HOUGHTON, N.Y. -- Houghton Athletics ranks fourth after the winter season in the 2023-24 Empire 8 Commissioner's Cup standings.
Houghton currently has a composite score of 0.575 on the strength of a runner-up finish in women's basketball and fourth place finishes in men's and women's indoor track and field in addition to the 2023 E8 Men's Cross Country title in the fall. The Highlanders also got key points from men's basketball after a post-season appearance and sixth-place conference finish.
"We jumped two spots after the fall. With both men's and women's basketball making the E8 tournament and strong results by our indoor track and field programs, this boosted our ranking during the winter season more than any other previous season," said Director of Athletics Matthew Webb. "We are proud of our athletes and looking forward to the spring season."
St. John Fisher University continues to maintain a slight lead over second place Nazareth University by just under four tenths of a point following the winter season. The final Empire 8 Commissioner's Cup standings will be released in late May after the completion of the spring sports campaign.
Commissioner's Cup points are awarded based on each team's finish in the Empire 8 conference standings at the completion of the regular season and post-season. Points are awarded on a scale dependent upon the number of schools that sponsor the sport (affiliate members are not calculated into the point scale). A team's regular season finish will be added to its post-season finish and divided by two for the final total for that sport.
Teams tied for a position in the regular season standings are ranked based on tiebreaker scenarios. The actual number of points earned is then divided by the amount of possible points for each school based on conference-sponsored sports to determine their overall percentage.
Read the full release from the Empire 8.
2023-24 Empire 8 Commissioner's Cup Standings (After 2023-24 Winter Season)
| Institution |
Actual |
Possible |
Percentage |
| St. John Fisher |
77 |
94 |
0.81914894 |
| Nazareth |
75 |
96 |
0.78125 |
| Utica |
63.75 |
94 |
0.67819149 |
| Houghton |
51.75 |
90 |
0.575 |
| Alfred |
50.75 |
92 |
0.55163043 |
| Hartwick |
51 |
100 |
0.51 |
| Elmira |
19.25 |
53 |
0.36320755 |
| Keuka |
22.25 |
69 |
0.32246377 |
| Russell Sage |
28.25 |
90 |
0.31388889 |
