Minnesota State Men & Central Missouri Women Top First Regular-Season NCAA DII Team Rankings

By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA

January 27, 2015

NEW ORLEANS – The NCAA Division II indoor track & field teams that have gotten off to the hottest starts of 2015 are the Minnesota State men and the Central Missouri women, according to the National Team Computer Rankings published Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

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PDFs
Top 25 | By Team | By Event
Top TFRRS Qualifiers
# of Top-10 Athletes by Team

Rankings History
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Regional RankingsTop 10 Teams
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Unlike NCAA Divisions I and III, the national rankings for Division II no longer include the top 2014 returners’ marks as part of the point system. If teams and athletes have competed, they’re in; if they haven’t, they’re not, making it a strong indicator of who’s performed the best up to this given point in the season.

Both top-ranked schools are led by this week’s DII National Athletes of the Week: Emmanuel Matadi for Minnesota State andHeavin Warner for UCM.

Lining up behind Minnesota State on the men’s side are a trio from the GLIAC in No. 2 Findlay, No. 3 Ashland and No. 4 Grand Valley State, as well as No. 5 Colorado Mines. Two-time defending national champion Saint Augustine’s currently resides at No. 11, and the distance-heavy national runner-up Adams State men are down at No. 34.

NCAA DIVISION II NATIONAL COACHES’ POLL TOP 5 – MEN
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Minnesota St.	Findlay	Ashland	Grand Valley St.	Colorado Mine
View Complete Men’s National Coaches’ Poll

NCAA DIVISION II NATIONAL COACHES’ POLL TOP 5 – WOMEN
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Central Missouri	Ashland	Lewis	Hillsdale	U-Mary
View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

While most sprinters, jumpers and throwers have seen action already this season, many distance runners have not because of the more sparse nature of distance competition combined with the late NCAA Cross Country Championships due to the DII Fall Sports Festival. Expect the rankings to shuffle again once a majority of distance runners make their debuts.

For the women, Central Missouri is followed by No. 2 Ashland, No. 3 Lewis, No. 4 Hillsdale and No. 5 U-Mary. Defending national champion Adams State is No. 20 in this first regular-season edition of the rankings, while national runner-up Johnson C. Smith is No. 6.

Both Minnesota State and Central Missouri are bolstered by a bevy of top-ranked early-season competitors. The Mavericks of MSU have four athletes ranked No. 1 in the country and another ranked No. 2 between the sprints, hurdles and jumps, while Jennies of UCM have a pair of national leaders and three more second-ranked athletes led by throwers, jumpers and pentathletes.

USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION II
MEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2015 Week #1 — January 27
next ranking: February 3

Rank	School	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Minnesota State	155.25	NSIC	Jim Dilling (2nd)	15
2	Findlay	138.91	GLIAC	Marc Arce (27th)	7
3	Ashland	120.71	GLIAC	Jud Logan (12th)	2
4	Grand Valley State	111.98	GLIAC	Jerry Baltes (16th)	3
5	Colorado Mines	97.46	RMAC	Matt Sparks (2nd)	20
6	Tiffin	88.33	GLIAC	Jeremy Croy (15th)	13
7	Central Missouri	79.26	MIAA	Kirk Pedersen (19th)/Kip Janvrin (17th)	21
8	Lewis	78.69	GLVC	Dana Schwarting (10th)	16
9	Western State	77.12	RMAC	Chris Bradford (6th)	10
10	Shippensburg	74.06	PSAC	Dave Osanitsch (10th)	8
11	Saint Augustine’s	65.73	CIAA	George Williams (39th)	4
12	Emporia State	55.84	MIAA	Steve Blocker (4th)	32
13	American International	54.64	Northeast-10	Leo Mayo (9th)	27
14	Franklin Pierce	52.56	Northeast-10	Zach Emerson (3rd)	76
15	Missouri Southern	50.29	MIAA	Bryan Schiding (2nd)	6
16	Southern Connecticut	49.38	Northeast-10	John Wallin (5th)	14
17	Shorter	48.82	Gulf South	Scott Byrd (8th)	NR
18	Simon Fraser	48.09	GNAC	Brit Townsend (15th)	78
19	Montana St.-Billings	38.87	GNAC	Dave Coppock (7th)	89
20	Limestone	38.32	Conf. Carolinas	Joseph Wassink (1st)	91
21	Texas A&M-Kingsville	37.79	Lone Star	Ryan Dall (7th)	9
22	Pittsburg State	36.61	MIAA	Russ Jewett (27th)	12
23	Neb.-Kearney	35.83	MIAA	Brady Bonsall (7th)	11
24	Fort Hays State	34.51	MIAA	Dennis Weber (22nd)	42
25	Black Hills State	33.91	RMAC	Seth Mischke (4th)	55
dropped out: No. 1 Adams State, No. 5 Southern Indiana, No. 17 Virginia State, No. 18 Sioux Falls, No. 19 Academy of Art, No. 22 West Texas A&M, No. 23 East Stroudsburg, No. 24 Mount Olive, No. 25 Lake Erie
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	GLIAC	521.77	4
2	RMAC	340.76	3
3	MIAA	331.68	6
4	NSIC	251.53	1
5	Northeast-10	215.58	3
6	GNAC	191.21	2
7	GLVC	164.19	1
8	PSAC	115.13	1
9	CIAA	85.41	1
10	Lone Star	77.32	1

USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION II
WOMEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2015 Week #1 — January 27
next ranking: February 3

Rank	School	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Central Missouri	157.36	MIAA	Kirk Pedersen (19th)/Kip Janvrin (17th)	10
2	Ashland	149.63	GLIAC	Jud Logan (12th)	4
3	Lewis	96.80	GLVC	Dana Schwarting (10th)	57
4	Hillsdale	87.95	GLIAC	Andrew Towne (4th)	14
5	U-Mary	80.43	NSIC	Mike Thorson (21st)	25
6	Johnson C. Smith	74.92	CIAA	Lennox Graham (8th)	5
7	New Haven	73.33	Northeast-10	Shaunnaya Williams (4th)	11
8	Sioux Falls	72.29	NSIC	Reid Ehrisman (3rd)	36
9	Grand Valley State	71.99	GLIAC	Jerry Baltes (16th)	3
10	Harding	65.42	Great American	Steve Guymon (12th)	65
11	Lincoln (Mo.)	63.98	MIAA	Victor Thomas (14th)	1
12	Saint Augustine’s	63.96	CIAA	George Williams (39th)	19
13	Findlay	61.25	GLIAC	Marc Arce (27th)	15
14	Academy of Art	55.76	PacWest	Charles Ryan (5th)	30
15	Simon Fraser	55.44	GNAC	Brit Townsend (15th)	96
16	Shorter	55.00	Gulf South	Scott Byrd (8th)	NR
17	Southern Connecticut	52.90	Northeast-10	Melissa Stoll (3rd)	21
18	Chadron State	50.56	RMAC	Brad Gamble (1st)	34
19	New Mexico Highlands	49.77	RMAC	Bob DeVries (23rd)	9
20	Adams State	49.47	RMAC	Rock Light (2nd)	2
21	Livingstone	47.06	CIAA	Justin Davis (6th)	18
22	Wayne State (Mich.)	44.04	GLIAC	Rick Cummins (3rd)	62
23	Minnesota State	43.04	NSIC	Jen Blue (15th)	33
24	Winona State	40.84	NSIC	Mason Rebarchek (11th)	67
25	Tiffin	39.98	GLIAC	Jeremy Croy (15th)	13
dropped out:No. 6 Minnesota Duluth, No. 7 Angelo State, No. 8 Alaska Anchorage, No. 12 West Texas A&M, No. 16 Georgian Court, No. 20 Missouri Southern, No. 22 Saginaw Valley State, No. 23 Pittsburg State, No. 24 Winston-Salem State
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	GLIAC	488.55	6
2	NSIC	384.73	4
3	MIAA	298.08	2
4	CIAA	251.15	3
5	RMAC	218.59	3
6	Northeast-10	173.81	2
7	GLVC	151.43	1
8	GNAC	124.66	1
9	Gulf South	80.30	1
10	Lone Star	69.57