Conference Championships Shake Up NCAA DII National Rankings

By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA

May 10, 2016

NEW ORLEANS – Conference championship weekend really did a number on the NCAA Division II Women’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Rankings, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Every single top-10 squad from a week ago remained inside the top 10, but none of them held steady in their same positions.

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That was especially true of new No. 1 Lincoln (Mo.) – the reigning indoor national champions and 2014 outdoor national champions who finished runner-up at this weekend’s MIAA Championships – as the Blue Tigers clawed their way up eight spots from this time last week.
MIAA Champion No. 2 Pittsburg State made it an MIAA 1-2 atop the rankings, followed by last week’s top-ranked Saint Augustine’s women at No. 3. If these rankings hold relatively steady until the NCAA Division II Championships in Bradenton, Florida, on May 26-28, the race at the top will be very tight; Lincoln (170.31 ranking points) and Pittsburg State (168.77) are separated by less than two points in the rankings.
Saint Augustine’s is slightly farther back at 144.79, followed relatively closely by No. 4 Hillsdale (130.55) and No. 5 West Texas A&M (120.58). GLIAC runner-up Hillsdale dropped one spot from last week, while Lone Star Champ WTAMU jumped up two.
The race for the four spots on the team podium could be even more heated than the title race. Less than 15 points separate No. 4 Hillsdale from West Texas A&M, No. 6 Findlay (119.96), No. 7 Johnson C. Smith (119.92), No. 8 Grand Valley State (116.73) and defending national champ No. 9 Central Missouri (116.12).
Findlay was the only gainer in that group, up four spots from last week. JCSU, GVSU and UCM fell three, six and three spots, respectively.
Texas A&M-Kingsville (94.58) fell two positions to round out the top 10.
The three-time defending national champion men of Saint Augustine’s held on to their No. 1 rank with 240.81 points, well ahead of new No. 2 Texas A&M-Kingsville (173.93). The LSC Champ Javelinas took over the second spot from GLIAC Champion No. 3 Grand Valley State (166.20).
Indoor national champion No. 4 Tiffin (134.50) and RMAC Champion No. 5 Adams State (134.23) remained in a tight battle for the fourth podium spot.
CCAA champ No. 6 Chico State (113.49) and No. 7 Central Missouri (103.13) held steady ahead of new No. 8 Ashland, which moved up two spots. Rounding out the top-10 were No. 9 Shippensburg (89.32) and No. 10 Pittsburg State (88.18).
Ship fell one spot, while PSU jumped up seven.
The biggest gain for either gender came from the No. 21 Augustana (S.D.) women, who improved 21 spots from last week.
The National Team Computer Rankings are complied by a mathematical formula based on national descending order lists. The purpose and methodology of the rankings is to create an index that showcases the teams that have the best potential of achieving the top spots in the national team race. Rankings points do not equate with NCAA Championships team points.
A full description of the rankings can be found here.

USTFCCCA NCAA Division II
Men’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2016 Week #9 — May 10
next ranking: May 17

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Saint Augustine’s	240.81	CIAA	George Williams (40th)	1
2	Texas A&M-Kingsville	173.93	Lone Star	Ryan Dall (8th)	3
3	Grand Valley State	166.20	GLIAC	Jerry Baltes (17th)	2
4	Tiffin	134.50	GLIAC	Jeremy Croy (16th)	4
5	Adams State	134.23	RMAC	Rock Light (3rd)	5
6	Chico State	113.49	CCAA	Oliver Hanf (4th)	6
7	Central Missouri	103.13	MIAA	Kirk Pedersen (20th)/Kip Janvrin (18th)	7
8	Ashland	94.94	GLIAC	Jud Logan (13th)	10
9	Shippensburg	89.32	PSAC	Dave Osanitsch (11th)	8
10	Pittsburg State	88.18	MIAA	Russ Jewett (28th)	17
11	Azusa Pacific	82.51	PacWest	Kevin Reid (21st)	9
12	Missouri Southern	80.98	MIAA	Bryan Schiding (3rd)	11
13	Angelo State	80.23	Lone Star	James Reid (17th)	16
14	Colorado Mines	76.61	RMAC	Matt Sparks (3rd)	14
15	Southern Indiana	76.30	GLVC	Mike Hillyard (18th)	13
16	Alaska Anchorage	74.46	GNAC	Michael Friess (26th)	19
17	Tarleton State	71.91	Lone Star	Patrick Ponder (10th)	12
18	Lincoln (Mo.)	63.25	MIAA	Victor Thomas (15th)	24
19	Texas A&M-Commerce	61.90	Lone Star	Ross Smithey (1st)	15
20	Cal State Stanislaus	59.43	CCAA	Diljeet Taylor (4th)	22
21	Academy of Art	57.56	PacWest	Kevin LaSure (1st)	18
22	Minnesota State	54.92	NSIC	Jim Dilling (3rd)	21
23	Johnson C. Smith	52.77	CIAA	Lennox Graham (9th)	20
24	Findlay	50.99	GLIAC	Marc Arce (28th)	25
25	Hillsdale	50.06	GLIAC	Andrew Towne (2nd)	23
dropped out: (none)
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	GLIAC	561.79	5
2	Lone Star	453.61	4
3	MIAA	378.73	4
4	CIAA	318.63	2
5	RMAC	304.95	2
6	CCAA	262.94	2
7	GNAC	204.38	1
8	PacWest	187.34	2
9	GLVC	186.48	1
10	NSIC	135.23	1

Men’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Atlantic	Shippensburg	620.39	1
Central	Missouri Southern	383.92	1
East	American International	589.01	1
Midwest	Grand Valley State	568.25	1
South	Shorter	364.41	1
South Central	Texas A&M-Kingsville	418.92	2
Southeast	Mount Olive	507.28	1
West	Azusa Pacific	420.54	1
View All Regional Rankings

USTFCCCA NCAA Division II
Women’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2016 Week #9 — May 10
next ranking: May 17

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Lincoln (Mo.)	170.31	MIAA	Victor Thomas (15th)	9
2	Pittsburg State	168.77	MIAA	Russ Jewett (30th)	5
3	Saint Augustine’s	144.79	CIAA	George Williams (40th)	1
4	Hillsdale	130.55	GLIAC	Andrew Towne (5th)	3
5	West Texas A&M	120.58	Lone Star	Darren Flowers (7th)	7
6	Findlay	119.96	GLIAC	Marc Arce (28th)	10
7	Johnson C. Smith	119.92	CIAA	Lennox Graham (9th)	4
8	Grand Valley State	116.73	GLIAC	Jerry Baltes (17th)	2
9	Central Missouri	116.12	MIAA	Kirk Pedersen (20th)/Kip Janvrin (18th)	6
10	Texas A&M-Kingsville	94.58	Lone Star	Ryan Dall (8th)	8
11	Alaska Anchorage	80.04	GNAC	Michael Friess (26th)	11
12	Lewis	79.22	GLVC	Dana Schwarting (11th)	12
13	Chadron State	74.82	RMAC	Brad Gamble (2nd)	17
14	Missouri Southern	70.57	MIAA	Patty Vavra (22nd)	15
15	Shorter	66.88	Peach Belt	Scott Byrd (9th)	13
16	Ashland	55.51	GLIAC	Jud Logan (13th)	23
17	Adams State	55.30	RMAC	Rock Light (3rd)	20
18	Angelo State	55.09	Lone Star	James Reid (17th)	14
19	Minnesota State	54.98	NSIC	Jen Blue (16th)	24
20	Azusa Pacific	54.76	PacWest	Preston Grey (4th)	21
21	Augustana (S.D.)	54.60	NSIC	Tracy Hellman (16th)	42
22	Cal State Stanislaus	54.39	CCAA	Diljeet Taylor (4th)	25
23	Sioux Falls	53.19	NSIC	Reid Ehrisman (4th)	27
24	Chico State	52.07	CCAA	Robert Nooney (3rd)	16
25	Western Washington	52.07	GNAC	Pee Wee Halsell (29th)	22
dropped out: No. 18 Clafin, No. 19 Humboldt State
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	MIAA	666.07	4
2	GLIAC	550.35	4
3	Lone Star	326.33	3
4	CIAA	283.44	2
5	NSIC	262.91	3
6	RMAC	232.04	2
7	GNAC	206.25	2
8	GLVC	168.95	1
9	CCAA	161.77	2
10	PacWest	149.38	1

Women’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Atlantic	Shippensburg	430.89	1
Central	Pittsburg State	455.13	1
East	Stonehill	492.89	1
Midwest	Grand Valley State	592.03	1
South	Shorter	469.86	1
South Central	West Texas A&M	454.66	2
Southeast	Queens (N.C.)	583.58	1
West	Chico State	370.07	1
View All Regional Rankings