2012-13 Dr. Patrick R. Damore Commissioner's Cup StandingsCORTLAND, N.Y. – The State University of New York at New Paltz, with an overall score of 6.41, its highest final average to date, finished fourth in the final 2012-13 Dr. Patrick R. Damore Commissioner's Cup standings, as announced by the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) office on May 14. This mark ties the Hawks' best-ever finish in the Commissioner's Cup standings, which they accomplished in 2011-12 with a 6.11 overall score.
The Commissioner's Cup point system is determined by the 20 different conference sports in the fall, winter and spring. A 10-point system is used in each sport. The first-place team gets 10 points, the second-place team gets nine and so on. A team's regular-season finish is added to its postseason finish and divided by two for its final total for that sport. The total number of points that a school accumulates is divided by the number of conference sports it has. This school total determines the overall winner at the end of the year.
SUNY Cortland took the top spot in the Commissioner's Cup standings for the 10th consecutive year and the 16th time in the Cup's 17-year existence. The Red Dragons posted an overall score of 8.46, while SUNY Geneseo finished second with a 7.43 average. SUNY Oneonta barely squeaked past New Paltz with a score of 6.42 for the year to take third place, while SUNY Plattsburgh (6.26), The College at Brockport (5.92), Buffalo State (5.45), SUNY Fredonia (5.30), SUNY Oswego (4.71) and SUNY Potsdam (3.00) rounded out the remainder of the league.
The Hawks were buoyed by field hockey's first-ever SUNYAC title, and women's tennis took second place at the 2012 SUNYAC Tennis Tournament. Women's volleyball and men's soccer each made the conference semifinals in their respective sports, while women's soccer qualified for the 2012 SUNYAC Women's Soccer Tournament and lost in the quarterfinal round. Women's cross country and men's cross country took fifth and eighth, respectively, at the 2012 SUNYAC Cross Country Championships.
New Paltz grabbed another conference title in the winter, as women's basketball had an outstanding season that was capped off with its first-ever SUNYAC championship. Men's basketball earned a spot in the 2013 SUNYAC Men's Basketball Tournament, but was bounced by Geneseo in the quarterfinal round for a sixth-place finish. Women's swimming finished fourth at the conference championships, while men's swimming came in at sixth in the SUNYAC.
The spring season saw the return of baseball and softball to their respective conference tournaments. However, neither team was able to win a contest in each tournament. Women's lacrosse took ninth place in the final SUNYAC standings.
New Paltz sponsors 14 sports affiliated with the SUNYAC: baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, field hockey, women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's swimming, women's tennis and women's volleyball. Cortland has won 16 of the 17 Commissioner's Cups awarded since the competition began during the 1996-97 academic year. Geneseo won the Commissioner's Cup in 2002-03. The award was renamed the Dr. Patrick R. Damore Commissioner's Cup in 2012-13 after Dr. Damore's retirement from the position of SUNYAC Commissioner in 2012.
