Congratulations to the Division III spring sports champions:
Baseball — UW-Whitewater
Men’s golf — Guilford
Women’s golf — Methodist
Men’s lacrosse — Salisbury (celebration shot from Salisbury athletics)
Women’s lacrosse — New Jersey
Women’s rowing — Ithaca
Softball — St. Thomas
Men’s tennis — UC Santa Cruz
Women’s tennis — Emory
Men’s track — Lincoln
Women’s track — Wartburg
Women’s water polo doesn’t have a Division III championship, but Redlands was selected for the NCAA all-divisions tournament and won one game in the three-game tournament to finish seventh.
And also, a special congratulations to Johns Hopkins, which won the Division I men’s lacrosse championship … even if those players are on scholarship!
UC Santa Cruz men’s tennis actually pulled off a fairly rare accomplishment, winning not only the Division III team title, but the Division III singles and doubles championships as well. Even better, UC Santa Cruz was the predetermined host of the championships this year, so the Slugs won all three titles at home.
Also, while not an NCAA sport, two Division III schools, St. Mary’s (Md.) and Hobart/William Smith, are currently competing at the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) North American Spring Championships in Austin, TX (June 1-10). Sailing is a strong varsity sport at both schools and both schools qualified for all three spring national championships – women’s dinghy, co-ed dinghy, and team racing. The women’s dinghy championsips are underway with the team racing and co-ed dinghy championships to follow.
I’d try to explain how college sailing works, but it would probably make your head hurt.
http://www.gazetteextra.com/edit_uwwbb060105.asp
The article above is from Whitewater’s GazetteXtra. The writer started talking about the WIAC influence in many sports….but his best line was taking this shot at the DIII baseball selection committee.
“Stevens Point finished 38-11. It could be argued that its stellar record deserved placement in a different regional so both Point and Whitewater could have advanced to the World Series. The fact that Division III officials put both in the same regional seems to indicate the concern they have about the UW schools dominating national competition.”
Wildcat,
I’ll concurr with you. I thought Point or Whitewater could’ve easily been shipped to the Ill. Wes. regional replacing either Ripon or Edgewood. If some of you don’t know, Point was actually the #1 seed in the Whitewater Regional and I was told Point didn’t put in a bid to host a regional.
After Tuesday’s championship win, Whitewater’s record in their last 33 games was 28-5. All five losses were to Point.
I had the wonderful opportunity to work during the lacrosse championships last weekend at the Linc in Philly, and despite having never sat through an entire lacrosse game before, I’m now hooked after watching the intensity and passion of the game. The Division II/III finals drew over 24,000 fans (!), which I understand is an all-time record for any event in any sport in both divisions. The combined weekend attendance was something like 177,000 across five games. It was terrific exposure for Division III athletics (and the final was a heck of a game, to boot!)