CLEVELAND, Ohio – Buoyed by a national championship and a semifinal finish by women's and men's basketball, respectively, the Illinois Wesleyan athletic program is ranked No. 22 (of 284 Division III schools) in the final winter 2011-12 Division III Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings.

In the winter season, IWU athletic teams accumulated 283.25 points with a national championship in women's basketball accounting for 100 points, a semifinal finish in men's basketball (83 points), seventh place in women's indoor track and field (71.25 points) and 44th in women's swimming (29 points).

Those points are added to the 50 points from the fall season.

Washington U. (Mo.) is in first place with 693.50 total points after the final winter standings. The Bears finished 25th in women's swimming and diving, 17th in both men's and women's basketball and 41st in men's swimming and diving to amass 321.50 points in the winter.
Middlebury (Vt.) is in second place with 676.00 total points, followed by Amherst (Mass.) with 654.75 points, Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 542.75 points and Wis.-Whitewater in fifth with 532.50 points.
The New England Small College Athletic Conference has four institutions in the top 10. In addition to Middlebury and Amherst, Williams (Mass.) in sixth and Tufts (Mass.) is 10th.

From the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, only North Central ranks higher than IWU after the winter season at No. 9 nationally with 443 points.

In 2010-11, Illinois Wesleyan was No. 18 and in 2009-10 IWU was fifth in the overall Learfield Sports Directors' Cup rankings to become the first CCIW school to finish in the top 10 of the annual rankings.

The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in up to 18 sports -- nine women's and nine men's.
The first spring Division III standings will be published May 24 with final official standings published on completion of the spring season. Complete standings and the scoring structure can be found on NACDA's website.

About Learfield Sports: The 2011-12 athletics season marks its fourth year as title partner of the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup. A preeminent leader in the collegiate sports marketplace for nearly four decades, Learfield Sports manages the multimedia rights for more than 50 collegiate properties, including flagship Mizzou, which it has represented since 1975. An operating unit of Learfield Communications, the company also operates regional and statewide radio networks, provides exclusive sports programming to more than 1,000 radio stations nationwide and creates nearly 7,000 radio game broadcasts and coaches' shows each year. These ever-expanding, collegiate relationships also feature comprehensive corporate sponsorship platforms, official university publications, Internet, digital media, hospitality and game-day events. To learn more about Learfield Sports' expertise, its history and
complete collegiate portfolio, visit www.learfieldsports.com.