Pacific Lutheran Comes Back to Win All-Sports Trophy

SPOKANE, WA — Pacific Lutheran only won one Northwest Conference title in the spring, but the Lutes used four NWC runner-up finishes to vault to the top of the final 2001-02 McIlroy-Lewis All-Sports Trophy standings. The Lutes finished with 232 points, just ahead of Tacoma rival Puget Sound, which finished with 227 points.

Pacific Lutheran won the 2002 softball title, the Lutes’ only spring championship and the third conference title for PLU in 2001-02. Football (tie) and women’s basketball were the others. But PLU finished second in the spring in men’s tennis, women’s track & field, and men’s and women’s golf. The Lutes had entered the spring season in fourth place in the standings.

Puget Sound finished second, its highest place ever. The Loggers won a conference title in men’s golf and finished second in softball. UPS led after the fall sports and was second behind Whitworth in the winter.

2001 winner Linfield moved up strongly from fifth place to third place with 225 points. The Wildcats swept conference titles in men’s and women’s tennis and added a title in women’s golf. Linfield also finished second in men’s track.

Winter leader Whitworth and Willamette tied for fourth place with 213 points. Willamette swept the men’s and women’s track and field titles. Whitworth did not win a spring title and also did not score any points in golf, a sport the school does not sponsor.

The other spring conference title went to George Fox, in baseball.

Lewis & Clark College finished sixth with 140 points, followed by Whitman and George Fox (116 each), and Pacific (90).

Pacific Lutheran has won 14 of the 16 All-Sports trophies since it began to be awarded in 1986. The only other winners have been Willamette in 1994 and Linfield last year.

The Northwest Conference All-Sports Trophy recognizes athletic excellence among Northwest Conference institutions across all fields of competition. It is named in honor of John Lewis, the baseball coach (1947-72), basketball coach (1947-67) and athletics director (1952-72) at Willamette University; and Jane McIlroy, Linfield College’s women’s athletics director and physical education professor from 1950-82 who also coached field hockey (1952-81), basketball, volleyball, softball and tennis.

key: wxc = women's cross country; mxc = men's cross-country; wsoc = women's soccer; msoc = men's soccer; vb = volleyball; fb = football; wsw = women's swimming; msw = men's swimming; wbb = women's basketball; mbb = men's basketball; bb = baseball; sb = softball; wtn = women's tennis; mtn = men's tennis; wg = women's golf; mg = men's golf; wtf = women's track & field; mtf = men's track & field.

2002 NWC Sport Winners: Puget Sound, 5 (women’s cross-country, volleyball (tie), women’s swimming, men’s swimming, men’s golf); Linfield, 4 (football (tie), women’s tennis, men’s tennis, women’s golf); Willamette, 4 (men’s cross-country, women’s soccer, women’s track & field, men’s track & field); Whitworth, 3 (men’s soccer, volleyball (tie), football (tie); Pacific Lutheran, 3 (football (tie), women’s basketball, softball); Lewis & Clark, 1 (men’s basketball); George Fox, 1 (baseball).