INDIANA, Pa. - IUP finished 10th in the 2021-22 Dixon Trophy standings as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) announced annual overall department award Wednesday afternoon. 

The Dixon Trophy is awarded at the end of each academic year to the league's most successful program based on conference playoff and/or regular-season finish. Standings are compiled based on average score for all PSAC Championship sports each school sponsors. Equal to its total membership, each conference sport champion is awarded 18 points and a descending point value is given for respective place finishes. The second-through last-place values vary depending on the number of teams that sponsor the sport. 

This marks the first Dixon Trophy award since the 2018-19 season after the pandemic shut down parts of the last two years.

IUP has never won a Dixon Trophy. The school is a 7-time second place finisher, most recently in back-to-back years of 2017 and 2018. 

IUP posted an average overall score of 10.37 over its 19 sports to finish 10th out of 18 schools. Gannon won its first ever Dixon Trophy with an average of 12.97. Slippery Rock was second with an average of 11.56, Mercyhurst was third at 11.32, Millersville was fourth at 11.16, and Edinboro was fifth at 11.09. 

IUP was tied for the second most PSAC championships with three during 2021-22 - men's golf, men's basketball, and women's tennis. Each of those teams earned the 18 points that comes with winning a conference title. Edinboro had four team championships while Shippensburg and Millersville joined IUP with three each. 

IUP's men's average of 11.13 was the sixth highest in the conference while the women's score of 9.82 was 11th overall. The most successful season for the Hawks came in the fall where the department averaged 11.50 points in seven sports, including 15.2 for the men and 8.75 for the women. 
 
PSAC's Dixon Trophy
Introduced in the 1995-96 academic year, the award is named in honor of F. Eugene Dixon, Jr., former chairman of Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education's Board of Governors. Since then, nine PSAC institutions have claimed the Dixon Trophy. Shippensburg leads the league with eight victories, followed by West Chester's five. Lock Haven and Bloomsburg have three titles apiece, and Cal U follows with two victories. Kutztown, Slippery Rock, Millersville and Gannon have each won once.

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