Division I Men's Cross Country Championships

Dates and sites: Regional qualifying will be conducted at nine sites November 13. The championships will be November 22 at Wabash Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Indiana (hosted by Indiana State).

Field: A total of 255 runners will compete.

Selection date: Thirty-one teams and 38 individuals will qualify at regional meets or be selected at large November 14.

2003 team champion: Stanford.

2003 individual champion: Dathan Ritzenhein (Colorado).

Top contenders: Wisconsin, Stanford, Arkansas, Colorado, Notre Dame.

Championships notes: Wisconsin returns all seven runners from last year's runner-up team and also is benefiting from the return from injury of Matt Tegenkamp, the Badgers' top finisher individually at the 2002 meet. Junior Simon Bairu also is back after last year's top-10 finish and Chris Solinsky was the top freshman finisher in 2003 (placing 15th) ... Stanford's Ryan Hall is the top returning individual (he dueled Dathan Ritzenhein, who opted to turn professional this year, for last year's crown but was outkicked down the stretch). The two-time defending champion Cardinal lost the other six members of the team that posted the largest margin of victory in meet history (150 points), but remain extremely competitive with a roster that includes redshirt freshman Neftalem Araia and sophomore Peter Meindl ... This is the first year of a three-year contract to conduct the Division I championships at the Wabash Family Sports Center's LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute.

Division I Women's Cross Country Championships

Dates and sites: Regional qualifying will be conducted at nine sites November 13. The championships will be November 22 at Wabash Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Indiana (hosted by Indiana State).

Field: A total of 255 runners will compete.

Selection date: Thirty-one teams and 38 individuals will qualify at regional meets or be selected at large November 14.

2003 team champion: Stanford.

2003 individual champion: Shalane Flanagan (North Carolina).

Top contenders: Stanford, Providence, Colorado, Michigan, Duke, Notre Dame.

Championship notes: Stanford seeks its second straight title behind top-six finishers Sara Bei and Alicia Craig, who again are supported by sisters Katy and Amanda Trotter and Arianna Lambie. Bei sat out the Pre-Nationals October 16 in Terre Haute but Stanford (paced by Craig's individual victory) still easily won the Blue race over highly ranked Notre Dame and posted the best collective time in the meet's two women's races ... Colorado won the other race in Terre Haute over Michigan, as the Buffs' Renee Metevier (who was Division I individual runner-up in 2001, then transferred from Georgia Tech after an injury) posted the day's fastest time (20:03.6) ... Providence also figures to pose a challenge to the Cardinal behind the top returning finisher from last year, runner-up Kim Smith, and teammate Mary Cullen, who finished fifth. The Friars bring back six of the seven members of last year's third-place team.

Division I Field Hockey Championship

Dates and sites: The first and second rounds will be November 13-14 on campuses of participating schools. The semifinals and final will be November 19 and 21 at Wake Forest.

Field: 16 teams.

Selection date: November 9.

2003 champion: Wake Forest.

Top contenders: A recent STX/National Field Hockey Coaches Association poll lists Wake Forest, North Carolina, Duke, Maryland and Michigan State as the top five teams in the nation.

Championship notes: Five national championship teams have finished the season with perfect records and no national champion has ever completed the year with more than three losses ... Wake Forest is seeking its third straight crown behind senior Kelly Dostal, who leads the nation in points and points per game ... Last year's national runner-up Duke has never won the national championship ... Three-time national champion Maryland started the season with an 11-game winning streak and is working toward its ninth consecutive and 16th overall tournament appearance ... Michigan State, powered by senior forward Veerle Goudswaard (who leads the nation in goals and goals per game) is looking for its fourth straight tournament appearance.

Division I Men's Soccer Championship

Dates and sites: First-round (November 19-20), second-round (November 23), third-round (November 27-28) and quarterfinal (December 3-5) games will be at campus sites. UCLA hosts the Men's College Cup December 10 and 12 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

Field: Forty-eight teams, 23 of which receive automatic qualification.

Selection date: November 15.

2003 champion: Indiana.

Top contenders: North Carolina-Greensboro, Virginia, Southern Methodist, UCLA and Notre Dame topped the October 26 National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll.

Championship notes: North Carolina-Greensboro is Division I's lone unbeaten team at 14-0-1. Forward Randi Patterson earned Southern Conference player-of-the-week honors for the fourth time this year after scoring three goals in wins over Wofford and Charlotte. The last time the Spartans went this deep into the season without losing was in 1983 when they won the NCAA Division III championship ... Third-ranked Virginia had to work overtime against Duke to preserve its lofty ranking. Trailing, 2-0, with just 3:30 remaining in the match, Virginia rallied to score two goals in the final minutes of regulation before the Cavaliers' Mike Littlefield notched the game-winning goal in overtime. The win was the Cavaliers' eighth consecutive. Littlefield's game-winning goal makes him the 11th different Virginia player to score a game-winning goal in the Cavaliers' 13 victories this season. Virginia won four straight titles in the early 1990s but has not been back to the College Cup since 1997 ... UCLA pulled off an unlikely 4-3 overtime victory over California when the Bruins scored two goals in the last nine minutes of regulation to tie the game and then converted a penalty kick three minutes into the extra period. UCLA is 9-2-2 overall.

Division I Women's Soccer Championship

Dates and sites: First- and second-round (November 12-14), third-round (November 19-21), and quarterfinal (November 26-28) games will be at campus sites. North Carolina State hosts the Women's College Cup December 3 and 5 in Cary, North Carolina.

Field: Sixty-four teams, 29 of which receive automatic qualification.

Selection date: November 8.

2003 champion: North Carolina.

Top contenders: North Carolina, Notre Dame, Penn State, Virginia and Santa Clara topped the October 26 National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll.

Championship notes: North Carolina, winner of 17 NCAA championships, has only one blemish this year -- a 0-0 tie at 11th-ranked Tennessee in September. Sophomore Heather O'Reilly has 11 goals for the Tar Heels, two in a recent 4-0 win over Florida State ... Penn State clinched the Big Ten Conference regular-season championship with a 3-0 win at home over Ohio State. The win was the 36th consecutive at home for the Nittany Lions, who have not lost at home under fourth-year head coach Paula Wilkins ... Notre Dame (15-0-1) came within one win of matching its best start in program history before battling to a 0-0 tie at Rutgers. The deadlock ended Notre Dame's streak of 53 wins against Big East Conference teams. The Fighting Irish won the NCAA championship in 1995, stopping a string of nine straight North Carolina titles.