Coming off a strong winter sports season, St. Thomas leapfrogged 20 spots in the Division-III Director’s Cup standings to land at No. 12 in the nation. All-around excellence fueled the rise in the standings, but NCAA playoff appearances by women’s basketball and women’s hockey heavily contributed.

Women’s basketball coach Ruth Sinn said the jump in the standings didn’t surprise her.

“I think it just shows the commitment to the high standards and the excellence that St. Thomas promotes throughout our whole institution,” Sinn said.

Other sports contributing to St. Thomas’ overall winter score of 293.5 were women’s indoor track and field, women’s swimming and diving, men’s swimming and diving and men’s basketball. Athletic Director Steve Fritz said there’s more than one benefit to being recognized in the competition.

“We like to be a top 10 Director’s Cup (competitor) every year,” Fritz said. “We’ve been pretty good at it, and it generally means a couple things. One, you’re obviously competitive with some of the best Division-III athletic programs in the nations … also it means you have pretty good balance in your programs.”

Although certain individuals at St. Thomas perform very well, Fritz said it takes more than just one or two solid pieces to have such a successful athletic department.

“If you’re going to be top 10, you have to have all those things,” Fritz said. “You have to have good coaches, good athletes and good facilities, and then you put all those good things together and good things are going to happen.”

Senior Angela Tipp, women’s track and field sprinter, said that while St. Thomas is balanced, it’s easy for her to pick out what separates it from other universities.

“I would have to say coaches are number one,” Tipp said. “Our coaches are very knowledgeable about the practices they are setting up. Not only do they work with the whole team, but they are also getting on the individual level and figuring out what you yourself need to do to get where you want to be.”

Sinn credited the coaching success to the program’s philosophy. She said it extends to all areas of the St. Thomas community, whether on the court or in the classroom.

“You know there are a lot of different things, but one of the things that we really have here at St. Thomas is a relationship-based approach to how we coach and how we go about our business,” Sinn said.

For Sinn, it’s not as much about the result as it is about the process. She said the path to the Director’s Cup is traveled only by those who first learn to live respectfully.

“We are a program that is based on the people and the relationships … and how each of us are going to invest ourselves,” Sinn said. “We use basketball as kind of a vehicle to bring us all together and to create something special.”

Tipp said although the answer is cliché, it rings especially true at St. Thomas.

“Any athlete you ask, they’re going to talk about family,” Tipp said. “But it really is a huge thing here at St. Thomas. It’s really wonderful having people you can always fall back on.”

St. Thomas will look to follow the winter season with an equally strong spring sports season in the hopes of cracking the top 10 in the Director’s Cup standings.

Andrew Frentz can be reached at fren2218@stthomas.edu.