UW-Oshkosh Women To Make 26th NCAA Championship Appearance

A second-place regional finish earned UW-Oshkosh an automatic berth into the 32-team NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championship that it will host this Saturday (Nov. 21) at the Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne.

The NCAA officially announced its team and individual participants for the championship on Sunday (Nov. 15).

The top two, seven-person teams automatically qualified from each of the eight regional meets that were held Saturday (Nov. 14), while 16 additional squads were selected at-large.

Fifty-six individuals, the first seven student-athletes from each region who are not a part of a qualifying team, were selected to participate in the championship as well.

UW-Oshkosh will appear in the Division III Championship for the 26th time, and the first since 2012. The Titans captured NCAA titles in 1987, 1988, 1991 and 1996 while finishing as the national runner-up in 1989, 1990 and 1995.

UW-Oshkosh earned the right to run on its home course after finishing second at Saturday's Midwest Regional in Rock Island, Ill. Washington University (Mo.) won the 40-team meet with 68 points, while UW-Oshkosh totaled 106 and third-place University of Chicago (Ill.) 126.

In addition to Washington University and UW-Oshkosh, Calvin College (Mich.), Carleton College (Minn.), Claremont-Mudd-Scripps-Colleges (Calif.), Dickinson College (Pa.), Emory University (Ga.), Hope College (Mich.), Johns Hopkins University (Md.), Rhodes College (Tenn.), State University of New York-Geneseo, State University of New York-Oneonta, Tufts University (Mass.), University of St. Thomas (Minn.), Willamette University (Ore.) and Williams College (Mass.) collected automatic berths into the championship.

Teams receiving at-large berths were Allegheny College (Pa.), Elizabethtown College (Pa.), Haverford College (Pa.), Keene State College (N.H.), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Middlebury College (Vt.), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.Y.), St. Lawrence University (N.Y.), St. Olaf College (Minn.), University of Chicago, University of Rochester (N.Y.), UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, Wellesley University (Mass.) and Whitworth College (Wash.).

Last year, Johns Hopkins University scored 87 points to win its third consecutive national championship. Massachusetts Institute of Technology finished second with 112 points, St. Lawrence University third with 138 and Washington University fourth with 180.

Saturday's 6,000-meter race begins at 11 a.m. (CST). It will be followed by the men's 8,000-meter race at 12:30 p.m. (CST).

Spectator parking for the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships will not be available at the Lake Breeze Golf Club.

Admission will be charged at Winneconne High School (100 Wolf Run, Winneconne, 54986) for the use of the shuttle service.

Spectator shuttles are available to transport spectators for $5 round trip. Accessible shuttles will be available. The shuttle service will begin at 8:30 a.m. and conclude at 3:30 p.m. There are portable restrooms at the parking venue.

Official Announcement Of Selections For The 2015 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships