FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE            

CONTACT:

Thursday, May 1, 2008           

Chris Fitzpatrick

Assistant Director of Broadcasting

NCAA

317/917-6047

Jen Sabatelle
Director, Communications

CBS Sports

212/975-4120

CBS SPORTS TO AIR NCAA WINTER SEASONAL SHOW ON SATURDAY, MAY 3

INDIANAPOLIS---For the fifth consecutive year, all 88 NCAA championships will receive television exposure, including 17 winter championships to be featured in a one-hour special.

"CBS Sports Presents Championships of the NCAA" will air at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific Saturday, May 3, on CBS Sports.  Highlights and stories from fencing, ice hockey, indoor track & field, rifle, skiing, swimming & diving and wrestling will be featured in the program.

Some of the stories to be featured in the program and the trials and tribulations of many student-athletes pursuing their individual and team paths to various NCAA championships include:  

•·        Daniel Kanyaruhuru, of Queens University in Charlotte, NC, came to the United States from the Congo in 2000 after witnessing a brutal civil war where the military attacked his brother's home, savagely beat members of his family and dragged them off to prison.  Daniel escaped from that prison and ended up in a refugee camp with women and children, who were starved and ferociously mistreated.  There he watched his sister-in-law and her baby die of starvation.  In 2008, he won the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships 5000-meter run.

•·        Brandon Birchak, a junior diver from the College of St. Rose (NY) and defending champion in both the one and three meter events in NCAA Division II, juggles his time between competitive diving and entertaining crowds with 80-foot exhibition dives for show.

•·        Vince Bertucci, a 157-pound wrestler from the University of Central Missouri, overcame bacterial spiral meningitis to participate in the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships after his teammate and good friend, 165-pound wrestler, Jesse Sheets, saved his life.

•·        Head Coach Vladimir Nazlymov and junior Mikhail Momtselidze, both of Ohio State University, discuss their experiences of fencing in the former Soviet Union as they try to lead the Buckeyes to a fencing national championship on their home turf in Columbus, OH.

Through the NCAA-CBS 11-year bundled rights agreement, CBS Sports has aired 16 seasonal shows from the three NCAA sports seasons (fall, winter, spring) over the last five years.  The Saturday, May 3rd show is the 17^th edition.  The seasonal shows typically feature highlights and unique NCAA student-athlete stories from the Division II and III championships.

CBS Sports' Seth Davis will host this edition of CBS Sports Presents Championships of the NCAA.  Davis has served as contributor for CBS Sports' coverage of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship for the past five years.  Davis joined CBS Sports in 2003 as a contributor for AT THE HALF, the network's college basketball halftime show.  For the third consecutive year, the winter program was produced by Joseph E. Zappulla.  This will be the first seasonal show to be broadcast entirely in High Definition and the first time 5.1 audio will be provided throughout the program. The feature producers for the show are Steve McKee, Kimani Morales and Brian Seeling.  The lead editor is Brett Blau.

For more information about NCAA championships, log on to http://www.ncaa.com/.

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