UW-Oshkosh To Host NCAA Division III Championships
The Middlebury College (Vt.)
women and the Haverford College (Pa.) men look to defend their
titles as UW-Oshkosh hosts the 2011 National Collegiate Athletic
Conference (NCAA) Division III Cross Country Championships on
Saturday (Nov. 19) at the Lake Breeze Golf Club (6333 Ball Prairie
Road) in
Winneconne.
The women’s 6,000-meter race begins at 11 a.m., and the
men’s 8,000-meter competition starts at noon. A total of 560
runners from 134 different schools will participate in the event,
which was last hosted by UW-Oshkosh in 1999. Each race will field
32 teams of seven runners, along with 56 individuals who received
at-large selections. Admission is $10 per vehicle.
In the women’s division, the top 14 teams from the 2010
championship return. Middlebury College scored 185 points at last
year’s meet to capture its sixth national title, while
Washington University (Mo.) finished second with 193. Massachusetts
Institute of Technology took third with 214 points, UW-Eau Claire
fourth with 218 and Williams College (Mass.) fifth with 230.
The top returning runner for the 31st edition of the women’s
race is UW-Oshkosh’s Christy Cazzola. She placed fourth a
year ago with her time of 21:18.
The men’s category has nine of the top-11 teams, including
the top-three squads, from the 2010 championship. Haverford College
counted 87 points to claim its first national title, while North
Central College (Ill.) ranked second with 104 and St. Lawrence
University (N.Y.) third with 137.
Ben Sathre of the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) is the top
returning runner for the 39th version of the men’s race.
Sathre finished second at last year’s meet with a time of
24:23. Also back from 2010 are Steve Kiplagat of St. Lawrence
University and Nate Stymiest of UW-Oshkosh who placed fourth and
seventh, respectively.
In addition to the six women’s national titles won by
Middlebury College, State University of New York-Cortland has seven
and the University of St. Thomas and UW-Oshkosh four each.
North Central College boasts 11 national titles on the men’s
side, while Calvin College (Mich.) and UW-Oshkosh own four each and
the UW-La Crosse three.
Covering nine sports, UW-Oshkosh has now been the host for the
finals of 22 NCAA Division III Championships. In addition to
men’s and women’s cross country, the school also hosted
the baseball finals from 2000-09, the final in both women’s
basketball and women’s volleyball in 1996, the men’s
and women’s indoor track and field championships in 1994,
1997 and 2001 and the men’s and women’s outdoor track
and field championships in 2007 and 2008.