BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  - Illinois Wesleyan University's Chris Schumacher has been named “National Women's Head Coach of the Year” for Division III outdoor track and field by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Schumacher's team needed at least a third-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay to overtake Wisconsin-Oshkosh for the women's team title at the NCAA Championships on May 29 at Berea, Ohio, and got that in a thrilling fashion, topping Wisconsin-River Falls by under a second to tally their 54th point for the national crown.

Schumacher, who is in his 13th year, led Illinois Wesleyan to a tie for the national outdoors championship (with Wisconsin-River Falls) in 2008 and a seventh place finish in the 2009 outdoor championships. The Titans won their second straight College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin outdoor championship this spring.

Earlier this spring, Schumacher was named the regional women's head coach of the year for the second straight season and also was chosen as the indoor women's head coach of the year in 2010.

Under Schumacher's watch, the Titans were the national Division III indoor champions in 2008 and have also finished fourth indoors in 2006, 2009 and 2010, sixth in 2004, eighth in 2000 and tenth in 2007.

The USTFCCCA “National Men's Head Coach of the Year” for Division III also comes from the CCIW – North Central's Al Carius. In his 44th year as coach, his men's team won their fifth NCAA outdoor team title in a 17-point victory over Salisbury (36) and UW La Crosse (28). North Central also won NCAA crowns in the 2009-10 season in cross country and indoor track & field, becoming the first Division III squad since 2005-06 to win the “triple crown”.