The NCAA committee has decided to cancel winter sports championships for the 2020-2021 academic year. Due to COVID-19, there are very low participation numbers in all nine of the winter sports. The NCAA released this statement in regards to the cancellation of winter sports championships: “Today, we made the difficult decision to cancel our Division III winter championships. While some institutions have been able to safely return to sport, the recent declaration form data show that more than half of our division has not returned to winter sport practice and competition to be in a position for NCAA national championship participation,”said Fayneese Miller, chair of the Presidents Council and president at Hamline.
There will be six programs at Virginia Wesleyan affected by this decision, which includes men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming, and men’s and women’s track and field.
The NCAA committee looks for a certain number of teams to participate in the championship to determine if it will be played. No team reached over 50% of participants. Men’s basketball held the highest percentage at 48.6%, while women’s swimming held the least at 42.0%.
As this comes as disappointing news to not only winter athletes, Marlins nation looks forward to more opportunities to showcase these competitors.
Nicholas Mundy
namundy@vwu.edu
