By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA
February 16, 2015
NEW ORLEANS – It’s a GLIAC sweep atop NCAA Division II indoor track & field as the Grand Valley State men and the Ashland women both moved to No. 1 in this week’s National Team Computer Rankings released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
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Each and every week the potential national title pictures comes into clearer focus, as preseason marks have not been included for the NCAA DII rankings since the November preseason rankings. Moving to the foreground this week were the GVSU supplantingFindlay as the top-ranked men’s team, and Ashland’s women inching ahead of former No. 1 Central Missouri.
The GVSU men narrowly lead No. 2 Ashland and No. 3 Findlay in the rankings. The Lakers checked in with 156.29 team rankings points, followed by Ashland with 149.40 and Findlay with 145.99.
Points are determined using a formula that assigns points to athletes based on how highly they are ranked on the NCAA DII qualifying list, and totals up all the points earned each team’s athletes. Points do not equate to the scoring system used at the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, March 13-14.
Ashland’s women didn’t exactly pull away from UCM, either. The Eagles posted 152.11 points to the Jennies’ 144.25 and the No. 3GVSU Lakers’ 137.26.
Rounding out the top five for the men were last year’s national runner-up Adams State at No. 4 and formerly top-rankedMinnesota State at No. 5.
A whopping 20 season’s-best performances for the GVSU men at their two-day, two-meet GVSU Big Meet boosted them up five spots to the perch of the DII rankings, including No. 2 shot putter Chris Saikalis and No. 3 800-meter runnerEthan Barnes among nine top-10 performers.
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Though Ashland’s Drew Windleimpressed in the Millrose Games 1000-meter race with a third-place finish as the only collegian in the field, he didn’t add any points to the team’s total this week. The Eagles got a pair of top-four performances from Elijha Owens and the No. 6 mile from Nick Hall, allowing them to move past GLIAC rival Findlay at No. 3.
Undoubtedly the biggest gainer on the men’s side was Adams State, which improved 91.2 points to 128.61 as many of its distance runners made their season debuts. Matt Danielswas particularly impressive with the top-ranked mile and 5000-meter times, and Kevin Batt posted the top 3000 of the year. Cross Country champ Tabor Stevens has yet to debut.
Despite a new Division II 60-meter hurdles record from Myles Hunter, Minnesota State dropped two spots to No. 5.
Neither Ashland nor Central Missouri made significant gains or took significant losses atop the women’s rankings. Some national event ranking shake-ups caused UCM to slip ever so slightly.
A trio of teams that did make significant gains rounded out the top five. GVSU moved up two spots to No. 3 behind an impressive 21 season’s bests at the Big Meet, including No. 2 5000-meter runner Amy Cymermanand the No. 6 pole vault duo of Jennifer Schornak and Alexandra Kitz.
New Mexico Highlands checked in at No. 4 behind DII long jump record-holder Shanice McPherson and combined events star Salcia Slack. Shanna Thomas also posted the No. 3 time at 60 meters.
Distance running boosted No. 5 Hillsdale, as the Chargers’ DMR moved to No. 2 in the country, Emily Orenmoved to No. 3 in the mile, and Amy Kerst and Kristina Galat posted No. 7 times at 800- and 3000-meters, respectively.
Defending national outdoor champion Lincoln (Mo.) checked in at No. 7, and defending indoor championAdams State came in at No. 11.
Making big moves into the top 10 were the No. 7 Central Missouri men (up six spots) and he No. 9 Pittsburg State women (up eight spots).
The biggest top-25 move of the day came from the No. 17 Academy of Art men, who improved 22 spots from a week ago.
USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION II | |||||
MEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25) | |||||
2015 Week #4 — February 17 | |||||
| next ranking: February 24 | |||||
| Rank | Institution | Points | Conference | Head Coach (Yr) | Last Week |
| 1 | Grand Valley State | 156.29 | GLIAC | Jerry Baltes (16th) | 6 |
| 2 | Ashland | 149.40 | GLIAC | Jud Logan (12th) | 2 |
| 3 | Findlay | 145.99 | GLIAC | Marc Arce (27th) | 1 |
| 4 | Adams State | 128.61 | RMAC | Rock Light (2nd) | 22 |
| 5 | Minnesota State | 123.46 | NSIC | Jim Dilling (2nd) | 3 |
| 6 | Colorado Mines | 103.09 | RMAC | Matt Sparks (2nd) | 4 |
| 7 | Central Missouri | 96.71 | MIAA | Kirk Pedersen (19th)/Kip Janvrin (17th) | 13 |
| 8 | Saint Augustine’s | 79.54 | CIAA | George Williams (39th) | 5 |
| 9 | Western State | 76.69 | RMAC | Chris Bradford (6th) | 7 |
| 10 | Tiffin | 73.86 | GLIAC | Jeremy Croy (15th) | 14 |
| 11 | Texas A&M-Kingsville | 68.26 | Lone Star | Ryan Dall (7th) | 8 |
| 12 | Shippensburg | 64.88 | PSAC | Dave Osanitsch (10th) | 26 |
| 13 | Missouri Southern | 63.37 | MIAA | Bryan Schiding (2nd) | 18 |
| 14 | Pittsburg State | 63.02 | MIAA | Russ Jewett (27th) | 11 |
| 15 | American International | 61.19 | Northeast-10 | Leo Mayo (9th) | 12 |
| 16 | Lewis | 59.00 | GLVC | Dana Schwarting (10th) | 10 |
| 17 | Academy of Art | 54.09 | PacWest | Charles Ryan (5th) | 39 |
| 18 | CSU-Pueblo | 53.77 | RMAC | Matt Morris (2nd) | 9 |
| 19 | Emporia State | 51.69 | MIAA | Steve Blocker (4th) | 17 |
| 20 | Southern Indiana | 50.19 | GLVC | Mike Hillyard (17th) | 15 |
| 21 | Sioux Falls | 44.21 | NSIC | Reid Ehrisman (3rd) | 23 |
| 22 | Neb.-Kearney | 39.82 | MIAA | Brady Bonsall (7th) | 20 |
| 23 | Hillsdale | 39.64 | GLIAC | Andrew Towne (1st) | 24 |
| 24 | West Texas A&M | 36.52 | Lone Star | Darren Flowers (6th) | 27 |
| 25 | Texas A&M-Commerce | 33.87 | Lone Star | Tom Dibbern (2nd) | 21 |
| dropped out: No. 16 Black Hills State, No. 19 Simon Fraser, No. 25 Fort Hays State | |||||
| View All Teams Beyond the Top 25 | |||||
| Men’s Conference Index Top 10 | |||
| Rank | Conference | Points | Top 25 Teams |
| 1 | GLIAC | 616.35 | 5 |
| 2 | RMAC | 433.22 | 4 |
| 3 | MIAA | 360.23 | 5 |
| 4 | NSIC | 197.00 | 2 |
| 5 | Lone Star | 143.45 | 3 |
| 6 | GLVC | 142.71 | 2 |
| 7 | Northeast-10 | 126.29 | 1 |
| 8 | GNAC | 115.19 | |
| 9 | CIAA | 87.93 | 1 |
| 10 | PacWest | 82.40 | 1 |
| Men’s Regional Index Leaders | |||
| Region | Institution | Points | Last Week |
| Atlantic | Shippensburg | 615.48 | 1 |
| Central | Minnesota State | 331.14 | 1 |
| East | Southern Connecticut | 420.66 | 1 |
| Midwest | Grand Valley State | 465.50 | 1 |
| South | Shorter | 672.93 | 1 |
| South Central | Texas A&M-Commerce | 388.79 | 1 |
| Southeast | Mount Olive | 439.59 | 1 |
| West | Academy of Art | 342.01 | 4 |
| View All Regional Rankings | |||
USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION II | |||||
WOMEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25) | |||||
2015 Week #4 — February 17 | |||||
| next ranking: February 24 | |||||
| Rank | Institution | Points | Conference | Head Coach (Yr) | Last Week |
| 1 | Ashland | 152.11 | GLIAC | Jud Logan (12th) | 2 |
| 2 | Central Missouri | 144.25 | MIAA | Kirk Pedersen (19th)/Kip Janvrin (17th) | 1 |
| 3 | Grand Valley State | 137.26 | GLIAC | Jerry Baltes (16th) | 5 |
| 4 | New Mexico Highlands | 128.97 | RMAC | Bob DeVries (23rd) | NR |
| 5 | Hillsdale | 116.80 | GLIAC | Andrew Towne (4th) | 8 |
| 6 | Simon Fraser | 106.00 | GNAC | Brit Townsend (15th) | 3 |
| 7 | Lincoln (Mo.) | 73.97 | MIAA | Victor Thomas (14th) | 4 |
| 8 | Johnson C. Smith | 72.64 | CIAA | Lennox Graham (8th) | 7 |
| 9 | Pittsburg State | 63.70 | MIAA | Russ Jewett (29th) | 17 |
| 10 | New Haven | 62.46 | Northeast-10 | Shaunnaya Williams (4th) | 10 |
| 11 | U-Mary | 60.51 | NSIC | Mike Thorson (21st) | 6 |
| 12 | Adams State | 60.06 | RMAC | Rock Light (2nd) | 13 |
| 13 | Lewis | 51.75 | GLVC | Dana Schwarting (10th) | 9 |
| 14 | Harding | 50.78 | Great American | Steve Guymon (12th) | 11 |
| 15 | Findlay | 48.66 | GLIAC | Marc Arce (27th) | 15 |
| 16 | Sioux Falls | 47.92 | NSIC | Reid Ehrisman (3rd) | 16 |
| 17 | Southern Connecticut | 47.54 | Northeast-10 | Melissa Stoll (3rd) | 12 |
| 18 | Minnesota Duluth | 46.34 | NSIC | Joanna Warmington (4th) | 14 |
| 19 | Stonehill | 42.43 | Northeast-10 | Karen Boen (17th) | 19 |
| 20 | Azusa Pacific | 41.92 | PacWest | Preston Grey (1st) | 20 |
| 21 | West Texas A&M | 41.66 | Lone Star | Darren Flowers (6th) | 27 |
| 22 | Livingstone | 41.49 | CIAA | Justin Davis (6th) | 23 |
| 23 | Shorter | 40.55 | Gulf South | Scott Byrd (8th) | 24 |
| 24 | Academy of Art | 40.50 | PacWest | Charles Ryan (5th) | 25 |
| 25 | Wayne State (Neb.) | 40.36 | NSIC | Marlon Brink (15th) | 18 |
| dropped out: No. 21 Chadron State, No. 22 Saint Augustine’s | |||||
| View All Teams Beyond the Top 25 | |||||
| Women’s Conference Index Top 10 | |||
| Rank | Conference | Points | Top 25 Teams |
| 1 | GLIAC | 501.40 | 4 |
| 2 | MIAA | 334.36 | 3 |
| 3 | RMAC | 299.43 | 2 |
| 4 | NSIC | 289.90 | 4 |
| 5 | Northeast-10 | 215.10 | 3 |
| 6 | CIAA | 192.58 | 2 |
| 7 | GNAC | 157.70 | 1 |
| 8 | Lone Star | 101.30 | 1 |
| 9 | GLVC | 98.01 | 1 |
| 10 | PacWest | 82.43 | 2 |
| Women’s Regional Index Leaders | |||
| Region | Institution | Points | Last Week |
| Atlantic | Winston-Salem State | 258.16 | NR |
| Central | Central Missouri | 312.42 | 1 |
| East | Southern Connecticut | 511.30 | 1 |
| Midwest | Grand Valley State | 580.57 | 1 |
| South | Alabama-Huntsville | 660.22 | 1 |
| South Central | New Mexico Highlands | 346.72 | NR |
| Southeast | Queens (N.C.) | 289.18 | 1 |
| West | Azusa Pacific | 322.44 | 3 |
| View All Regional Rankings | |||
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