DII National Rankings Shuffle Post-Conference Championships

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY WOMEN MOVES TO #1 IN RANKINGS

NEW ORLEANS – With the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field regular season in the books, a pair of recent national team champions are favored in the latest National Team Computer Rankings announced Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

The defending national indoor champion Adams State men and 2014 national outdoor champion Lincoln (Mo.) women are atop the penultimate edition of the rankings, which aim to predict how teams will fare at the NCAA Championships on March 11-12 in Pittsburg, Kansas.

These rankings take into account the entirety of the regular season, regardless of athletes’ intended events at the NCAA Championships. Next Monday’s pre-Championships rankings will consider only the entries into the NCAA Championships.

Behind ASU (206.66 points) in the men’s rankings were No. 2 Tiffin (176.60) and GLIAC Champion No. 3 Grand Valley State (171.88) – which swapped spots from a week ago – and the stationary duo of CIAA Champion No. 4 Saint Augustine’s (155.43) and No. 5 Texas A&M-Kingsville (106.60).

MIAA Champion Lincoln (Mo.) (176.29 points) returned to the top spot, followed by MIAA rival No. 2 Pittsburg State (147.85). Last week’s chart-topper, Hillsdale (139.68), dropped two spots to No. 3 – a fall mirrored by GLIAC Champion No. 4 Grand Valley State (123.54). GLVC Champ Lewis (104.52) fell one spot to No. 5 to round out the top five.

The ASU men may have only finished third at the RMAC Championships, but the Grizzlies are projected to do much better at a meet like the NCAA Championships. While Adams State proved to be a less complete team this past weekend than winner No. 7 Colorado Mines or runner-up No. 20 Chadron State, no team in the country is as top-heavy as the Grizzlies.

ASU boasts a nation-best seven performers ranked top-three nationally, three more than the four each from No. 3 Grand Valley State and No. 6 Academy of Art. The Grizzlies are tied for the most top-10 ranked performers with 13, a total equaled by No. 3 GVSU.

Tiffin moved up to No. 2 behind sprinter Lamar Hargrove, who is now No. 1 in the nation both at 60 and 200 meters, and is positioning himself for a run at a third-consecutive sweep of the national 60-meter and 200-meter crowns.

The MIAA Champion Lincoln (Mo.) women will hope to top MIAA runner-up No. 2 Pittsburg State again next weekend, again on the Gorilla’s home track. The Blue Tigers took down PSU, 169-147, this past weekend for the league title.

As it currently stands, the Blue Tigers have a narrow advantage over Pitt State in terms of total top-10 ranked athletes, 10-9 – though No. 4 GVSU tops both squads with 12 – but Lincoln has the edge in top-three performers. Seven Blue Tigers are ranked No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 in their respective events, to Pittsburg State’s four.

No. 3 Hillsdale is next behind Lincoln on that list with five, followed by PSU, No. 6 Johnson C. Smith, and RMAC Champion No. 7 New Mexico Highlands.

No top-25 team for either gender moved up farther than did the Northeast-10 Champion No. 16 American International men, who climbed up 22 spots from last time.

The biggest gainer for the women was NSIC Champion No. 13 Minnesota State, which improved eight spots from the previous week.

2016 Week #6 — March 1
next ranking: MONDAY, March 7 (pre-championships)
Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Adams State	206.66	RMAC	Rock Light (3rd)	1
2	Tiffin	176.60	GLIAC	Jeremy Croy (16th)	3
3	Grand Valley State	171.88	GLIAC	Jerry Baltes (17th)	2
4	Saint Augustine’s	155.43	CIAA	George Williams (40th)	4
5	Texas A&M-Kingsville	106.60	Lone Star	Ryan Dall (8th)	5
6	Academy of Art	102.74	PacWest	Kevin LaSure (1st)	6
7	Colorado Mines	94.68	RMAC	Matt Sparks (3rd)	7
8	Lincoln (Mo.)	84.91	MIAA	Victor Thomas (15th)	NR
9	Minnesota State	83.03	NSIC	Jim Dilling (3rd)	8
10	Pittsburg State	76.22	MIAA	Russ Jewett (28th)	14
11	Western State	72.29	RMAC	Chris Bradford (7th)	9
12	Azusa Pacific	62.60	PacWest	Kevin Reid (21st)	10
13	Ashland	61.92	GLIAC	Jud Logan (13th)	11
14	Lewis	55.09	GLVC	Dana Schwarting (11th)	23
15	Missouri Southern	50.56	MIAA	Bryan Schiding (3rd)	16
16	American International	49.23	Northeast-10	Leo Mayo (10th)	38
17	Central Missouri	48.98	MIAA	Kirk Pedersen (20th)/Kip Janvrin (18th)	18
18	Alaska Anchorage	48.60	GNAC	Michael Friess (26th)	12
19	Texas A&M-Commerce	48.29	Lone Star	Ross Smithey (1st)	13
20	Chadron State	47.89	RMAC	Brad Gamble (2nd)	20
21	Findlay	46.19	GLIAC	Marc Arce (28th)	27
22	West Texas A&M	41.15	Lone Star	Darren Flowers (7th)	15
23	Southern Connecticut	38.82	Northeast-10	John Wallin (6th)	19
24	Shorter	38.77	Gulf South	Scott Byrd (9th)	17
25	Saginaw Valley State	38.67	GLIAC	Rod Cowan (7th)	22
Dropped out: No. 21 MSU Moorhead, No. 24 Johnson C. Smith, No. 25 Black Hills State 2016 Week #6 — March 1 next ranking: MONDAY, March 7 (pre-championships) Rank Institution Points Conference Head Coach (Yr) Last Week 1 Lincoln (Mo.) 176.29 MIAA Victor Thomas (15th) NR 2 Pittsburg State 147.85 MIAA Russ Jewett (30th) 3 3 Hillsdale 139.68 GLIAC Andrew Towne (5th) 1 4 Grand Valley State 123.54 GLIAC Jerry Baltes (17th) 2 5 Lewis 104.52 GLVC Dana Schwarting (11th) 4 6 Johnson C. Smith 101.75 CIAA Lennox Graham (9th) 6 7 New Mexico Highlands 100.56 RMAC Bob DeVries (24th) 7 8 Alaska Anchorage 93.82 GNAC Michael Friess (26th) 5 9 Minnesota Duluth 91.58 NSIC Joanna Warmington (5th) 8 10 Central Missouri 70.56 MIAA Kirk Pedersen (20th)/Kip Janvrin (18th) 12 11 Ashland 70.36 GLIAC Jud Logan (13th) 11 12 Saint Augustine’s 68.99 CIAA George Williams (40th) 9 13 Minnesota State 63.51 NSIC Jen Blue (16th) 21 14 Shorter 57.17 Gulf South Scott Byrd (9th) 10 15 Merrimack 52.34 Northeast-10 Jacky Mendes (2nd) 14 16 Findlay 49.78 GLIAC Marc Arce (28th) 18 17 U-Mary 47.32 NSIC Mike Thorson (22nd) 15 18 Missouri Southern 42.71 MIAA Patty Vavra (22nd) 23 19 Winona State 42.21 NSIC Mason Rebarchek (12th) 17 20 Southern Connecticut 42.19 Northeast-10 Melissa Stoll (4th) 20 21 Seattle Pacific 39.11 GNAC Karl Lerum (11th) 13 22 Adams State 38.22 RMAC Rock Light (3rd) 22 23 Angelo State 34.93 Lone Star James Reid (17th) 19 24 Chadron State 33.72 RMAC Brad Gamble (2nd) 27 25 Texas A&M-Kingsville 33.43 Lone Star Ryan Dall (8th) 16 Dropped out: No. 24 Cedarville, No. 25 Azusa Pacific View All Teams Beyond the Top 25 EVENT SQUAD RANKINGSNEW: Which programs are the deepest in each event? By Event | By Team REGIONAL PDFs Top 10 | By Team | By Event COURTESY Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA