The Salukis captured the crown with a low score of 3.35, based on final-result averages in each of 18 league championships. Only those sports in which a school competes were figured into the average.

The rankings by sport at the end of the season are then tallied for the average, earning one point for a first-place finish, two points for second place and so on.

Team sports such as volleyball, softball, baseball and basketball are scored by the regular season finish, while all other sports are decided by a championship tournament or meet.

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The SIUC women’s track-and-field squad, coached by Don DeNoon, helped garner the Salukis’ low average. The team finishing second in the conference during the indoor season and first during the outdoor season.

We have to be looking for what we can do for our sport first, but then you have the honor that was bestowed upon all of the Saluki athletes, which becomes the gravy that goes with our accomplishments, DeNoon said.

The Salukis beat out Illinois State in the MVC’s yearly rivalry. The Redbirds, who finished with a 3.65 average, were the Salukis’ closest competitor for the award. Illinois State has been alternating for the title with the Dawgs since 1989, with the exception of the 1992-93 season, when the Valley first combined men’s and women’s sports in the conference and did not hold the competition.

The Drake Bulldogs finished third behind the Redbirds with the lowest average, 4.14, for a private university since 1971.

SIUC intercollegiate athletic director Jim Hart said the title pays tribute to all the coaches and athletes who made it possible.

It’s particularly nice when one takes into consideration the funding issue-the fact that our operating budgets and scholarship levels are below that of some other members of the MVC, he said.

Rick Walker, SIUC men’s swimming coach, said this kind of award brings different areas of the sports department together.

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I firmly believe we coaches are all teammates of each other, he said. When they do well, we do well.

This honor ends the four-year drought from the Salukis1991 acclaim, when the Dawgs again finished at the top of the pack.