The TCNJ Lions are the athletic teams representing

The College of New Jersey The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public university in Ewing Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Established in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, TCNJ was the first normal school, or ...

(TCNJ). They are a member of the

New Jersey Athletic Conference The New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC), formerly the New Jersey State Athletic Conference, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. All of its full members are public universities in New Jersey. Affiliate mem ...

(NJAC) and compete within Division III of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athlete, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic sports, ...

(NCAA).

Overview

The school fields 11 varsity sports teams for men and women each and has captured 44 team national championships, as well as more than 40 individual and relay national championships, across multiple programs. The school's two most successful are the Women's Lacrosse team with 12 NCAA Division III Championships and the Women's Field Hockey team with 11 Division III NCAA Championships, the most of any team in D-III for either sport. The

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

team hosts has placed in the top 20 nationally for 30 consecutive years, including 5

national championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, i ...

(1979, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1987), 5 runner-up finishes, and numerous finishes in the top 5. TCNJ's varsity teams are the top combined first- and second-place finishers of all 424 Division III schools in the nation over more than 25 years. In 1957, TCNJ, then known as Trenton State College, was a founding member of the NJAC (then called the New Jersey State Athletic Conference) along with five other state institutions. Since then, and after the conference allowed women's sports in 1985, the school has been a powerhouse winning the most titles in men's cross country, women's cross country, field hockey, women's tennis, women's soccer. The

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

teams have especially dominated the NJAC since the title was first contested in 1997, winning each year in both indoor and outdoor. In 2017–18, TCNJ captured its first NJAC cup, after claiming titles in women’s cross country, field hockey, women’s tennis, women’s indoor track & field, and women’s lacrosse, and NJAC regular season titles in softball and baseball. Outside of varsity athletics the school also hosts 15 club sports including a men's ice hockey team that competes within the

American Collegiate Hockey Association The American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) is a college ice hockey association. The ACHA's purpose is to be an organization of collegiate affiliated non-varsity programs, which provides structure, regulates operations, and promotes qualit ...

(ACHA) at Division I. The team is a member of the Northeast Collegiate Hockey League. Prior to 2022, the team competed in ACHA Division II and won championships in various conferences such as the Great Northeast Collegiate Hockey Conference (2012, 2014) and the Colonial States College Hockey Conference (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020).

Men's athletics

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

Cross Country Cross country or cross-country may refer to: Places * Cross Country, Baltimore, a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, Maryland * Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway in Westchester County, NY * Cross County Shopping Center, a mall in Yo ...

* Football * Soccer *

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

*Indoor and Outdoor

Track & Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

– considered two separate sports by the NCAA *

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

Women's athletics

Field Hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shootin ...

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...

* Soccer *

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

*Indoor and Outdoor

– considered two separate sports by the NCAA

Club sports

(women) *

Bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thoug ...

Crew A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the tasks involved ...

'' *

Cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ent ...

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

'' *

(men and women) * Rugby (men and women) * Soccer (men and women) *

Ultimate frisbee Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...

*Unified sports (Special Olympics and TCNJ students) *

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

(men and women)

Championships

*The NCAA vacated the 1992 Women's Lacrosse title due to use of an ineligible player during the tournament ''Source''
List of individual TCNJ national champions
' ''Source''

References

{{NewYorksports Sports teams in the New York metropolitan area