Courtesy: Kenton Jacobsen Nine CBU sports finished in the top eight of their respective national championship.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- Buoyed by another stellar spring campaign, California Baptist University finished seventh in the 2009-10 Learfield Sports NAIA Director’s Cup as the final standings have been released.

It is the Lancers’ third straight top 10 finish, all of them in the top seven. Last year, the Lancers finished an all-time best fifth with a program-record 692.5 points. CBU finished sixth in 2008.

This year, the Lancers tallied 679 points, 285.5 of them scored in the spring. They were just 16.75 points behind sixth-place Embry-Riddle (Fla.) and 36.5 points behind fifth-place Lindenwood (Mo.). There were 195 different institutions that scored points.

GSAC-rival Azusa Pacific won its NAIA-record sixth-straight Director’s Cup with 820 points, a mere three points ahead of second-place Simon Fraser (B.C.). Fresno Pacific (801.75) and Concordia (724.50) were third and fourth, respectively, giving the GSAC four teams in the top seven and seven in the top 18 (Biola-12th, Point Loma Nazarene-16th, Vanguard-18th). The next closest conference was the Sooner Athletic Conference, which had two in the top nine and three in the top 13.

A maximum of 12 sports (six men and six women) can earn points towards the program’s total, and teams must qualify for their respective national tournament to score. For the second straight year, the Lancers garnered points from nine sports of their 16 eligible sports—women’s volleyball (5th-73), women’s soccer (5th-70), men’s (2nd-90) and women’s (2nd-90) swimming and diving, wrestling (8th-70.5), softball (3rd-86.5), men’s (16th-41) and women’s (3rd-85) golf and baseball (7th-73).

Eight of those nine finished in the top eight of their respective national championships. CBU scored 143 points in the fall and was in 17th place before scoring 250.5 points in the winter to move up to 11th place.

The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today and honors institutions that maintain a broad-based program, achieving success in many sports, both men’s and women’s. Learfield Sports, which is based in Dallas, Texas, and manages the multimedia and sponsorship rights for nearly 50 collegiate institutions, is the program's sponsor.