Athlete Spotlight: Nathan Lambert

Voted “Most Athletic” as a senior in High School, Nathan Lambert played both football and baseball. He excelled at both and that left many who knew him questioning which sport he would play in college. He managed to find a school that didn’t make him choose, and decided to attend Centre College. After a year of playing both, he decided baseball was what he wanted to focus on, so he no longer plays for the football team. According to Lambert, Division III has been a perfect fit.

What schools from other divisions were interested in you/did you consider going to?
    The other schools I was interested in were Ohio Northern, Valpo & Cincinnati.

Why did you choose to play at Centre instead?
    I chose to play at Centre because it was close to home, and the atmosphere of the small school is overall better. I know more people and see them often, which I like.
   
What do you think have been some benefits of playing d3 instead of a higher division?
Some benefits would definitely be that there is more time for me to get involved with other things. I'm in a fraternity with most of the football team and can still play intramural sports, where as at a big school I may not have gotten a chance to do that.

A lot of people say d3 is just an extension of high school sports, how would you compare the competition levels between the two?
I would say that is most definitely not true. In baseball I played with 2 guys who were picked up and play amateur baseball. There was also a football player who was invited to try out for an NFL team. Maybe top to bottom it may not be as strong as say Division 1 but there are just as good athletes.

Week 5 Women's D3 Basketball Top 25

 D3Hoops Top 25 Poll

#	Team	W-L	Pts.	Last Week
1	Illinois Wesleyan (18)	11-0	618	1
2	Amherst (7)	10-0	594	2
3	Washington U.	9-1	572	3
4	Kean	13-1	540	5
5	Bowdoin	9-0	538	4
6	Hope	10-1	463	6
7	Marymount	12-0	457	7
8	Scranton	7-2	402	9
9	William Paterson	13-0	369	13
10	Muhlenberg	7-1	365	11
11	Carthage	10-1	346	15
12	George Fox	8-2	290	16
13	UW-River Falls	12-0	288	18
14	Thomas More	10-1	258	8
15	Tufts	10-1	235	17
16	Mount Union	12-0	227	20
17	Messiah	9-1	210	10
18	Moravian	9-2	198	19
19	UW-Whitewater	9-3	194	14
20	Calvin	11-1	170	21
21	Chicago	8-3	115	22
22	Louisiana College	8-1	105	25
23	Emmanuel	8-1	90	—
24	Howard Payne	9-2	60	—
25	UW-Stevens Point	8-3	58	—

Three teams dropped out of the top 25 this week. No. 23 St. Norbert, and No. 24 Randolph-Macon both lost their spots in the rankings and Trinity (Texas) also surprisingly became unranked after being previously ranked No. 12 in Week 4. St. Norbert moved out of the rankings after a Dec. 30 loss to Wartburg College. Randolph-Macon's move came after losing to Chris. Newport 78-67. Trinity (Texas) lost 74-49 to Austin College leading to their move out of the top 25.
In the top 5, Bowdoin and Kean switched places from Week 4 to Week 5. Thomas More made a big jump all the way from No. 8 down to No. 14. Messiah also dropped all the way from No. 7 down to No. 17.
New to the rankings this week are UW-Stevens Point, Howard Payne, and Emmanuel. Welcome to the Top 25.