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Illinois Wesleyan Hosts NCAA Indoor Championships
- BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (March 7) — Four hundred male and female athletes will compete in the NCAA Division III national indoor track and field championships, to be held at Illinois Wesleyan University's Shirk Center March 11-12.
- The events begin at 10:30 a.m. each day and tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students with an ID.
- The 200 male and 200 female athletes qualify for the national meet by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established for each event. The spots remaining in the field after the automatic qualifiers are entered will be filled on Mon., March 7, from the descending-order list of provisional qualifiers.
- The men's defending team champion is Wisconsin-La Crosse, who will aim to win its fifth straight title without graduated Olympian Andrew Rock or two-time pole vault champ Hans Schmidt. The Eagles remain strong with Nate Olson, last year's runner-up behind Rock at 400 meters, and a fast 1,600-meter relay squad. Other event contenders include sophomore Kevin Becker in the weight throw and Matt Novak and Nick Pergande in the pole vault .
- Lincoln (Pa.) poses a serious threat to the Eagles' victory streak with strength in the sprints, where senior Augustine Schmader seeks to deny Nebraska Wesleyan's Bret Blake a third straight 55-meter dash title. Lincoln sophomore Bobby Young had Division III's best 400-meter time through Feb. 13 and also features defending long jump champ Eric Ray.
- Wisconsin-Platteville pins much of its hopes on Ryan Kleimenhagen, whose victory in last year's 1,500 meters and anchor role in the distance medley relay propelled the team to its first top-five finish.
Other strong men's teams are from Nebraska Wesleyan and Wisconsin-Whitewater.
- The 2004 women's team champion was Wisconsin-Oshkosh., who returns Robyn Jarocki, the top individual scorer from last year's meet as she won the 20-pound weight throw and finished second in the shot put.
- The College of New Jersey has never finished better than fourth at the championships, but could contend for the team title behind sprinters Tiffany Clark and Brittny Boyd, who also may challenge for the long jump title.
- Williams has placed third at the championships three times since 2000 and could use a successful defense of its distance medley relay title at the close of the championships' first day as a springboard to a higher finish this year.
- Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Amherst are other strong contenders in the women's field.
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