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Johns Hopkins Earns No. 1 Seed for Division III Eastern Championship
BALTIMORE, Md. -- For the 10-time Division III Eastern Champion Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays, the road to the program's 11th title will run through the Charm City with a familiar ranking as JHU earned the No. 1 seed for the 2008 edition of the championship to be held on October 25-26 at Hopkins' Newton-White Athletic Center/Natatorium in Baltimore.
Hopkins, which will be looking for its 11th Division III Eastern Championship after capturing the 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006 titles in 16 trips to the title game, will look to regain its hold on the role as the top Division III team in the Collegiate Water Polo Association. Last season, Hopkins elected not to compete in the championship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology allowing the host Engineers to claim the berth as the best Division III program in the league.
Unlike last season's championship in which the Division III and Division II Eastern Championships were combined to crown Division III, Division II and a small college Eastern champion, the 2008 edition goes back to the original format with the Division III schools competing at Hopkins for a crown, and the Division II schools meeting at Fordham University for the DII title.
For Hopkins, which appeared in every Division III Eastern title game from 1991 through 2006, a familiar foe earned the No. 2 seed as five-time titleist MIT will look to pick up its' sixth championship after appearing in 13 of the previous 17 title games.
The 1991, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2007 champion, the Engineers are coming off a nine-year run of title game appearances, including eight meetings against Johns Hopkins.
Last year, MIT and first year head coach Adam Foley rolled past Washington & Jefferson College 20-10 in the Division III title game before knocking off Division II Mercyhurst College 12-10 in the first-ever Division II/III Small College Championship to walk away with two-titles.
In the history of the CWPA, only three teams have captured the Division III title with Hopkins and MIT accounting for all the championships except the 1992 and 1993 crowns of Washington & Lee University. Further, only four teams have appeared in the 17 title games with Johns Hopkins (16), MIT (13), Washington & Lee (4) accounting for all but one title shot.
Last year a new team joined the mix as Washington & Jefferson College squared off with the Engineers in the title tilt. This year, the Presidents have another shot at the title game and bringing home the first conference title in school history as Washington & Jefferson earned the No. 3 seed.
Led by head coach Vaughan Smith, W&J recorded their program best finish at the Division III Eastern Championship last year falling to MIT in the title game before dropping an 8-7 game to Division III Gannon University in the third place game of the Division II/III Championship.
Penn State Behrend College and Connecticut College round out the seedings as the Lions and Camels earned the fourth and fifth seeds, respectively.
The Division III Eastern Championship schedule, hotel information and directions to the Newton-White Center are available online.
