HISTORIC FEAT

Millikin’s basketball crown gives College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin unprecedented feat in Illinois

When the final buzzer sounded on Saturday, March 19 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, not only did Millikin have its first ever NCAA Division III national championship by virtue of its 70-50 waxing of Randolph-Macon, but the conference that the Big Blue plays in bounced into rarified air as well.

Millikin, under the direction of veteran head coach Lori Kerans, won the first national title in school history with a glossy 29-2 record. In doing so, the Big Blue joined fellow CCIW member Wheaton in the NCAA Division III winner’s circle for the school year of 2004-05. Back on November 27 the Thunder’s women’s soccer team, with head coach Pete Felske at the helm, claimed the national title with a 5-4 shootout victory over the University of Puget Sound in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Millikin is the second team in CCIW history to win an NCAA Division III national title in women's basketball. North Central won the 1983 title at a time when the conference had not yet included women's sports.

With the championship performances of Millikin and Wheaton, the CCIW becomes the first athletic conference in the state of Illinois, at any NCAA level, to claim two national team titles in women's sports in the same year. “This is a tremendous accomplishment for the conference,” said CCIW commissioner Chris Martin. “There has been a great history of athletic success in the state of Illinois and the fact that the CCIW is the first to claim two national titles in the same year speaks volumes for the type of coaches, administrators and student-athletes who compete in our league. We, as a conference, are very proud of what both Wheaton and Millikin have accomplished this year.”

The CCIW, which was formed in Jacksonville, Illinois on April 26, 1946, is wrapping up its 59th year of athletic competition. Both Millikin and Wheaton are charter members of the conference along with Augustana, Carthage, Elmhurst, Illinois College, Illinois Wesleyan, Lake Forest and North Central. Lake Forest and Illinois College are no longer members. North Park is also in the conference.

With the NCAA Division III titles from the Big Blue and the Thunder, the CCIW can now claim a total of 31 national team titles during its existence.