FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Apr. 23, 2015 - North Central College is proud to announce plans to expand the College's athletic department to 25 sports programs with the addition of women's triathlon and men's lacrosse as varsity sports beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year. The addition of the two sports will make North Central's athletic department the largest in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW).

Women's Triathlon
North Central is one of the first NCAA institutions to commit to the addition of a women's triathlon program as one of the NCAA's Emerging Sports for Women. The NCAA's Committee on Women's Athletics identifies and manages emerging sports, which are intended to help institutions provide more athletics opportunities for women and develop more sport sponsorship opportunities for institutions.

"The NCAA's recognition of triathlon as an emerging sport certainly grabbed our attention," said Marty Sauer, North Central's vice president for enrollment management and athletics. "We feel that it's a natural fit for North Central, given the strength of the fitness and triathlon community in this area. We're excited to get in on the ground level in pursuing a varsity program."

The College's addition of women's triathlon was made possible in part due to the Emerging Sport Grant program sponsored by USA Triathlon, the national governing body for the sport. USA Triathlon is distributing nearly $1 million in grant aid to be awarded to NCAA Division I, II and III institutions in order to develop, implement, grow and sustain women's triathlon at the collegiate level. North Central is one of eight recipients of a three-year, $70,000 grant to institute its program.

(Read USA Triathlon's announcement of the grant program and its recipients HERE).

Triathlon was approved as an NCAA Emerging Sport for Women at the NCAA Convention in January 2014. Emerging sports have a 10-year window in which to establish 40 programs. The first-ever Women's Collegiate Triathlon National Championships were held on Nov. 2, 2014 in Clermont, Florida.

"There was a fairly extensive process to apply for the grant," said North Central athletic director Jim Miller '86. "Our director of grants, Michelle Porcellino '05, and our assistant athletic director, Sue DeNigris '02 Kane, took the lead and we were told the bid was very impressive."

North Central triathletes will have access to the Residence Hall-Recreation Center, Jay and Dot Buikema Track and the Merner Field House pool. In addition, the local community offers more than 500 miles of local trails for running and cycling and a community with a sport and fitness culture that will provide abundant competitive opportunities as well as local interest and support.

Intercollegiate women's triathlon is a fall sport, competing from Sept. 1 through the first full weekend in November, and will consist of up to six dates of competition each year.

"The Naperville area and all of Chicagoland are home to multiple triathlons," Miller said. "We have a lot of opportunities as far as training, too. It seemed to all of us to be a fantastic fit, and the grant is a significant boost to help us get started."

Men's Lacrosse
North Central first ventured into the sport of lacrosse with the addition of a women's program in 2007, making the College the first NCAA Division III institution in the state of Illinois to offer women's lacrosse as a varsity sport.

"We continue to be sensitive to what students are looking for in terms of athletic opportunities at an institution like North Central," Sauer said. "As we thought about additional opportunities, men's lacrosse made a lot of sense to us, because it continues to be a growing sport."

The NCAA has sponsored a Division III national championship for men's lacrosse since 1980 and 226 Division III institutions currently compete in the sport. The CCIW, of which North Central is a charter member, is sponsoring a conference championship for men's lacrosse for the first time in spring 2015.

The men's lacrosse program competes from February to late April and conducts practices and games at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium, the same facility used by the women's program.

"We took a lot of pride in being the first Division III institution in the state to start a varsity women's lacrosse program, and helping lead the process to start the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference," Miller said. "We see growing demand for expanded opportunities for intercollegiate competition, and we feel great about our ability to build a highly competitive program in men's lacrosse."

The College's goal is to hire head coaches for each sport to spend the 2015-2016 academic year recruiting and scheduling before entering into competition in 2016-2017. Searches to fill both positions will be announced soon.