CCC RELEASE

LA GRANDE -- Southern Oregon tied its highest finish with a third-place ranking in the Cascade Collegiate Conference All-Sports Trophy race, the conference announced.

Southern Oregon finished with 115 points, behind champion Concordia (137) and second-place College of Idaho (130), and ahead of Eastern Oregon (107) and Corban (101). This year marks the second consecutive year the Raiders have ranked third, after SOU finished fourth from 2008-10 and fifth in the first two years of the award from 2006-08.

The rankings are based on regular season finish for each CCC sport. Two points are awarded for each institution sponsoring a sport, and points are tallied using each institution's eight highest place finishes.

Southern Oregon picked up one regular-season conference championship in 2011-12, taking the men's cross country title for the fourth consecutive year when the Raiders placed five runners among the top-12 in the conference meet held at Ashland's Oak Knoll golf course.

Three programs tallied second-place conference finishes. The volleyball program finished with a 16-2 conference record to rank one game behind regular-season champion College of Idaho, before the Raiders swept the Yotes in Caldwell to claim the conference tournament title and the league's automatic bid to nationals.

The SOU soccer team finished the 2011 regular season in second place for the first time in program history and reached double-digit wins for only the third time. The SOU men's track and field team gave the Raiders their third second-place finish less than two weeks ago at the CCC Championships.

Through six years of the CCC All-Sports Trophy, Southern Oregon has spent two years at each spot before moving up. Following that trend, the Raiders will look to crack the top-two for the first time next year and break a four-year trend of Concordia and College of Idaho claiming the top two spots.