Big winters are helping Notre Dame College and Lake Erie College surge into the top half of the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings.

Following its NCAA wrestling triumph, NDC moved to 55th out of 194 Division II schools in standings released March 20. The Falcons have 150 points, with 100 coming via the wrestling title.

The Storm are five spots behind the Falcons in 60th place with 142.5 points. Balance has led to LEC's fast rise. The Storm finished ninth in indoor men's track and field, 24th in men's swimming and 25th in wrestling.

NDC produced five wrestling All-Americans, including four champions, last weekend. LEC produced six All-Americans last weekend, with the track, swimming and wrestling teams each producing two.

Grand Valley State (Mich.), which competes against LEC in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, leads Division II with 718 points. Ashland leads Ohio schools in fourth place with 395.5 points. Grand Valley State, Ashland and LEC are three of 11 GLIAC schools in the top 100.

Points in Division II are awarded based on NCAA finishes in up to 14 sports -- seven men's and seven women's. Final winter standings will be released April 3.

Mount Union leads Ohio in the 234-school Division III standings. The Purple Raiders are in ninth place with 334.5 points. Williams (Mass.) leads the Division III standings with 513.25 points. Baldwin Wallace and John Carroll are 78th and 131st, respectively.

Mount Union received a boost from its men's indoor track and field team, which placed fifth last weekend. Willoughby South grad Sean Donnelly won the weight throw for the Purple Raiders.

Points in Division III are awarded based on NCAA finishes in up to 18 sports -- nine men's and nine women's.

-- Guy Cipriano | @newsheraldguy

The question reverberated throughout Public Auditorium last weekend.

How good is the Notre Dame College wrestling team?

The Falcons were the class of Division II, beginning the season No. 1 and ending 4 1/2 grueling months as NCAA team champions. They left little doubt about their status atop the Division II hierarchy by going a combined 8-0 in the finals and semifinals. In short, the final day represented a dream for Coach Frank Romano and his wrestlers.

But let's dream a little more. Let's ponder how the Falcons would fare in Division I.

Only 79 Division I wrestling programs remain. The maximum number of scholarships a program can distribute is 9.9, meaning plenty of talented high school wrestlers are receiving little financial assistance for their athletic abilities. Division II programs are permitted to distribute as many as nine scholarships. Fully funded wrestling programs are dwindling, but a Division II school with a supportive administration such as NDC can offer more athletic much scholarship money than Division I schools with lukewarm support.

The numbers also suggest the talent gap between Divisions I and II isn't as great in wrestling as it is in football, where Division I programs receive 85 compared to 36 for Division II. The difference in basketball is 13-10. Wrestling programs need 10 athletes to fill a starting lineup. Basketball programs need five.

Wrestling programs operate on limited travel budgets, allowing for more interactions between Division I and II programs. NDC wrestled Ohio State, a top-10 Division I program, on Nov. 15 and lost 29-11. The Falcons won three bouts, but neither team was operating at full strength. Since starting wrestling in 2007, NDC is 83-7 in dual meets. Three of their losses are to Ohio State.

Open tournaments give the Falcons another forum to compete with Division I programs. Five Falcons placed at the Cleveland State Open: Joey Davis (first, 174), Maurice Miller (second 141), Brandonn Johnson (third, 197), Marty Carlson (fourth, 133) and Brian Hauser (sixth, 125). Eric Burgey, who became a two-time national champion last weekend, wasn't in the Falcons' lineup.

The results are impressive. But the backgrounds of NDC's national qualifiers might be the best way to gauge the program's strength. The Falcons recruit nationally.

Three of NDC's nine national qualifiers -- Andrew Bannister (VMI), Carlson (Utah Valley) and  Johnson (Kent State) -- started their careers at Division I schools. Burgey was NAIA champion before arriving at NDC. Davis, a California native who is 72-0, was considered a big-time recruit who landed at NDC for academic reasons. Freshman Garrett Lineberger (Maryland) and Jonatan Rivera (Georgia) were Dave Schultz Award recipients for their respective states as high school seniors. Senior 125-pounder Brian Hauser (Brush) and junior 141-pounder Maurice Miller (Canton McKinley) were the only Ohio natives in the NCAA tournament lineup.

More talent is either in or headed to South Euclid. Former Massillon Perry state champ Sam White has transferred from Illinois to NDC. White was one of the nation's top 125-pound recruits as a high school senior. Tony Dailey, a Massillon Perry standout who won a state title earlier this month, is part of the incoming recruiting class.

Few Division I programs besides Ohio State are willing to wrestle NDC in a dual meet, a fact that bothers Romano. Still, enough evidence exists to determine that the Falcons would be a competitive Division I program.

How competitive?

The guess here is somewhere in the top 35.

-- Guy Cipriano | @newsheraldguy

Lake Erie College is reveling in the best weekend in its Division II history.

The Storm produced six NCAA Division II All-Americans in three different sports last weekend, including the first two-time national champ in school history.  

Senior Jamil Dudley further solidified his place in school history by winning the high jump at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Winston Salem, N.C. Dudley cleared 7 feet, 1 inches. The Massillon native also won the 2012 NCAA outdoor title in his specialty. Dudley is now a seven-time All-American.

The Storm almost returned from North Carolina with two national champs. Junior Joe Postwaite finished second in the triple jump with a leap of 51-6 1/4.  St. Augustine's DeJon Wilkinson won the title by jumping 51-10.

Dudley and Postwaite led the Storm to a school-record ninth-place finish in the team standings. The finish was the highest in school history at an NCAA Division II championship.

Closer to home, LEC produced two wrestling All-Americans for the first time in school history, as senior 157-pounder Zak Vargo and freshman 197-pounder Evan Rosborough placed fifth and eighth, respectively, during the NCAA Division II Championships at Public Auditorium in Cleveland. The duo helped the Storm finish 25th in the team standings. Rosborough, a Riverside graduate, will enter next season as an NCAA title contender.

Even closer to campus, senior Julian Milinkovskyi became a two-time All-American in the same swimming meet. Milinkovskyi finished sixth in the 200 breaststroke and eighth in the 400 individual medley during the NCAA Division II Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva. Milinkovskyi led the Storm to a 24th-place finish.

LEC produced All-Americans in three sports for a third straight winter. But when winter championship season begins next March, LEC athletes will have a difficult act to follow.

-- Guy Cipriano | @newsheraldguy

It doesn't take a three- or four-year career at a major college to receive an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine, which begins Feb. 22 in Indianapolis.

The list of scheduled participants includes 14 players from Division II or III schools. Three players are familiar names to those who follow Division II conferences with area tie-ins.

Saginaw Valley State wide receiver Jeff Janis and Grand Valley State center Matt Armstrong give the GLIAC two representatives in the combine. Getting players to the combine is nothing new for the GLIAC. Grand Valley State wide receiver Charles Johnson was selected by the Packers in last year's seventh round.

The 6-foot-3, 218-pound Janis is one of the top receivers in GLIAC history and caught 83 passes for 1,572 yards this past season. Janis, who participated in the Senior Bowl last month, caught five passes for 120 yards against Lake Erie College last season.

The 6-foot-3, 296-pound Armstrong earned the Rimington Award as the best center in Division II. Armstrong is also a standout shot putter for Grand Valley's track and field team.

Shepherd defensive end Howard Jones is the first player in Mountain East Conference history invited to the combine. The 6-foot-4, 238-pound Jones helped Shepherd hold nine opponents, including Notre Dame College, under 20 points in 2013.

Eleven Division II players, including five offensive and five defensive linemen, were drafted last year.

Here's a list of small-college players invited to the 2014 combine:

Matt Armstrong, C, Grand Valley State

John Brown, WR, Pittsburg State

Pierre Desir, CB, Lindenwood

Brandon Dixon, CB, Northwest Missouri State

Joe Don Duncan, TE, Dixie State

Matt Feiler, OT, Bloomsburg

Jeff Janis, WR, Saginaw Valley State

Howard Jones, DE, Shepherd

Reggie Jordan, TE, Missouri Western State

Zach Moore, DE, Concordia

Mike Pennel, DT, Colorado-Pueblo

Dustin Vaughan, QB, West Texas A&M

Larry Webster, DE, Bloomsburg

Ethan Westbrooks, DE, West Texas A&M

-- Guy Cipriano | @newsheraldguy