Two-Time Defending Champ Saint Augustine’s Moves to No. 1 in NCAA DII

By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA

April 7, 2015

NEW ORLEANS – Nearly a month removed from the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships, a majority of teams around the country have seen most of their top athletes compete at least once.
As a result, some familiar names have emerged at the top of the National Team Computer Rankings announced Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) after early-season rankings domination by Western and Southern teams.

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The two-time defending outdoor champion Saint Augustine’s men have taken over the No. 1 spot, followed closely by No. 2 Angelo State and defending indoor/cross country champion Adams State at No. 3.
Meanwhile in the women’s rankings, indoor champ No. 1 Central Missouri and No. 2 Azusa Pacific held steady in the top two spots, holding off a strong outdoor debut by No. 4 New Mexico Highlands. Just outside the top five, defending outdoor national champion Lincoln (Mo.) moved up to No. 6 after its first full-fledged weekend of competition.
Former men’s No. 1 Chico State dropped four spots to No. 5.
Unlike the NCAA Division I and III rankings (which include 2014 marks from returning athletes for the first three weeks), Division II only includes marks from the current 2015 season in its rankings formula. In the early section of this outdoor season, the rankings function more as a display of who’s performed the best to date this year and not necessarily who will be contending for the NCAA titles Memorial Day weekend in Allendale, Michigan.
Only USTFCCCA member programs are eligible to be ranked.

NCAA Division II National Team Rankings Top 5 – Men
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Saint Augustine’s	Angelo St.	Adams St..	TAMU-Commerce	Chico St.
View Complete Men’s National Coaches’ Poll

NCAA Division II National Team Rankings Top 5 – Women
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Central Missouri	Azusa Pacific	Angelo St.	NM Highlands	Saint Augustine’s
View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

The Saint Augustine’s men were boosted not only by its typical strong sprints corps – led by the top-ranked 4×400, No. 1 400-meter runner Omar Johnson and six more sprints/hurdles/relays entries ranked top-10 nationally – but also from an unexpected nation leader at 800 meters in Immanuel Hutchinson. Whether he can dethrone five-time 800m national champ Drew Windle of Ashland at NCAAs remains to be seen.
There’s still much work to be done, however, for the Falcons to separate themselves from the rest of the country. At 156.78 rankings points (see explanation of rankings here), Saint Augustine’s is only narrowly ahead of No. 2 Angelo State (151.14), No. 3 Adams State (144.23) and No. 4 Texas A&M-Commerce (141.05), and is only separated from No. 7 Texas A&M-Kingsville by just over 27 points.
A Western team that has demonstrated staying power in the rankings is No. 2 Angelo State, which moved up three spots to remain firmly in the hunt with national champions Saint Augustine’s and Adams State. The Rams got five national top-10 performances this past weekend, including No. 1 400-meter hurdler Wala Gime (who is also ranked No. 5 in the short hurdles).
From hurdles to barriers, Adams State moved up to No. 3 as two-time defending steeplechase and cross country champion Tabor Stevens made his 2015 track debut after sitting out the indoor season. At 8:32.50 he’s now the second-fastest man in Division II history.
Stevens and the rest of the Adams State distance crew combined to propel the Grizzlies to No. 3 as Oliver Aitchison took the collegiate lead at 1500 meters and Kevin Batt took the DII lead at 5000 meters. More points may be on the table depending which events each runner decides to contest at NCAAs this May.
Making the biggest splash in the women’s rankings was No. 4 New Mexico Highlands, which earned No. 1 national DII ranks in the long jump with Shanice McPherson and the triple jump with Salcia Slack, as well as in the 4×100 relay.
At the regional level, Shippensburg’s men took over the top spot in the Atlantic Region, as did Grand Valley State’s men and women in the Midwest and Alabama-Huntsville’s men and women in the South.

USTFCCCA NCAA Division II
Men’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2015 Week #4 — April 7
next ranking: April 14

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Saint Augustine’s	156.78	CIAA	George Williams (39th)	9
2	Angelo State	151.14	Lone Star	James Reid (16th)	5
3	Adams State	144.23	RMAC	Rock Light (2nd)	77
4	Texas A&M-Commerce	141.05	Lone Star	Tom Dibbern (2nd)	3
5	Chico State	136.94	CCAA	Oliver Hanf (3rd)	1
6	Grand Valley State	135.91	GLIAC	Jerry Baltes (16th)	4
7	Texas A&M-Kingsville	129.68	Lone Star	Ryan Dall (7th)	13
8	Pittsburg State	119.46	MIAA	Russ Jewett (27th)	8
9	Minnesota State	110.15	NSIC	Jim Dilling (2nd)	2
10	Colorado Mines	97.79	RMAC	Matt Sparks (2nd)	6
11	West Texas A&M	95.11	Lone Star	Darren Flowers (6th)	10
12	Ashland	89.41	GLIAC	Jud Logan (12th)	12
13	Alaska Anchorage	88.39	GNAC	Michael Friess (25th)	11
14	Findlay	82.51	GLIAC	Marc Arce (27th)	15
15	Cal Poly Pomona	82.23	CCAA	Octavious Gillespie-Bennett (3rd)	7
16	Shippensburg	75.95	PSAC	Dave Osanitsch (10th)	30
17	Azusa Pacific	74.07	PacWest	Kevin Reid (20th)	17
18	Central Missouri	72.57	MIAA	Kirk Pedersen (19th)/Kip Janvrin (17th)	28
19	Academy of Art	66.88	PacWest	Charles Ryan (5th)	14
20	Nova Southeastern	56.89	Peach Belt	Bryan Hagopian (6th)	19
21	Western Washington	54.59	GNAC	Pee Wee Halsell (28th)	20
22	Tarleton State	48.00	Lone Star	Patrick Ponder (9th)	18
23	Simon Fraser	47.58	GNAC	Brit Townsend (15th)	44
24	Cal State Stanislaus	46.26	CCAA	Diljeet Taylor (3rd)	24
25	Johnson C. Smith	45.32	CIAA	Lennox Graham (8th)	26
dropped out: No. 16 UC San Diego, No. 21 Malone, No. 22 Mount Olive, No. 23 Emporia State, No. 25 Hillsdale
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	Lone Star	590.66	5
2	GLIAC	425.42	3
3	MIAA	394.71	2
4	CCAA	348.38	3
5	RMAC	302.78	2
6	GNAC	248.12	3
7	CIAA	227.20	2
8	PacWest	177.89	2
9	NSIC	133.50	1
10	Peach Belt	96.42	1

Men’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Atlantic	Shippensburg	557.61	2
Central	Pittsburg State	426.38	1
East	Franklin Pierce	419.91	1
Midwest	Grand Valley State	482.96	2
South	Alabama-Huntsville	299.00	2
South Central	Texas A&M-Commerce	504.76	1
Southeast	Mount Olive	552.40	1
West	Chico State	490.62	1
View All Regional Rankings

USTFCCCA NCAA Division II
Women’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2015 Week #4 — April 7
next ranking: April 14

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Central Missouri	174.77	MIAA	Kirk Pedersen (19th)/Kip Janvrin (17th)	1
2	Azusa Pacific	126.59	PacWest	Preston Grey (1st)	2
3	Angelo State	106.61	Lone Star	James Reid (16th)	4
4	New Mexico Highlands	105.31	RMAC	Bob DeVries (23rd)	NR
5	Saint Augustine’s	99.40	CIAA	George Williams (39th)	3
6	Lincoln (Mo.)	96.39	MIAA	Victor Thomas (14th)	49
7	Lewis	86.29	GLVC	Dana Schwarting (10th)	5
8	UC San Diego	82.59	CCAA	Darcy Ahner (8th)	NR
9	Grand Valley State	82.52	GLIAC	Jerry Baltes (16th)	20
10	West Texas A&M	80.52	Lone Star	Darren Flowers (6th)	6
11	Texas A&M-Kingsville	74.41	Lone Star	Ryan Dall (7th)	27
12	Ashland	71.88	GLIAC	Jud Logan (12th)	51
13	Winona State	71.23	NSIC	Mason Rebarchek (11th)	9
14	Humboldt State	68.89	CCAA	Scott Pesch (5th)	7
15	Chico State	68.44	CCAA	Robert Nooney (2nd)	11
16	Wayne State (Neb.)	63.21	NSIC	Marlon Brink (15th)	8
17	Hillsdale	57.36	GLIAC	Andrew Towne (4th)	12
18	Winston-Salem State	56.98	CIAA	Inez Turner (6th)	13
19	Fort Hays State	56.10	MIAA	Dennis Weber (22nd)	36
20	Missouri Southern	56.06	MIAA	Patty Vavra (21st)	32
21	Simon Fraser	55.90	GNAC	Brit Townsend (15th)	67
22	Alaska Anchorage	55.78	GNAC	Michael Friess (25th)	10
23	Academy of Art	55.27	PacWest	Charles Ryan (5th)	24
24	Adams State	53.70	RMAC	Rock Light (2nd)	88
25	Pittsburg State	53.60	MIAA	Russ Jewett (29th)	21
dropped out: No. 14 U-Mary, No. 15 Western State, No. 16 Cal Poly Pomona, No. 17 Nova Southeastern, No. 18 Chadron State, No. 19 Northwest Missouri, No. 22 Saint Martin’s, No. 23 Tarleton State, No. 25 Colorado Mesa
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	MIAA	547.42	5
2	Lone Star	339.60	3
3	GLIAC	339.43	3
4	RMAC	311.39	2
5	CCAA	284.57	3
6	GNAC	275.12	2
7	CIAA	261.36	2
8	PacWest	206.70	2
9	NSIC	191.68	2
10	GLVC	169.80	1

Women’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Atlantic	Slippery Rock	399.81	1
Central	Central Missouri	366.79	1
East	Roberts Wesleyan	335.19	1
Midwest	Grand Valley State	444.74	2
South	Alabama-Huntsville	437.05	2
South Central	Angelo State	525.54	1
Southeast	Queens (N.C.)	325.63	1
West	Chico State	374.11	1
View All Regional Rankings