixth consecutive year that the Hawn Cup is comprised of three different awards which include: the women's sports award, the men's sports award, and the overall cup winner (combining both the men & women's results). Hawn Cup points are awarded in each sport based on the order of regular season finish with bonus points going to the tournament champion (2 pts.) and runner-up finishers (1pt.). Men's & women's golf, men's and women's cross country, and men's and women's indoor & outdoor track & field are the only conference sponsored sports in which points are determined solely by conference tournament finish.