DURHAM, N.C. - Coming off its best finish of fifth in school history following the 2004-05 season, Duke picked up where it finished and is currently in fifth place of the initial fall standings for the 2005-06 Sports Academy Directors' Cup.

The first set of rankings includes men's and women's cross country and field hockey. The Duke women's cross country team finished third at the NCAA Championships and gained Duke 85 points while field hockey's runner-up finish in the NCAA Tournament gave Duke 45 points.

Men's and women's cross country are each out of a possible 100 points while field hockey is out of a possible 50. Sports that have a national participation of less than 25 percent are scored at 50-percent of other sports.

Duke is the only school with two top-three finishes in the three sports reporting and one of just five teams with two top 10 finishes in the three sports. Stanford is leading the contest with 172 points as they won the women's cross country NCAA Championship and finished sixth in the men's race. Colorado is second with 165 points followed by Notre Dame with 154 and Wisconsin with 134.

Other ACC school's in the first ranking are Wake Forest (81.5 points, 12th place) Boston College (50.5, 25th), Maryland (50, 25th), Virginia (44, 33rd), North Carolina (42.5, 35th) and Florida State (38, 38th).

Overall there are four fall standings updates as Duke is expected to pick up points in men's and women's soccer and women's volleyball as those three teams competed in the NCAA Tournament. Other fall sports included in the rankings will be football, Division I-AA football and men's water polo.

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