Youngstown State University has earned the Horizon League's McCafferty Trophy for its excellence in the conference's 19 championship sports. YSU Faculty Athletics Representative Dr. Chet Cooper, along with President Dr. Helen K. Lafferty, Executive Director of Intercollegiate Ron Strollo, Senior Woman Administrator Rebecca Fink and student-athlete Mady Aulbach, accepted the award at the Horizon League's annual meetings in Indianapolis on Wednesday.
This is the second time in the last three academic years that Youngstown State has earned the league's all-sports trophy, and it is the first time that the university has won the prestigious award outright. The Penguins shared the McCafferty Trophy with Oakland in 2020-21, which was the first award for YSU since it joined the Horizon League in 2001-02.
Bolstered by seven Horizon League championships in 2022-23, Youngstown State earned 51 points to finish at the top of the McCafferty Trophy standings. That was 4.5 points higher than second-place Oakland, and only four schools had more than 26 points. YSU recorded a league-high 27 points in men's sports, 5.5 more than second-place Cleveland State, and the Penguins had the second-highest total in women's sports with 24 points.
"One of our chief goals as a department every year is to win the McCafferty Trophy, and we're so proud of our student-athletes and coaches for the grit and determination they displayed to achieve this great accomplishment!" said Ron Strollo, YSU's Executive Director of Intercollegiate Athletics. "The McCafferty Trophy rewards broad-based excellence across all sports, and we could not achieve that without our hard-working staff that supports our student-athletes."
"Adding in our bowling team's Elite Eight appearance, our football team making significant strides and our lacrosse team reaching the semifinals of the MAC Tournament, we had tremendous success in every season of competition. To top it off, we had a department-wide GPA of 3.51 in the fall and 3.43 in the spring, and it's amazing to see our student-athletes excel in the classroom while also competing at such a high level athletically."
Youngstown State has finished among the top two in the McCafferty Trophy standings in each of the past three seasons. The Penguins won the Men's All-Sports Award for the first time in department history, and the men and women both placed in the top two for the first time ever. The 51 points are a school record, topping the previous mark of 45 in 2021-22.
The Penguins were third in the McCafferty Trophy standings after the fall season after winning the men's cross country championship, reaching their first women's soccer championship match and placing third at the League's women's cross country meet. An outstanding winter that featured a pair of indoor Horizon League Track & Field championships and the men's basketball team winning its first Horizon League regular-season crown allowed the Penguins to jump into first. YSU then pulled away in the spring with championships in men's and women's outdoor track & field and women's tennis, and a semifinal appearance in the men's tennis conference tournament.
In men's sports, Youngstown State received seven points in cross country, basketball and track & field, five points in tennis and one in baseball. On the women's side, the Penguins received seven points in track & field and tennis, three in both cross country and soccer, and two apiece in basketball and softball.
Named in honor of James J. McCafferty, who served as the conference's first commissioner from 1979-80, the McCafferty Trophy is awarded annually by the Horizon League to a member institution compiling the greatest number of performance points, based on its finish in the League's 19 championship sports.
For the sports of men's and women's soccer, volleyball, men's and women's basketball, softball and baseball, points are awarded based on combined regular-season (60 percent) and championship (40 percent) finishes. For all other sports, points are based on performance in the League championships.
