CLEVELAND, Ohio – Colorado State University Pueblo Athletics closes the winter sports season sitting at No. 10 in the final Learfield Directors' Cup Division II winter standings as announced Thursday morning by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).

The ThunderWolves scored a total of 133.50 points in the winter sports season and have now totaled 416.00 points in the 2024-25 school year after sitting third with 282.50 points during the fall sports season. It marks the first time that Pack Athletics has been ranked in the Top 10 of the Learfield Directors' Cup standings following the winter sports season. Last year, the Pack was sitting in 12th place after the winter sports season.

"After a great fall sports season, I'm very proud to see the Pack staying in the top 10 of the Learfield Directors' Cup standings after the winter sports season," said CSU Pueblo Vice President of Athletics and Strategic Partnerships Dr. Paul Plinske. "A special congratulations to our men's and women's indoor track and field team. They had a tremendous indoor championship, and we are anxious to watch them compete in the 2025 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the ThunderBowl in May. Based on our Directors' Cup standings, I think it's clear that CSU Pueblo is on a national stage each year, and I'm motivated to help us soar to higher standings in the future."
 
CSU Pueblo scored in just two sports during the winter sports season as the women's indoor track and field teams tallied 72.75 points after recording a program-best sixth-place finish at the 2025 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships and tallied 60.75 points in men's indoor track and field following a 14th place finish at the 2025 NCAA D-II Indoor Championships. The Pack also sent a wrestler, freshman Eddie Bowman (Trinidad, Colo./Trinidad), as an individual qualifier to the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships, but Bowman did not score any points at the event after suffering an injury in his first match of the championships.

At the 2025 Indoor Track and Field Championships, senior Helen Braybrook (Frieston, United Kingdom/Oakham School) claimed two national championships as she won the women's 800-meter run and was the anchor leg on the Pack's national championship Distance Medley Relay team that also included junior Jadyn Herron (Queen Creek, Ariz./Casteel), junior Gabrielle Dunich (Pueblo, Colo./Pueblo Central) and freshman Leah Keisler (Biggar, United Kingdom/University of Edinburgh). In addition to those two national titles, senior Katherine Higgins (Mead, Colo./Ponderosa) was the national runner-up in the women's shot put, while senior Reece Sharman-Newell (Hampshire, England) was the national runner-up in the men's mile run. Higgins has now been a four-time national runner-up in the shot put four times (three times indoor and one outdoor), while Sharman-Newell is a two-time national runner-up as he was the national runner-up in the 800-meter run during the 2023 outdoor season.

In addition to the two national championships and two national runner-up finishes, the Pack also had a total of 15 indoor All-Americans as Braybrook earned first-team honors in the DMR and 800 meters, while Herron, Dunich, Keisler also earned first-team honors in the DMR and junior Febe Wessels (Pretoria, South Africa) earned first-team honors after her fifth-place finish in the shot put, while Sharman-Newell earned first-team honors in the mile and DMR, while sophomore Jon Sweepe (Peoria, Ariz./Liberty), redshirt senior Tyrell Smith (Colorado Springs, Colo./Mesa Ridge) and redshirt senior Kaleb Tipton (Lawton, Okla./Lawton) were first-team selections after finishing fourth place in the DMR. Additionally, Herron was a second-team selection in the 800 meters, while Sweepe and Emil Meggle (Heitersheim, Germany) were second-team honorees in the men's 800 meters.

During the 2024 fall sports season, the Pack recorded its third-place finish in the Learfield Directors' Cup standings after recording a third-place finish in both men's soccer and women's cross country, a ninth-place finish in football, and a 14th-place national finish in men's cross country. It marked the third straight year that Pack Athletics has had a Top 10 finish, but the first-ever Top 5 finish in the fall Learfield Directors' Cup standings as they were 10th in the fall of 2022 and eighth in the fall of 2023, before being third this year.

CSU Pueblo is one of five Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schools ranked in the Top 25 of the final winter Learfield Directors' Cup standings. Colorado School of Mines sits at No. 3 in the standings as they scored 263.50 points to push its overall total to 511.50, while Adams State is ninth after tallying 237.00 points in the winter to push its total to 422.00, which is six points in front of the Pack. Colorado Mesa is 15th after scoring 235.50 in the winter to push its total to 361.50 and UCCS is 22nd after tallying 126.50 points in the winter and has now totaled 308.50 on the season.  

Grand Valley State is the top team in the Division II standings after the winter sports season as the Lakers amassed 486.25 points in the winter to push its total to 817.25. John's Hopkins (D-III – 865.00 total points) and Cumberlands (NAIA – 1,006.00 points) sit first in their respective divisions following the winter sports season. The Division I standings will be released next week following the completion of the basketball championships this weekend, while the spring standings will be released on June 10.

Along with Grand Valley State and Mines, the other Division II schools in the Top 5 of the overall standings after the winter sports season are Wingate at No. 2 with 542.00 points, while Minnesota State is No. 4 with 481.25 points and Lewis is No. 5 with 445.00 points. The national champions during the winter sports seasons were – Nova Southeastern (men's basketball, women's swimming & diving), Grand Valley State (women's basketball), Drury (men's swimming & diving), University of Nebraska-Kearney (wrestling), and Pittsburg State (men's and women's indoor track & field).

The Learfield Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in the NCAA Championships.

Please note, standings published midseason are unofficial. Official standings will be published upon the completion of the spring season. Complete standings and the scoring structure can be found on NACDA's website at www.directorscup.org. In addition, please visit www.thedirectorscup.com and follow us on Twitter @ldirectorscup.