Following one of its most successful years in the institution’s athletics history, the University of California San Diego has claimed the 2018-19 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Robert J. Hiegert Commissioner’s Cup, awarded annually to the conference school with the best overall athletics performance in a given academic year. The CCAA officially made the announcement Wednesday.
UC San Diego finished with 98.48 points to win its eighth overall Hiegert Cup, the most of any of the league’s 13 schools. The Tritons were just under 10 points ahead of second-place Cal Poly Pomona.
“We are extremely excited and proud to win this year’s Hiegert Cup,” said UC San Diego director of athletics Earl W. Edwards. “This is a testament to the skills, determination, and hard work of our scholar-athletes and coaches, as well as the overwhelming support from our staff, campus community, and the entire Triton family.”
The Hiegert Cup, established prior to the 2005-06 academic year, assigns a number of points to each team (baseball, men’s/women’s basketball, men’s/women’s cross country, men’s/women’s golf, men’s/women’s soccer, softball, men’s/women’s track and field, and women’s volleyball) based on its regular season final standing and/or place finish in a conference tournament/championship. Each institution selects two fall sports, two winter sports, two spring sports, and two additional sports to count towards its point total.
UC San Diego’s basketball programs figured heavily in the scoring as its men and women both won CCAA regular season and tournament titles with the women posting a perfect 22-0 record in conference games. The Tritons’ women’s soccer team also won double CCAA crowns, while the baseball and softball programs finished atop the conference’s regular season standings.
The Triton track and field team contributed to the point total as the women finished second and the men placed third at the CCAA Championships. The men’s cross country team also raised UC San Diego’s standing with its fourth-place showing at the conference championships in the fall.
“The CCAA is one of the most successful conferences in the nation and it is stacked with top-level talent year after year,” said Edwards. “We are thrilled to win the Hiegert Cup for the eighth time and look forward to continuing our tradition of academic and athletic excellence here at UC San Diego.”
In addition to this year’s honor, UC San Diego was the recipient of the award in each of the Hiegert Cup’s first five years in existence as well as 2015-16 and 2016-17.
The award is named after former CCAA commissioner and CCAA Hall of Famer Robert J. Hiegert.
UC San Diego is currently fifth in the NCAA Division II Learfield IMG College Directors’ Cup standings, an award that symbolizes the best overall athletics program in the country. The final standings will be published on Wednesday, June 12.
The 2019-20 academic year is UC San Diego’s final as a member of the CCAA and NCAA Division II. In 2020-21, the entire Department of Intercollegiate Athletics begins a four-year reclassification period to NCAA Division I status as a full member of the Big West Conference.
2018-19 CCAA Hiegert Cup Standings
1. UC San Diego, 98.48
2. Cal Poly Pomona, 88.85
3. Chico State, 83.30
4. San Francisco State, 72.73
5. Cal State San Marcos, 70.95
6. Cal State East Bay, 62.67
7. Cal State LA, 62.36
8. Stanislaus State, 62.27
9. Cal State Monterey Bay, 62.20
10. Cal State San Bernardino, 61.72
11. Sonoma State, 59.05
12. Humboldt State, 44.52
13. Cal State Dominguez Hills, 38.30.
