THE CONNING TOWER by Keith Conning: New No. 1 Men’s Team in Final DIII Regular Season Rankings

By Dennis Young, USTFCCCA

February 24, 2015

NEW ORLEANS – In the final rankings before the postseason kicks off with conference championships this weekend, the UW-La Crosse men took over the No. 1 ranking for the first time since the preseason while theMIT women held onto the top spot for the second straight week. The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) released the rankings on Tuesday.

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La Crosse’s rise was particularly abetted by their third-ranked 4×400, but depth helped as well. Six individuals and two relays on the Eagle squad contributed national ranking points this weekend.

Josh Buchholtz’s men moved up two slots; so did No. 2 Mount Union. The Purple Raiders moved up in part thanks to nation-leading marks from sprinter Tyler Mettille and thrower Sean Donnelly.

No. 7 UW-Oshkosh, No. 9 St. Olaf, and No. 10 Wartburg all moved into the top ten. That’s not just the first-ever single-digit ranking for the St. Olaf Oles; it’s their first time ever in the top twenty-five.

Four men’s teams joined the top twenty-five this week: No. 18 RIT, No. 19 Carnegie Mellon, No. 20 Salisbury, and No. 25 Rowan. RIT and Salisbury were tied for the biggest jump of the week, as both squads vaulted up 19 slots in the rankings.

For RIT, Matt Giannino was already the national leader in the 5k. They moved up after he nearly doubled their point total by throwing down one of the fastest 3ks in DIII this weekend.

Salisbury’s big jump was mostly thanks to 60 meter hurdle national record holder Luke Campbell running the fastest time in the country in that event.

NCAA DIVISION III COMPUTER RANKINGS TOP 5 – MEN
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
UW-La Crosse	Mount Union	North Central (Ill.)	UW-Eau Claire	UW-Whitewater
View Complete Men’s Computer Rankings

NCAA DIVISION III COMPUTER RANKINGS TOP 5 – WOMEN
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
MIT	Illinois Wesleyan	UW-Oshkosh	UW-La Crosse	St. Lawrence
View Complete Women’s Computer Rankings

Seven of the eight regionally top-ranked teams stayed the same. The eighth was UW-La Crosse, who reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the Midwest.

In the women’s poll, MIT solidified its grip on the throne. Maryann Gong (Granada HS, Livermore 2013) (mile) and Cimran Virdi (Las Lomas HS, Walnut Creek 2012) (pole vault) each improved their nation-leading marks in their respective events.

The rest of the top five moved around slightly. No. 2 Illinois Wesleyan and No. 3 UW-Oshkosheach moved up one slot at No. 4UW-La Crosse‘s expense, while St. Lawrence joined the top five.

This is the first season in which the Saints have been ranked in the top twelve, and this is their first time in the top five. (They picked a good year to have their best team ever, as SLU is hosting outdoor nationals this spring)

No. 9 Baldwin-Wallace rejoined the top ten.

No. 15 TCNJ, No. 17 Buffalo State, No. 23 Ithaca, No. 24 Misericordia, and No. 25 St. Thomas (Minn) were the five teams to join the top twenty-five this week. Misericordia jumped 29 spots; they did so after posting the nation’s leading time in the 4×400.

Mary and Kelty Fairchild, Melanie Fry, and Amy Viti won the relay at Princeton, beating out a TCNJ squad that ran the nation’s No. 4 time.

Christopher Newport (in the South/Southeast) was the lone women’s team to take over as the No. 1 ranked team in its region this week.

The NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships will be held March 13-14 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION III
MEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2015 Week #5 — February 24
next ranking: March 3

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	UW-La Crosse	158.14	WIAC	Josh Buchholtz (7th)	3
2	Mount Union	145.93	OAC	Kevin Lucas (5th)	4
3	North Central (Ill.)	143.85	CCIW	Frank Gramarosso (5th)	1
4	UW-Eau Claire	128.72	WIAC	Chip Schneider (13th)	2
5	UW-Whitewater	106.50	WIAC	Mike Johnson (6th)	5
6	Bridgewater State	99.94	MASCAC	T.J. Smith (8th)	6
7	UW-Oshkosh	86.13	WIAC	Eamon McKenna (3rd)	14
8	SUNY Cortland	74.72	SUNYAC	Steve Patrick (8th)	10
9	St. Olaf	71.81	MIAC	Phil Lundin (7th)	13
10	Wartburg	71.49	IIAC	Marcus Newsom (17th)	12
11	Widener	51.95	Middle Atlantic	Vince Touey (28th)	7
12	Augustana (Ill.)	51.37	CCIW	Paul Olsen (46th)	17
13	Haverford	49.97	Centennial	Tom Donnelly (40th)	9
14	MIT	49.87	NEWMAC	Halston Taylor (25th)	8
15	Bates	47.14	NESCAC	Al Fereshetian (20th)	16
16	Ramapo	44.82	NJAC	Mike Jackson (11th)	15
17	Central (Iowa)	41.97	IIAC	Joe Dunham (7th)	11
18	RIT	35.69	Liberty League	David Warth (17th)	37
19	Carnegie Mellon	35.24	UAA	Gary Aldrich (1st)	27
20	Salisbury	34.44	CAC	Jim Jones (16th)	39
21	Worcester State	34.29	MASCAC	Alan Halper (13th)	18
22	Johns Hopkins	33.56	Centennial	Bobby Van Allen (16th)	19
23	SUNY Oneonta	32.94	SUNYAC	Angelo Posillico (2nd)	22
24	Tufts	31.83	NESCAC	Ethan Barron (10th)	20
25	Rowan	30.15	NJAC	Dustin Dimit (1st)	28
dropped out: No. 21 Monmouth (Ill.), No. 23 Messiah, No. 24 Hamilton, No. 25 Lebanon Valley
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	WIAC	560.94	4
2	CCIW	212.94	2
3	NESCAC	185.86	2
4	OAC	171.11	1
5	IIAC	143.06	2
6	SUNYAC	138.37	2
7	MASCAC	134.24	2
8	Middle Atlantic	106.66	1
9	MIAC	99.60	1
10	NJAC	98.53	2

Men’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Atlantic	SUNY Oneonta	365.78	1
Central	Wartburg	342.02	1
Great Lakes	Mount Union	391.54	1
Mideast	Widener	391.64	1
Midwest	UW-La Crosse	393.58	2
New England	MIT	402.28	1
South/Southeast	Christopher Newport	600.79	1
West	Whitworth	412.30	1
View All Regional Rankings

USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION III
WOMEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2015 Week #5 — February 24
next ranking: March 3

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	MIT	170.63	NEWMAC	Halston Taylor (8th)	1
2	Illinois Wesleyan	148.77	CCIW	Chris Schumacher (18th)	3
3	UW-Oshkosh	139.47	WIAC	Ben Dorsey (3rd)	4
4	UW-La Crosse	135.64	WIAC	Pat Healy (24th)	2
5	St. Lawrence	86.14	Liberty League	Kate Curran (7th)	8
6	Lehman	84.44	CUNYAC	Pete Charles (3rd)	6
7	Washington (Mo.)	83.32	UAA	Jeff Stiles (14th)	10
8	UW-Whitewater	76.22	WIAC	Mike Johnson (4th)	7
9	Baldwin Wallace	73.69	OAC	Bill Taraschke (30th)	11
10	Johns Hopkins	73.30	Centennial	Bobby Van Allen (16th)	5
11	Stevens	66.98	Empire 8	Justin Wood (3rd)	9
12	UW-Eau Claire	56.80	WIAC	Chip Schneider (9th)	12
13	Chicago	55.82	UAA	Chris Hall (14th)	17
14	Middlebury	53.79	NESCAC	Martin Beatty (27th)	20
15	TCNJ	50.35	NJAC	Justin Lindsey (2nd)	144
16	UW-Platteville	48.61	WIAC	Chris Rotzenberg (3rd)	13
17	Buffalo State	48.27	SUNYAC	Eugene Lewis (15th)	26
18	North Central (Ill.)	46.34	CCIW	Kari Kluckhohn (12th)	18
19	Emory	38.19	UAA	John Curtin (30th)	16
20	Bowdoin	36.98	NESCAC	Peter Slovenski (29th)	19
21	SUNY Cortland	36.69	SUNYAC	Steve Patrick (8th)	14
22	Westminster (Pa.)	35.62	PAC	Tim McNeil (8th)	21
23	Ithaca	34.55	Empire 8	Jennifer Potter (12th)	31
24	Misericordia	34.51	Middle Atlantic	Chris Wadas (9th)	53
25	St. Thomas (Minn.)	32.14	MIAC	Joe Sweeney (35th)	37
dropped out: No. 15 Wartburg, No. 22 Carleton, No. 23 Central (Iowa), No. 24 Cornell College, No. 25 SUNY Plattsburgh
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	WIAC	507.22	5
2	NESCAC	214.11	2
3	CCIW	199.99	2
4	NEWMAC	199.96	1
5	UAA	179.99	3
6	Empire 8	129.79	2
7	SUNYAC	123.17	2
8	Liberty League	108.86	1
9	OAC	106.56	1
10	MIAC	103.85	1

Women’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Atlantic	St. Lawrence	284.56	1
Central	Wartburg	399.26	1
Great Lakes	Mount Union	300.50	1
Mideast	Johns Hopkins	439.63	1
Midwest	UW-La Crosse	397.49	1
New England	MIT	561.29	1
South/Southeast	Christopher Newport	453.40	2
West	Whitworth	469.68	1
View All Regional Rankings