Division III Men's Basketball Championship

Dates and sites: First- and second-round games are March 3 and 5 at campus sites. Sectionals will be March 11-12 at campus sites. The semifinals and final will be March 18-19 at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia.

Field: Forty-eight teams.

Selection date: February 27.

2004 champion: Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Top contenders: Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Wooster, Amherst, St. John Fisher, Wittenberg.

Championship notes: Coach Jack Bennett's Wisconsin-Stevens Point club leads the nation in scoring defense at 52.9 points per game ... Wooster ranks third in the nation in field-goal percentage at .517. Tim Vandervaart is making more than 64 percent of his shots ... Amherst will be looking to qualify for its sixth consecutive NCAA tournament ... St. John Fisher is limiting its opponents to a 35.4 shooting percentage, which is tops in the country ... Wittenberg is outscoring its opponents by a nation-leading 21.3 points per game.

Division III Women's Basketball Championship

Dates and sites: First-round games (March 2), second-round games (March 5) and sectionals (March 11-12) are at campus sites. The semifinals and final will be March 18-19 at the Jane P. Batten Student Center in Norfolk, Virginia.

Field: Fifty teams.

Selection date: February 27.

2004 champion: Wilmington (Ohio).

Top contenders: Scranton, Bates, Bowdoin, Trinity (Texas), Randolph-Macon.

Championship notes: Scranton coach Mike Strong earned his 600th career win this season ... Bates split the regular-season series with Bowdoin and looks to make the finals in the New England Small College Athletic Conference for the third straight year. Bowdoin was the national runner-up last season ... Trinity's Jenna Smith ranks third in the nation with 4.6 steals per game ... Randolph-Macon's Megan Silva is 10th nationally in scoring at 20.0 points per game and is shooting .531 from the field.

Division III Men's Ice Hockey Championship

Dates and sites: First-round games are March 9 and quarterfinals are March 12. The semifinals will be March 18, with the championship game March 20. All the games will be played on the campus of a participating institution.

Field: A nine-team format is used. Automatic qualification has been granted to the ECAC East, ECAC Northeast, State University of New York Athletic Conference, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, New England Small College Athletic Conference and Northern Collegiate Hockey Association.

Selection date: March 6.

2004 champion: Middlebury.

Top contenders: The February 14 U.S. College Hockey Online/College Sports Television poll listed St. Norbert, Manhattanville, St. John's (Minnesota), Norwich and Wisconsin-Superior as the top five teams.

Championship notes: The Middlebury men's and women's ice hockey teams both captured the Division III title last year. The Middlebury men also won the title for five straight years from 1995 through 1999 ... Last season, host Norwich lost to Middlebury in the semifinals in a double-overtime game that lasted more than three hours ... As of February 12, top-ranked St. Norbert has lost twice, tied three times and won its remaining games by an average of four goals.

Division III Women's Ice Hockey Championship

Dates and sites: First-round games will be March 11, 12 or 13 on campus. The semifinals are March 18 and the third-place and national-championship games will be March 19, all at on-campus sites.

Field: Seven teams. Automatic qualification has been granted to the ECAC East Women's Hockey League, ECAC Women's West Ice Hockey League, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and New England Small College Athletic Conference.

Selection date: March 6.

2004 champion: Middlebury.

Top contenders: A recent U.S. College Hockey Online poll listed Elmira, Middlebury, Plattsburgh State, Bowdoin and Gustavus Adolphus as the top five.

Championship notes: Plattsburgh State and Middlebury have split the two games they've played this season. Middlebury also tied Williams, leading to a 18-1-1 record ... Plattsburgh State also has split with top-ranked Elmira ... The Elmira Soaring Eagles have posted 12 shutouts in 18 wins so far this season, the most shutouts of any of the top-five teams ... Sixth-ranked Wisconsin-Stevens Point was runner-up to Middlebury in last year's championship.

Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships

Dates and site: The nationals will be at the Holland Community Aquatic Center in Holland, Michigan, March 10-12. Hope College will host the meet.

Field: The maximum number of participants allowed is 232. All qualifiers who have met the "A" standard will be admitted into the meet; those who have met the "B" standard will be considered for the field. No team is allowed more than 18 competitors.

2004 team champion: Kenyon.

Top team contenders: Kenyon, Emory, Denison, Hope, Williams.

Championships notes: Calvin captured the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship February 12 at the same facility that will host the national meet. Calvin had not won the league title since 2002. Hope, which finished second in the league this year and 10th at the nationals last year, won MIAA championships in 2003 and 2004 ... Kenyon swam past Denison and Wooster in the North Coast Athletic Conference championship after losing the title to Denison last year. Sophomore Rebecca Allison (200-yard backstroke), sophomore Jessica Connors (100- and 200-yard breaststrokes) and junior Danielle Korman (200-yard butterfly) were among event winners for the Ladies, who have won 20 Division III women's swimming titles ... Seniors Sarah Peck and Nikki Weaver are among contenders for Denison, which placed third in the national meet last year. Peck took conference crowns in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard freestyles this year. Weaver won league titles in both the one-meter and three-meter dives.

Division III Men's Indoor Track Championships

Dates and site: The championships will be March 11-12 at Illinois Wesleyan.

Field: A total of 200 athletes will compete in the championships. Athletes qualify by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established for each event.

Selection date: The spots remaining in the field after the automatic qualifiers are entered will be filled from the descending-order list of provisional qualifiers March 7.

2004 team champion: Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Top team contenders: Wisconsin-La Crosse, Lincoln (Pennsylvania), Wisconsin-Platteville, Nebraska Wesleyan, Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Championships notes: Wisconsin-La Crosse will have to win its fifth straight title without graduated Olympian Andrew Rock or two-time pole vault champ Hans Schmidt, but the Eagles remain strong with Nate Olson (last year's runner-up behind Rock at 400 meters) and a fast 1,600-meter relay squad. Other event contenders include sophomore Kevin Becker in the weight throw and Matt Novak and Nick Pergande in the pole vault ... Lincoln (Pennsylvania) poses a serious threat to the Eagles' victory streak with strength in the sprints, where senior Augustine Schmader seeks to deny Nebraska Wesleyan's Bret Blake a third straight 55-meter dash title and sophomore Bobby Young had Division III's best 400-meter time through February 13. Lincoln also features defending long jump champ Eric Ray ... Wisconsin-Platteville again pins much of its hopes on Ryan Kleimenhagen, whose victory in last year's 1,500 meters and anchor role in the distance medley relay propelled the team to its first top-five finish.

Division III Women's Indoor Track Championships

Dates and site: The championships will be March 11-12 at Illinois Wesleyan.

Field: A total of 200 athletes will compete in the championships. Athletes qualify by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established for each event.

Selection date: The spots remaining in the field after the automatic qualifiers are entered will be filled from the descending-order list of provisional qualifiers March 7.

2004 team champion: Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Top team contenders: Wisconsin-Oshkosh, College of New Jersey, Williams, Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Amherst.

Championships notes: Wisconsin-Oshkosh returns the top individual scorer from last year's event, Robyn Jarocki, who won the 20-pound weight throw and finished second in the shot put ... The College of New Jersey never has finished better than fourth at the championships, but could contend for the team title behind sprinters Tiffany Clark and Brittny Boyd, who also may challenge for the long jump title ... Williams has placed third at the championships three times since 2000 and could use a successful defense of its distance medley relay title at the close of the championships' first day as a springboard to a higher finish this year.