Georgetown University received the 2000 Jostens/Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Award early this October. The award is given annually to the school that demonstrates the highest standards of academic and athletic accomplishments, and Georgetown was chosen from a field of more than 300 institutions. The other recipients included Princeton and Williams, which have each won the award twice in the past five years.

“It’s a credit to the kids,” Director of Athletics Joseph C. Lang said. “They do a great job year in and year out.

“The president of the NCAA was explaining how much money colleges spend on athletics, and we’re so far off the screen they can’t even see us, yet we’re competing. And everybody wants to beat Georgetown. We represent excellence and success.”

Lang, who accepted the award for Georgetown, attributed the increased success of athletics to Director of Athletics Emeritus Frank Rienzo, who retired in 1998 after 30devoted years of service.

“For us, in a lot of ways, it’s a culmination of the work that Frank Rienzo started when he came here many years ago,” Lang said. “Our programs were not very renowned, yet we’ve had continuous growth over the past quarter century. It’s not because we have a lot of scholarships, because we don’t. It’s not because we’ve got phenomenal facilities, because we really don’t. His whole method revolved around finding good people.”

Throughout the 1999-2000 season, the Hoyas claimed five ECAC titles. In track and field, Georgetown captured its eighth straight and 10th overall IC4A indoor championship as well as its third straight outdoor championship. The women’s squad took top honors at the ECAC indoor championships for the fourth time, and finished first at the ECAC outdoor championships for the third time.

The Georgetown men’s lacrosse team dominated the ECAC with an undefeated 6-0 record last spring, advancing to its fourth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. The Hoyas also received several conference honors. Andy Flick was the league’s Offensive Player of the Year and sophomore Kyle Sweeney was named Rookie of the Year. Head Coach Dave Urick received Coach of the Year honors.

The ECAC swimming and diving championships saw the Georgetown men’s and women’s squads take 19th and 24th, respectively.

At the Champion International Collegiate Regatta, which is co-sponsored by the ECAC, the Georgetown men’s novice crew placed first, while the varsity team placed fifth.

The Georgetown men’s tennis team also competed in the ECAC championships last year, losing to Harvard and Yale.

Lang says he believes a great deal of Georgetown’s athletic success has come as a result of an experienced staff, as well as talented athletes.

“The administrators here now have an average tenure at this institution of over 20 years,” he said. “The 16 head coaches that we have, while they all haven’t been head coaches for that same amount of time, have an average tenure of over 10 years. We’ve been able to do what we’ve done because we’ve had people who’ve stayed the course. We have a great institution, great kids and a great location. Even though you don’t have a lot of what other people have, we have those things going for us, and it allows us to be successful.”