FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
NCAA Host Site Selection Announcement
Dec. 11, 2013 - The NCAA Division III Championships Committee has selected North Central College to host the 2017 NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships, Mar. 10-11, 2017, at Al B. Carius Track.
The announcement came as part of the largest collection of host site announcements in NCAA history on Wednesday, as a total of 523 host sites were picked for 82 of the NCAA's 89 national championships from 2014 to 2018.
It will be the second indoor national championship held at North Central, which hosted more than 500 competitors and 2,400 spectators during the 2013 meet. North Central has hosted the Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships nine times, most recently in 2000.
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 also hosted two College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Indoor Championships and three Chicagoland Indoor Championships.
North Central's previous home for indoor track and field, Merner Field House, will once again be used for the championships as a warmup and staging area.
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 and repeated the feat at the 2013 outdoor meet.
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.
More information about NCAA Championships can be found at ncaa.com.
