FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Feb. 16, 2011 - The NCAA Division III Championships Committee has selected North Central College to host the 2013 NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships, Mar. 9-10, 2013, at Al B. Carius Track.
It will be the first indoor national championship held at North Central, which has hosted the Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships nine times, most recently in 2000.
“Any time you can host any type of NCAA event, it's positive for the athletic department and the institution as a whole,” said athletic director Jim Miller. “To be able to invite people from all over the country to come to our campus and to be able to show off our new Residence Hall/Recreation Center is something we are very excited to do.”
The 2013 Indoor Championships will be contested at Al B. Carius Track, located within the Residence Hall/Recreation Center. Opened in 2010, Al B. Carius Track features a six-lane running track, three pole vault runways and two long/triple jump pits as part of a 100,000-square foot recreation facility.
Since its opening, the facility has hosted the 2010 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Indoor Championships and the 2011 Chicagoland Indoor Championships.
“This is a tribute to all of the former and current student-athletes who have made North Central College their home,” said head women's track and field coach Kari Kluckhohn. “North Central has made a tremendous commitment to our program in building a national-caliber facility. Now we can share it, as well as the City of Naperville, with schools across the country.”
North Central's previous home for indoor track and field, Merner Field House, will be used for the championships as a warmup and staging area.
“We know what it takes to host outdoors, and indoors is so much easier because you don't have to worry about weather,” Miller said. “We not only have a wonderful facility in Al B. Carius Track, but we also have Merner Field House available to us next door, which is a great combination. When you add that to the availability of two major airports for teams to fly into, and having the downtown Naperville area right next to the campus, and the opportunity to work with the Naperville Chamber of Commerce, it's really a great combination of factors that will make this an ideal championship venue.”
The track's namesake, associate head men's track and field coach Al Carius, led the Cardinals to two indoor national championships (1989, 2010) and five outdoor national titles (1989, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2010) during his tenure as head coach. North Central was also the host of the outdoor championships in 1989, 1994 and 2000, making it one of two Division III institutions to have won a national title at its home facility. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse did so as well in 1997.
“When we host a national championship, our goal is to make the experience as memorable as it can possibly be for the participants,” Carius said. “When they come here, we want them to feel like it's a special experience for them, that they'll treasure forever regardless of how they place.
“It serves as kind of a rallying point for the whole College community, because when you have an event like this, everybody comes together wanting to know how they can help. You get the whole community chipping in, which brings us closer together as an institution. We need everybody to create that experience for the people who come here.”
North Central hosted nine Division III Outdoor Championship meets between 1980 and 2000, including the first combined Division III Men's and Women's Outdoor Championships in 1982. North Central joins the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh as the only Division III institutions to host both the indoor and outdoor national championship meets.
“Usually, when you go to a national meet, only the qualifiers get to see what the national championships are like,” said head men's track and field coach Frank Gramarosso. “When you stay home, everybody's involved, and you tend to get a few more qualifiers in following years as a result of that. Like any situation, there are going to be challenges, but it's nice to be able to stay home.”
More information about NCAA Championships can be found at ncaa.com.
