NCAA Division II Indoor T&F Computer Rankings: Week 3, February 8

NEW ORLEANS – In the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national computer rankings for indoor track & field in NCAA Division II, not much has changed from the week before. But, with only one week remaining in the use of preseason data, expect some shakeups come next Tuesday.

PDFs: Top 25 | Full by Team | Event-by-Event | Week-by-Week
Previous Rankings | Rankings Guidelines & Rationale
Regional Index: Top 10 Teams by Region

On the men’s side, No. 1 Saint Augustine’s and No. 2 Lincoln (Mo.) remain neck-and-neck and have closed within two rating points of each other.

 Abilene Christian moved to No. 3 this week, their first top-three ranking of the season. ACU’s Amos Sang captured the all-division collegiate-best 5000-meter time of the week with a 14:05.82 run at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York on Friday. No. 12 Johnson C. Smith moved up another three spots this week. Ranked 23rd in the preseason, the school is by far the biggest mover from their preseason standing.

On the women’s side, the top seven spots remain unchanged.  Despite losing over 12 ranking points, No. 1 Grand Valley State still leads the nearest challenger, No. 2 Ashland, by almost double.

No. 8 Shippensburg moved up a spot on the heels of Neely Spence’s world-leading, 16:01.09 time in the 5000 meters. Spence moved into the all-time Division II top ten with the performance.

Western State, now at No. 13, moved up seven spots as a result of freshman Barbara Szabo’s 5-11½ (1.82m) clearance in the high jump. For Szabo, it was the all-division freshman best in the country last weekend.

About the Rankings
For more on the rankings and links to guideline and rationale information visit …
/rankings/division-i-rankings

The purpose and methodology of the national team computer rankings is to create an index that showcases the teams that have the best potential of achieving the top spots in the national-title race – not as a method to compare teams head-to-head.

The Regional Index is determined using a similar method as national rankings, but on a smaller scale, comparing teams versus others within the same region. The result is a ranking that showcases squads with better all-around team potential — a group makeup critical for conference or similar team-scored events. A team may achieve a better regional ranking than a counterpart that has a better national ranking. Historically, some teams are better national-championship teams than conference-championship teams, having a few elite athletes that score very well in a diverse environment where teams do not have entries in more than a few events. Some teams are better at conference championships or similar team-scored events where they enter, and are competitive, in many of the events.

How a team fares in a national championship, conference championship, or scored meet with only a couple or few teams (like a dual or triangular) can be very different, given the number of events, competition, scoring, and makeup of entries — thus the rationale behind each of the ranking systems. Similar arguments about team makeup and rankings can also be found in swimming & diving and wrestling as their sports also have a similar trichotomy when it comes to team theory.