Down the Backstretch

Almost every collegiate indoor conference meet in the country was held last weekend, but in Minnesota the fun is still not over.

Teams in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference will wage battle this weekend at Concordia College in Moorhead. The MIAC is one of the stronger NCAA Division III conferences in the country as evidenced by the number of individuals who already have a qualifying mark for Nationals. The list of qualifiers will surely grow with the strong competition on Friday and Saturday, and is the focus of this week’s Yes/No question ...

Yes/No: Will there be more than 34 provisional and automatic NCAA Division III qualifying marks made by MIAC individuals and relay teams at the MIAC Championships this weekend?

Note: The MIAC currently has 36 athletes and relay teams that have a national qualifying mark entered in the MIAC indoor conference heat sheets. This group is led by automatic qualifiers Marie Borner in the mile (4:52.14), Brian Sames in the 800 (1:52.70) and St. Thomas Men’s distance medley relay team (9:54.11). At the 2008 MIAC Indoor Conference Meet there were 34 provisional and automatic qualifiers.

To play our game, simply type "yes" or "no" into the subject line of an e-mail and send it to us at DtBFantasy [AT] gmail [DOT] com before 4:00 p.m. Friday, March 6. Please put your answer in the subject line of the e-mail ... and make sure your full name appears somewhere in the e-mail. We will continue to offer a bonus for participants making their debut in Yes/No - a correct answer will be worth two points for any first-time players.

My Answer: No.

The last installment of Yes/No, two weeks ago, asked the question: Will the winning height in the women's pole vault at the U of M be 13-10 (4.22 m) or higher on Saturday? Fourteen contestants answered "yes" correctly. Katelin Rains cleared the bar at an impressive 14-5 1/4 and Alicia Rue also broke 13-10.

The result led to change at the top of the Yes/No leaderboard and there remains a single perfect predictor. The fix is in! Your fortuitous Yes/No author, Doug Cowles, is in first place with 6 points followed by 6 contestants with 5 points. Full results and standings are now posted HERE.

Good luck and thanks for playing Yes/No on DtB.