Indiana Tech Men & Women Storm to No. 1 in the NAIA's Regular Season Finale

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Indiana Tech Men & Women Storm to No. 1 in the NAIA's Regular Season Finale
May 14, 2014


NEW ORLEANS – The outdoor track & field NAIA National Team Computer Rankings released Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) have officially come full circle.


With the final performances of the 2014 regular season in the books, the defending national champion Indiana Tech men and women have both moved to the No. 1 spots in their respective rankings – which is exactly where both began the inaugural edition of the indoor rankings way back in January.

The difference? While the Warriors squads were both significant favorites to begin the indoor season, they both now find themselves locked in heated battles as the NAIA National Championships in Gulf Shores, Ala., loom large on May 22-24.

Wednesday’s rankings utilize the final descending order lists for the 2014 NAIA outdoor track & field season. Next week’s edition will use the championship meet entries – which will be announced this Friday, May 16, by 10 a.m. ET – as its basis.

Qualification for the NAIA Championships will not be determined in any way by these rankings, which are not officially sanctioned or endorsed by the NAIA for the 2014 season. These rankings are supported by the NAIA from the standpoint of media and entertainment purposes only.

WOMEN’S TOP FIVE
1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
Indiana Tech
598.90 pts British Columbia
577.11 pts Oklahoma Baptist
520.85 pts Doane (Neb.)
411.05 pts Wayland Baptist
269.93 pts
View Complete Women’s Rankings


National championship pedigree is on full display at the top of the women’s rankings, with 2013 outdoor and 2014 indoor champion Indiana Tech surging to the No. 1 position behind a big final weekend past reigning cross country champion British Columbia, which stepped back to No. 2.

Among the 27 scored season-best performances posted by the Warriors were Brianna Wood’s jump to No. 3 at 200 meters and Stacia Murray’s improvement to No. 3 in the triple jump. These two efforts headlined a nearly 108-point improvement for the Warriors, who checked in with a team rankings score of 598.90.

Team rankings points do not equate to NAIA Championships team points scored at the national meet, but rather the number of student-athletes a team has near the top of the descending order list in their resepctive events and how highly they are ranked.

A full explanation of the points system used in the National Team Computer Rankings can be found here.

No. 2 British Columbia posted a 32-point gain of its own, but it wasn’t enough to keep the top spot in the rankings as the Thunderbirds ended up just behind at 577.11 – well within the discussion for the team title.

Also remaining in that discussion was 2014 indoor champion No. 3 Oklahoma Baptist (520.85), which improved more than 58 points from last time.

With the top three teams all making massive gains, something had to give to balance out the point distribution. Both No. 4 Doane (Neb.) (411.05) and No. 5 Wayland Baptist (Texas) (269.93) saw their team scores diminished from last Wednesday. The Tigers fell more than 44 points, while the Flying Queens slid nearly 21 points.

MEN’S TOP FIVE
1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
Indiana Tech
497.64 pts Oklahoma Baptist
425.66 pts Wayland Baptist
406.23 pts Concordia (Ore.)
385.80 pts Concordia (Neb.)
320.10 pts
View Complete Men’s Rankings


Indiana Tech’s men made a similarly sweeping move to the top after a strong last-chance weekend. In leaping up two positions to No. 1, the Warriors improved their team score by more than 94 points to check in at 497.64.

Driving that gain were 19 season-best scored performances, including the No. 2 and No. 5 showings at 200 meters by Ini-Oluwa Oye and Trevor Stanley, and the No. 5 mark at 100 meters by Harris Edwards III.

Also up two positions was No. 2 Oklahoma Baptist (425.66) after improving its team score by 33 points.

Displaced by Indiana Tech and Oklahoma Baptist were former No. 1 teams in No. 3 Wayland Baptist (Texas) (406.23) and No. 4 Concordia (Ore.) (385.80). Rounding out the top five was No. 5 Concordia (Neb.) (320.10).

Eastern Oregon’s women made the biggest move of the week with a 14-position jump to No. 23, while the Davenport (Mich.) men moved up the farthest in their rankings with a five-spot increase to No. 24.

USTFCCCA NAIA
MEN’S OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2014 Week #6 — May 14
next ranking: MONDAY, May 19 (pre-championships)

Rank School Points Conference Head Coach (Yr) Last Week
1 Indiana Tech 497.64 Wolverine-Hoosier Doug Edgar (5th) 3
2 Oklahoma Baptist 425.66 Sooner Athletic Ford Mastin (18th) 4
3 Wayland Baptist (Texas) 406.23 Sooner Athletic Rohan Thompson (3rd) 1
4 Concordia (Ore.) 385.80 Cascade Isaac Frederick (2nd) 2
5 Concordia (Neb.) 320.10 Great Plains Kregg Einspahr (22nd) 5
6 Southern Oregon 248.80 Cascade Grier Gatlin (3rd) 6
7 Dickinson State (N.D.) 218.93 Frontier Michael Nekuda (1st) 7
8 British Columbia 191.99 Independent (NAIA) Marek Jedrzejek (13th) 8
9 Oklahoma City 190.67 Sooner Athletic Conor Holt (3rd) 10
10 Doane (Neb.) 181.48 Great Plains Ed Fye (12th) 9
11 Siena Heights (Mich.) 176.77 Wolverine-Hoosier Tim Bauer (30th) 11
12 Missouri Baptist 173.93 American Midwest Patricia Hanna (4th) 13
13 St. Francis (Ill.) 159.00 Chicagoland Jeff Barker (2nd) 12
14 Carroll (Mont.) 157.96 Frontier Harry Clark (1st) 15
15 Cal State San Marcos 146.27 Independent (NAIA) Steve Scott (15th) 14
16 Hastings (Neb.) 140.01 Great Plains Ryan Mahoney (1st) 17
17 Benedictine (Kan.) 135.57 Heart of America Darin Schmitz (3rd) 19
18 Embry-Riddle (Fla.) 135.49 Sun Conference Michael Rosolino (11th) 16
19 Wiley (Texas) 123.35 Red River Micah Tirop (1st) 18
20 Central Methodist (Mo.) 106.40 Heart of America Mark Nelson (3rd) 20
21 Concordia (Calif.) 105.79 Golden State Mark Sellers (1st) 23
22 Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) 102.54 Chicagoland Michael McDowell (13th) 22
23 Eastern Oregon 101.78 Cascade Ben Welch (10th) 25
24 Davenport (Mich.) 93.38 Wolverine-Hoosier Scott Cook (7th) 29
25 Cornerstone (Mich.) 91.39 Wolverine-Hoosier Rod Wortley (16th) 27
dropped out: No. 21 Nebraska Wesleyan, No. 24 Northwestern (Iowa)
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25



Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank Conference Points Top 25 Teams
1 Sooner Athletic 1044.53 3
2 Great Plains 922.54 3
3 Wolverine-Hoosier 909.72 4
4 Cascade 881.88 3
5 Frontier 476.48 2
6 Heart of America 416.54 2
7 Independent (NAIA) 366.21 2
8 Chicagoland 345.65 2
9 Golden State 318.19 1
10 Red River 293.83 1



USTFCCCA NAIA
WOMEN’S OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2014 Week #6 — May 14
next ranking: MONDAY, May 19 (pre-championships)

Rank School Points Conference Head Coach (Yr) Last Week
1 Indiana Tech 598.90 Wolverine-Hoosier Doug Edgar (5th) 2
2 British Columbia 577.11 Independent (NAIA) Marek Jedrzejek (13th) 1
3 Oklahoma Baptist 520.85 Sooner Athletic Ford Mastin (18th) 3
4 Doane (Neb.) 411.05 Great Plains Ed Fye (12th) 4
5 Wayland Baptist (Texas) 269.93 Sooner Athletic Rohan Thompson (3rd) 5
6 College of Idaho 262.37 Cascade Pat McCurry (10th) 7
7 Concordia (Neb.) 257.78 Great Plains Kregg Einspahr (22nd) 6
8 Cornerstone (Mich.) 225.61 Wolverine-Hoosier Paul Koutz (2nd) 10
9 Baker (Kan.) 212.40 Heart of America Zach Kindler (7th) 9
10 Hastings (Neb.) 209.52 Great Plains Ryan Mahoney (1st) 8
11 Cal State San Marcos 192.87 Independent (NAIA) Steve Scott (15th) 12
12 Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) 175.75 Chicagoland Michael McDowell (13th) 13
13 Carroll (Mont.) 156.37 Frontier Harry Clark (1st) 11
14 Siena Heights (Mich.) 151.47 Wolverine-Hoosier Kirk Richards (2nd) 16
15 Embry-Riddle (Fla.) 151.15 Sun Conference Michael Rosolino (11th) 14
16 Westmont (Calif.) 150.98 Golden State Russell Smelley (35th) 15
17 Concordia (Ore.) 147.40 Cascade Isaac Frederick (2nd) 17
18 The Master’s (Calif.) 122.07 Golden State Zach Schroeder (6th) 23
19 Bethel (Ind.) 114.65 Crossroads Tony Natali (16th) 18
20 Missouri Baptist 111.41 American Midwest Patricia Hanna (4th) 22
21 Wiley (Texas) 111.21 Red River Micah Tirop (1st) 21
22 Biola (Calif.)108.33 Golden State Jonathan Zimmerman (8th) 20
23 Eastern Oregon 106.86 Cascade Ben Welch (10th) 37
24 Indiana Wesleyan 106.09 Crossroads John Foss (27th) 19
25 Dordt (Iowa) 96.59 Great Plains Craig Heynen (6th) 24
dropped out: No. 25 Xavier (La.)
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25



Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank Conference Points Top 25 Teams
1 Great Plains 1239.76 4
2 Wolverine-Hoosier 1074.41 3
3 Sooner Athletic 827.93 2
4 Independent (NAIA) 776.70 2
5 Cascade 713.03 3
6 Golden State 536.57 3
7 Crossroads 331.09 2
8 Chicagoland 306.74 1
9 Heart of America 283.77 1
10 Frontier 275.62 1





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