ORLANDO -- In its final year of NCAA Division II competition, UC San Diego Athletics captured gold in Group III for Event Activation Promotion by the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) on Wednesday afternoon. Athletics partnered with other campus organizations to drive student attendance as part of Night Bazaar last September.

Night Bazaar was born out of Welcome Week committee suggestions and was a partnership between HDH (Housing, Dining, and Hospitality), Athletics, Sustainability, and Residential Life. The event kicked off with men's soccer hosting Hawai'i-Hilo and followed with a Bazaar on the track with games, food, giveaways, and more. Athletics supported with pre and in-game activations including t-shirt and prize giveaways and then had a photo booth and team demonstrations (fencing, women's basketball, and softball) on the track after the game.

The partnership was an enormous success, setting an attendance record with over 1,400 students at Triton Soccer Stadium watching the Tritons win 2-1 over Hawai'i Hilo. 

UC San Diego Athletics has earned three NACMA gold awards since 2014.

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program begins a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I.  The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Division III and II and helped guide more than 1,300 scholar-athletes to All-America honors.  A total of 82 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships.  UC San Diego student-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.