CLEVELAND, Ohio – St. Olaf College recorded its highest finish in the Learfield Directors' Cup since 2015-16 by closing out the 2023-24 academic year in 61st place in the national all-sport competition, as announced on Tuesday.

St. Olaf finished the academic year with 297.50 points from six sports to place 61st out of 437 NCAA Division III institutions. The 297.50 points and 61st-place finish are both the highest for St. Olaf since 2015-16, when St. Olaf was 36th with 447 points.

This spring, men's track and field added 26 points to St. Olaf's total by tying for 42nd at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships thanks to a fourth-place national finish by Will Kelly '24 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

St. Olaf's 61st-place finish was the second-highest by a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) institution this year behind Bethel University, which gathered 256.50 points from five teams this spring to finish 40th with 389 points. Prior to this year, the last time St. Olaf posted a top-two finish among MIAC institutions in the Learfield Directors' Cup was 2015-16.

This year, St. Olaf's men's soccer, men's cross country, women's cross country, volleyball, men's hockey, and men's track and field teams combined to earn St. Olaf's 297.50 points. Men's soccer collected 100 points after winning its first NCAA Division III national title to highlight a fall that accounted for 246.50 of St. Olaf's 297.50 points. Men's cross country picked up 63 points with a 13th-place national finish and women's cross country brought in 58.50 points with a 16th-place national finish, while volleyball and men's hockey each gathered 25 points after making first-round appearances in their respective NCAA Division III Championships.

The Learfield Directors' Cup is a program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, awarding points based on each institution's national finish in the NCAA Championships. The program was started in 1993-94 by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today and expanded to include NCAA Division II, III, and the NAIA in 1995-96. Eighteen total teams can contribute points in the final standings, four of which must be men's and women's basketball and men's and women's soccer.