INDIANAPOLIS - 2012-13 is the inaugural year for the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and its championships. Following the conclusion of the Baseball Championship this week (May 6-8), the G-MAC will have hosted 12 Championships, including Men’s and Women’s Cross Country, Men’s and Women’s Soccer, Women’s Volleyball, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, Men’s and Women’s Golf, Women’s Tennis, Softball and Baseball.
Throughout the year, the member of institutions of the conference have been fighting to earn the right to possess the Presidents’ Cup. With one championship remaining, Cedarville University and Trevecca Nazarene University are tied atop of the Presidents’ Cup standings.
The winner, or the team to advance farthest in the Baseball Championship will display the Presidents’ Cup for the next year and be remembered as the first Presidents’ Cup Champion in conference history.
Cedarville took an early lead in the fall, winning the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships, and the Women’s Volleyball Championship, while finishing second in Men’s Soccer. After the Fall season, Cedarville held a cup percentage of .833, while Trevecca Nazarene, who did win the Women’s Soccer Championship and finished second in Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Women’s Volleyball, ranked second at .722.
In the Winter, Cedarville won the Men’s Basketball Championship over Trevecca, while Trevecca finished second in Women’s Basketball and Cedarville third. The spring brought Cedarville its fifth Championship, as the Yellow Jackets made a perfect run through Women’s Tennis.
Trevecca was able to catch Cedarville with three-straight Tournament Championship victories - Men’s and Women’s Golf and Softball, giving the Trojans four championships and a cup percentage of .810 to match Cedarville.
The only two championships won this year by an institution other than TNU and Cedarville was Urbana’s Men’s Soccer regular-season and Tournament Championship, and its Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship as the tournament’s #2 seed. The women’s basketball championship was also the only championship in which a top-seed or favorite did not win the title.
The Presidents’ Cup will all come down to Baseball for Trevecca and Cedarville. Trevecca Nazarene ranks as the top seed, but it could not have been more even in the regular season. The regular-season title came down to the final weekend and the final game of four between Trevecca and Cedarville.
TNU needed three wins out of four games to earn the regular-season title, and after a split of a Friday doubleheader, the Trojans won game one of a Saturday doubleheader, leaving the title to be decided on the final game of the season.
Trevecca managed another win and earned the right to host the 2013 Baseball Championship on May 6-8, 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee. Cedarville will open the double-elimination tournament with a game against #3 seed Urbana. The winner will meet #1 TNU while the loser of game one will wait to meet the loser of game two in the first elimination game.
Whoever wins the Championship between TNU or Cedarville will win the Presidents’ Cup, or if Urbana wins or advances to the Championship game, the team the Blue Knights faces for the title will be named Presidents’ Cup Champion prior to the Championship game.