For the fourth-straight season, Wichita State University has captured the Missouri Valley Conference All-Sports Trophy. The Shockers claimed five Valley championships in 2006-07 and became just the third program in league history to win four-straight all-sports crowns. The Shockers earned titles in women’s cross country, women’s indoor and outdoor track & field, baseball, and women’s tennis.

The All-Sports Trophy is based on a school’s average finish in each of the sponsored championships by the Missouri Valley Conference. Teams are awarded one point for first, two for second, three for third, etc., and the total accumulated points are divided by the number of sports in which a particular school competes. Finishes in baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball are based on regular-season competition. All other sports are determined by finish at the championship tournament or championship meet.

Wichita State won four-straight all-sports titles for the first time since winning six-straight from 1977-78 through 1982-83 and took the 2006-07 All-Sports Trophy with an aggregate score of 3.20, narrowly edging Southern Illinois, which finished with an aggregate score of 3.41. It marks the 16th Missouri Valley Conference all-sports championship for Wichita State - the most in league history. Illinois State, with four-straight all-sports titles from 1995-96 through 1998-99, is the only other league school to win four-straight all-sports crowns (the first recorded year for the award is 1949-50).

Southern Illinois, meanwhile, finished second in the all-sports race for the second time in three years, and earned 14 top-five finishes (of its 16 sports), including titles in men’s and women’s basketball, women’s swimming, and women’s golf.

Since the league began sponsoring women’s sports (1992-93), only one Valley school has captured more than five championships and no Valley school has finished in the top five in all of its sponsored sports. Wichita State’s five team titles are tied for the second-highest in that time frame -- trailing only the seven titles the Shockers earned in 2005-06. Illinois State (in 1984-85) claimed a combined eight titles while the men competed under the Missouri Valley Conference umbrella and the women competed under the Gateway Conference umbrella.

UNI had its highest finish since 2003, as the Panthers finished third in the all-sports standings, while Illinois State finished fourth, marking the 25th-straight year ISU has finished in the top five of the league’s all-sports race. ISU has finished first, second or third in the all-sports trophy standings in 14 of the past 16 seasons. All time, Illinois State has earned a total of 10 all-sports titles, trailing only Wichita State (16) for the most. Either Illinois State, Missouri State or Wichita State, meanwhile, has earned the league’s all-sports championship trophy every year since 1995, as the Redbirds won five of six all-sports championships from 1996-2001.

Missouri State joined Wichita State, Southern Illinois, UNI, and Illinois State in the upper division, as the Bears took fifth in this year’s all-sports race. MSU failed to win a league title in any sport, but had top-four finishes in eight of its 13 sports. Notably, eight of the league’s 10 schools won at least one team title in 2006-07.