UW-La Crosse Now Owns Both Men’s & Women’s Division III National Team Rankings

 

 

NEW ORLEANS – The UW-La Crosse women have joined their defending indoor champion men’s teammates atop the week four edition of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division III National Team Computer Rankings released Tuesday.

With week four came the removal of preseason data (except for combined event marks that will remain through week five) and a subsequent jostling of the rankings that affected all but the top-ranked UW-La Crosse men and the women of No. 5 UW-Whitewater and No. 6 Williams.

WOMEN’S TOP FIVE
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
UW-La Crosse 171.37 pts	MIT 143.21 pts	UW-Oshkosh 139.28 pts	Wartburg 136.90 pts	UW-Whitewater 99.38 pts
View Complete Women’s Rankings

The formerly top-ranked Wartburg women were the hardest-hit by the loss of last year’s marks as it saw nearly 50 team rankings points come off the board while tumbling three spots down to No. 4.

This opened the door for UW-La Crosse to move up to the No. 1 spot with MIT and defending indoor champion UW-Oshkosh each following suit to improve one spot each to No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

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A Division III-leading 4×400 squad and 11 top-10 performers on the descending order list have positioned UW-La Crosse (171.37 team rankings score) atop the rankings.

The Eagles have never won an NCAA Division III indoor team title, but have finished runners-up four times, most recently in 2009. They were second that season to Wartburg, which it replaced as No. 1 this week.

No. 2 MIT (143.21), No. 3 UW-Oshkosh (139.28) and No. 4 Wartburg (136.90) all remained relatively close to the top, with No. 5 UW-Whitewater (99.38) rounding out the top five.

After Williams (90.35) at No. 6, each of the next 12 teams in the rankings all moved up at least one position, including the remainder of the top 10. No. 7 Johns Hopkins (82.66) and No. 8 Wheaton (Mass.) (77.15) both moved up one spot, while No. 9 Illinois Wesleyan (65.15) improved three and No. 10 Stevens (59.09) was up 15 from a week ago.

The biggest improvement of the week came from No. 23 UW-Platteville, which jumped up 52 positions. Not far behind was No. 18 Chicago with a 35-slot increase.

MEN’S TOP FIVE
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
UW-La Crosse 160.60 pts	UW-Oshkosh 152.60 pts	North Central (Ill.) 142.26 pts	MIT 121.83 pts	UW-Eau Claire 118. pts
View Complete Men’s Rankings

While the UW-La Crosse men stayed aloft in the men’s rankings at No. 1, the Eagles lost some of the air from under their wings as their team rankings score dropped by nearly 55 points from a week ago to 160.60.

Combined with surges from No. 2 UW-Oshkosh (152.60), No. 3 North Central (Ill.) (142.26) and No. 4 MIT (121.83), the race for the top spot in the national rankings has suddenly become very tight.

UW-Oshkosh improved two spots from a week ago, while North Central and MIT were among the biggest beneficiaries of the removal of preseason data from the equation as both leapt five spots forward.

No. 5 UW-Eau Claire (118.80), No. 6 Haverford (107.71), No. 7 Mount Union (105.25) and No. 8 Tufts (96.70) all dropped in the rankings from last week.

Rounding out the top 10 were a pair teams that gained six spots each in the rankings in No. 9 UW-Stout (65.70) and No. 10 Central (Iowa) (63.86).

The national team rankings will be complied by mathematical formulae 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.

The USTFCCCA National Team Computer Rankings should not be referred to as a “poll” as no voting occurs during the process.

USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION III
MEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2014 Week #4 — February 19
next ranking: February 26
Rank	School	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	UW-La Crosse	160.60	WIAC	Josh Buchholtz (6th)	1
2	UW-Oshkosh	152.60	WIAC	Eamon McKenna (2nd)	4
3	North Central (Ill.)	142.26	CCIW	Frank Gramarosso (4th)	8
4	MIT	121.83	NEWMAC	Halston Taylor (24th)	9
5	UW-Eau Claire	118.80	WIAC	Chip Schneider (12th)	2
6	Haverford	107.71	Centennial	Tom Donnelly (39th)	5
7	Mount Union	105.25	OAC	Kevin Lucas (4th)	3
8	Tufts	96.70	NESCAC	Ethan Barron (9th)	7
9	UW-Stout	65.70	WIAC	Kyle Steiner (1st)	15
10	Central (Iowa)	63.86	IIAC	Joe Dunham (6th)	16
11	SUNY Cortland	63.58	SUNYAC	Steve Patrick (7th)	12
12	UW-Whitewater	60.48	WIAC	Mike Johnson (5th)	6
13	Monmouth (Ill.)	56.95	Midwest Conference	Roger Haynes (31st)	10
14	Bates	55.70	NESCAC	Al Fereshetian (19th)	11
15	Connecticut College	54.75	NESCAC	Ned Bishop (8th)	26
16	Greenville	51.30	SLIAC	Brian Patton (20th)	33
17	Wartburg	51.22	IIAC	Marcus Newsom (16th)	19
18	Carthage	49.54	CCIW	Brett Witt (9th)	21
19	Southern Maine	45.74	Little East	Steve Virgilio (5th)	28
20	SUNY Oneonta	44.51	SUNYAC	Angelo Posillico (1st)	14
21	Buffalo State	41.73	SUNYAC	Eugene Lewis (14th)	20
22	Bowdoin	37.71	NESCAC	Peter Slovenski (28th)	25
23	Wittenberg	36.33	NCAC	Craig Penney (8th)	60
24	Nebraska Wesleyan	35.78	Great Plains	Ted Bulling (29th)	35
25	Worcester State	35.41	MASCAC	Alan Halper (12th)	29
Dropped out: No. 13 UW-Stevens Point, No. 17 Christopher Newport, No. 18 UW-Platteville, No. 22 Heidelberg, No. 23 Dickinson, No. 24 Baldwin Wallace
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

 

Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	WIAC	613.61	5
2	NESCAC	314.20	4
3	CCIW	213.64	2
4	OAC	208.44	1
5	Centennial	163.13	1
6	SUNYAC	154.35	3
7	NEWMAC	136.30	1
8	IIAC	120.91	2
9	CAC	75.77
10	Little East	74.11	1

 

USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION III
WOMEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2014 Week #4 — February 19
next ranking: February 26
Rank	School	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	UW-La Crosse	171.37	WIAC	Pat Healy (23rd)	2
2	MIT	143.21	NEWMAC	Halston Taylor (7th)	3
3	UW-Oshkosh	139.28	WIAC	Ben Dorsey (2nd)	4
4	Wartburg	136.90	IIAC	Marcus Newsom (16th)	1
5	UW-Whitewater	99.38	WIAC	Mike Johnson (3rd)	5
6	Williams	90.35	NESCAC	Nate Hoey (1st)	6
7	Johns Hopkins	82.66	Centennial	Bobby Van Allen (15th)	8
8	Wheaton (Mass.)	77.15	NEWMAC	Dave Cusano (3rd)	9
9	Illinois Wesleyan	65.15	CCIW	Chris Schumacher (17th)	12
10	Stevens	59.09	Empire 8	Justin Wood (2nd)	25
11	North Central (Ill.)	58.03	CCIW	Kari Kluckhohn (11th)	15
12	RPI	57.31	Liberty League	Colin Tory (14th)	21
13	St. Scholastica	53.24	UMAC	Kirk Nauman (7th)	17
14	Tufts	52.61	NESCAC	Kristen Morwick (14th)	29
15	Monmouth (Ill.)	50.85	Midwest Conference	Roger Haynes (14th)	16
16	Westminster (Pa.)	50.72	PAC	Tim McNeil (7th)	20
17	St. Lawrence	48.90	Liberty League	Kate Curran (6th)	19
18	Chicago	46.82	UAA	Chris Hall (13th)	53
19	Washington (Mo.)	45.14	UAA	Jeff Stiles (13th)	11
20	Amherst	43.86	NESCAC	Cassie Funke-Harris (2nd)	10
21	Middlebury	43.11	NESCAC	Martin Beatty (26th)	18
22	Baldwin Wallace	40.51	OAC	Bill Taraschke (29th)	23
23	UW-Platteville	39.59	WIAC	Chris Rotzenberg (2nd)	75
24	UW-Stout	38.69	WIAC	Kyle Steiner (1st)	14
25	Bates	37.49	NESCAC	Jay Hartshorn (9th)	38
Dropped out: No. 7 St. Thomas (Minn.), No. 13 Emory, No. 22 SUNY Cortland, No. 24 Springfield (Mass.)
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

 

Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	WIAC	525.31	5
2	NESCAC	310.42	5
3	NEWMAC	254.97	2
4	IIAC	177.28	1
5	CCIW	158.29	2
6	UAA	155.49	2
7	Centennial	115.31	1
8	Empire 8	109.59	1
9	Liberty League	106.21	2
10	MIAC	92.16