Photograph by Jeff Glidden, '87
Last season, Kent State's basketball team held its lead over Toledo to deliver a conference championship and a bid to the 2006 NCAA Tournament. The defending MAC champion team will participate in the fifth annual ESPN BracketBusters event the weekend of Feb. 16-17, 2007.
	TURF ATHLETIC DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR Read about Kent State Director of Athletics selection as the 2005-06 GeneralSports TURF Systems Division I-A Northeast Region Athletics Director of the Year.

Winning Season
Kent State athletes win third Reese Trophy, finish second in Jacoby Trophy

The Kent State University Intercollegiate Athletics Department claimed top honors for excellence in men’s athletics in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) for the 2005-06 academic year by winning the Reese Trophy (men’s sports) for the third time and posting a second-place finish in the Jacoby Trophy (women’s sports). The awards were presented at the league meetings in Chicago in June.

Kent State won the Reese Trophy for the third time, and for the first time in four years. (The teams also won the Reese in 2000 and 2002.) The Golden Flashes totaled 66.5 points in the standings, finishing with an average of 9.5 points in seven sports, narrowly edging Miami University, which finished with 9.25 points, breaking the RedHawks’ three-year run of Reese awards. Central Michigan University was third with 8.75 points.

“This achievement is a tribute to the student-athletes who make up our teams, the coaches and the university,” says Kent State Athletic Director Laing Kennedy. “It has been an exceptional year for Kent State intercollegiate athletics.”

The Golden Flashes’ point total came from first- or second-place finishes in five of seven sports. Kent State garnered first-place finishes in baseball, basketball and golf, while finishing second in wrestling and indoor track and field. Points are awarded based on each school’s finish, with the overall point total divided by the number of sports sponsored by each school. An institution may count either indoor track and field or outdoor track and field, but not both.

The Kent State women’s program finished second behind Western Michigan University in the Jacoby Trophy, and now has finished either first or second in the Jacoby standings every year since 1996. The Flashes received 9.17 points toward the Jacoby Trophy by placing first in field hockey and golf, second in softball and third in basketball.

Since 1996, Kent State has held a high standard in the MAC as the men’s and women’s teams have combined for eight trophies and nine runner-up titles, an unparalleled feat in recent league history.

“Kent State has a measure of athletic excellence without peer in the MAC,” Kennedy says. “Our student-athletes and coaches have continued to perform at the highest level and have done so for a long period of time.”

The trophies are named in honor of former MAC Commissioners David E. Reese and Fred Jacoby. Reese was the first MAC commissioner and served the league from its inception in 1946 until 1964. Jacoby led the league from 1971 to 1982 and is credited with incorporating women’s athletics into the league’s structure. Jacoby currently serves as commissioner of the Lone Star Conference in Texas.

For more details, rosters, results and schedules for all Kent State athletic teams, visit the Kent State Athletics Web site.