ANNAPOLIS, Md.–Navy Athletics finished 98 out of 365 schools in the NACDA Learfield Directors Cup for the 2024-25 athletic season.  The Mids scored 191.8 points, which was the most of any Service Academy, the second-most of any Patriot League school (Boston University finished 73^rd with 314.5 points) and the second-most of any American Athletic Conference school (USF finished 78^th with 294.75 points).

The Learfield Directors Cup is given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities with the most success in collegiate athletics. Points for the NACDA Directors’ Cup are based on order of finish in various championships sponsored by the NCAA or, in the case of FBS football, the coaches’ poll and bowl wins.

A first-place finish in a sport earns 100 points, second place 90 points, third place 85 points, fourth place 80 points, and lesser values for lower finishes (exact numbers beyond fourth place depend on the sport.

NCAA Division I counts the top 19 sports at each school with the following breakdown: Four sports that must be counted are baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.  The next highest 15 sports scored for each institution, regardless of gender, will be used in the standings (except men’s water polo, which is the only NCAA sponsored sport that NACDA does not give points for.  For FBS Football: the top 25 teams are awarded points based on their final rank in the coaches poll, while 26th place is considered a tie between every non-ranked bowl winner and the next available rank is considered a tie between every non-ranked bowl loser.

Navy scored 72 points in the fall (27 points by men’s cross country, 45 points by football), 85.5 points in the winter (32.5 points from men’s gymnastics and 53 points from wrestling) and 34.3 points in the spring (9.3 points by women’s golf and 25 points by women’s lac

The teams of Gage Basey/Thomas Hurst and Marine Kinna/Chloe Loreen captured top honors Sunday in the $60,000 Association of Volleyball Professionals’ Contender Series tournament in Virginia Beach. Each of those pairs split $9,750 first-place prizes.

People going by 12th Street and Atlantic Avenue on the weekend saw powerful spikes, diving digs and precise sets on the sand from players who are looking to break through to the AVP’s top-tier events.

The last player from Hampton Roads in the event was Ayden Keeter of Yorktown, who combined with his Webber International beach volleyball college teammate Carson Barnes of Ocean View, Delaware, to go 3-0 Saturday — 2-0 in pool play before a round-of-16 victory. They split $1,200 after a 21-14, 21-18 quarterfinal defeat to eventual semifinalists Diego Perez and Jeff Samuels.

Basey, from the University of Colorado, and Hurst, from Irvine, California, were seeded fifth. Those 21-year-olds outlasted top-seeded Derek Bradford of Porter Ranch, California, and Evan Cory of Metairie, Louisiana, 18-21, 21-19, 15-12 in the final for their third victory of the day. Bradford and Cory split $5,250.

In the women’s competition, Kinna and Loreen capped a dominant day with three straight-sets victories, beating 15th-seeded Piper Ferch and Hailey Hamlett 21-18, 21-13 for the championship.

Kinna, a 25-year-old from France, played for three colleges, including Division I Loyola Marymount. Loreen, 26, from Seattle, played for Santa Clara and the Washington Huskies.

After a three-set triumph Saturday in their second round of pool play, Kinna and Loreen never came close to losing a set in the elimination bracket.

Ferch, 21, a Cal Poly player, and Hamlett, from TCU, split $5,250. They defeated a pair of higher-seeded teams to reach the title match, including a 15-21, 21-18, 15-13 semifinal thriller over No. 4 Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah, a Long Beach State combination.

All of the teams that lost in the round of 16 split $600, the quarterfinal losers divided $1,200, and the semifinalists pocketed $2,700. The finalists earned wild-card berths in the higher-level AVP Manhattan Beach Open in California in August.

Whether he was defending passes in football or soaring through the air in track, Nick Humphries left his mark at North Allegheny.

Now he’s ready to make the leap all the way to Des Moines, Iowa.

The 2025 NA graduate departed in late June for Drake, where he will begin preparation for his first year with the Division I FCS football program.

“I’m very excited,” Humphries said. “It’s a new chapter in my life. Closing this one and opening a new one is always good. As a young kid, I always had a dream to play Division I football. This is very big for me, so I’m excited.”

Humphries, who was part of WPIAL champion teams in football and track, was set to leave for Drake on June 26 to start orientation, move into his dorm room and begin summer conditioning.

A lot has changed since Humphries, a 6-foot, 170-pound two-time all-conference defensive back, committed to Drake in October. Former Bulldogs coach Todd Stepsis departed in early December for Northern Iowa, and Joe Woodley, who had led crosstown Grand View to the 2024 NAIA national championship, was hired at Drake on
Dec. 23.