INDIANAPOLIS --- For the seventh consecutive year, all 88 National Collegiate Athletic Association championships will receive television exposure, including 10 fall sports to be featured in a one-hour special.
“CBS Sports Presents Championships of the NCAA” will air at 2 p.m. Eastern time/11 a.m. Pacific time Saturday, Dec. 27, on CBS Sports. Highlights and stories from cross country, field hockey, soccer and volleyball will be featured in the program. For the 2008-09 academic year, CBS Sports will feature more than 40 of the NCAA’s 88 championships in its three seasonal shows.
As individuals and teams pursue their ultimate goal to become an NCAA champion, some of the feature stories included in the program are as follows:
- Laurent Ngirakamaro from New Mexico Highlands University is a top-ranked NCAA Division II men’s cross country runner. His running career began in Burundi, Africa, where he fled for his life from a civil war that continues today.
- Just six months ago, Senior Katie Bork from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania was in an emergency room after being struck by a car. Doctors were unsure if she would ever walk again. CBS follows Katie’s journey at the NCAA Division II Women’s Cross Country Championships as she attempts to make the most of every step in her final collegiate season.
- Jamie Vanartsdalen of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania is the NCAA Division II Field Hockey all-time leader in points and goals. She ranks fourth all-time in collegiate history (Division I, II and III) in career points, sixth in career goals and fifth in season points (120 in 2008) and she almost didn't play field hockey at all.
- The city boys from New York University return to this year's NCAA Division III Men’s Cross Country Championships to defend their title, a feat that won't be easy with five of their top six runners graduating from last year’s championship team. NYU entered the 2008 NCAA championships ranked seventh in the nation.
- The Amherst College men's soccer team is defined by their varied play on the field, a quality the coaching staff attributes to the diversity in their game with seven of their players being of international descent. The Lord Jeffs competed admirably for the NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Championship.
Through the NCAA-CBS’ 11-year bundled rights agreement, CBS Sports has aired 18 seasonal shows from the three NCAA sports seasons (fall, winter, spring) over the last six years. The Saturday, show is the 19th edition of CBS Sports Presents Championships of the NCAA. Each seasonal show features highlights and unique NCAA student-athlete stories from a variety of NCAA Division II and III championships.
CBS Sports’ Sam Ryan will host “CBS Sports Presents Championships of the NCAA” for the third time. Ryan joined CBS Sports in June 2006 as a contributor to the Network’s NFL pre-game show, THE NFL TODAY, and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. She also serves as weekend sports anchor and reporter for CBS 2 in New York.
This fall’s highlight show (CBS Sports Presents Championships of the NCAA) was produced by Sarah Rinaldi while Alanna Campbell and Dan Ramirez served as feature producers.
For more information about NCAA championships, log on to www.NCAA.com.
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