The NCAA News - News and Features

August 17, 1998

Division III Notes

Facilities: Carleton College recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new recreation facility, which will be completed in August 1999. The new facility will be 80,000 square feet and will contain a 200-meter indoor track enclosing four multipurpose courts, a 6,000 square-foot fitness center, an aerobics/dance studio, a climbing wall, batting cages and a putting green ... The New York State Legislature has approved the construction of a $10 million multipurpose athletics facility at State University College at Cortland. University officials are in the process of securing an architectural firm to design the new complex. When completed in 2001, the facility will include two lighted, artificial-turf fields. One field will have seating for 7,500 spectators, and the other will have seating for 1,500. The complex will include a press box, locker rooms, a concession area and scoreboards.

Sports sponsorship: Bernard M. Baruch College has announced that it will add women's soccer and women's softball for the 1998-99 season. Dan Creange, the college's vice-president/treasurer, has been named coordinator for the expansion of the athletics program ... Elizabethtown College has announced that track and field for men and women will be upgraded from club status to varsity status in spring 2000. Previously, Elizabethtown had sponsored the sport on the varsity level from 1975 to 1981. Leading the new programs will be Chris Straub, who also will coach cross country, serve as the coordinator of intramurals and recreation and teach in the physical education department.

Conferences: The New England Women's Eight Conference (NEW 8) has changed its name to the New England Women's and Men's Athletics Conference (NEWMAC) and will begin sponsoring conference play for men as well as for women. NEWMAC will increase its membership with the addition of Springfield College and the United States Coast Guard Academy ... The 1998-99 academic year will mark the beginning of competition for the newest members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), DePauw University and the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The SCAC has also announced that it will begin conference championships for men's and women's swimming and diving along with women's softball, bringing the conference's total number of championships up to 18.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes