Indiana Tech Men & Women Set to Enter NAIA Championships as the Favorites

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NEW ORLEANS – With significant advantages in the total entries to the NAIA Indoor Championships released last Friday, the top-ranked Indiana Tech men and women once again headlined the final U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) NAIA National Team Computer Rankings prior to this upcoming weekend’s national championships.

Women’s Top Five
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Indiana Tech 549.48 pts	Oklahoma Baptist 472.23 pts	Cornerstone 240.99 pts	Doane 223.20 pts	Wayland Baptist 204.13 pts
View Complete Women’s Rankings

Using only times, marks and scores from student-athletes set to be in the fields at the NAIA Indoor Championships at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, from March 6-8, the Indiana Tech men and women remained heavy favorites in the rankings, as they have since the initial release in late January.

Qualification for the meet — which can be streamed live online –ended last weekend, so any changes in team points are the result of who did or didn’t enter into an event.

The Warrior women have a whopping 40 entries set to compete this weekend compared to defending indoor champion No. 2 Oklahoma Baptist’s 26, while the IT men have 34 entries compared to the second-highest total of 19 belonging to No. 8 Concordia (Neb.).

While both No. 1 squads enjoy a significant advantage in total entries, both also saw their leads in the computer rankings erode.

Men’s Top Five
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Indiana Tech 446.17 pts	Concordia (Ore.) 275.59 pts	Siena Heights 268.22 pts	Wayland Baptist 259.20 pts	Oklahoma Baptist 242.43 pts
View Complete Men’s Rankings

The Indiana Tech women (546.48 team rankings score) particularly saw this, as their once-vast lead over defending indoor champion OBU (472.23) dwindled to just over 70 points as the championships approach.

Rounding out a stationary top five were No. 3 Cornerstone (Mich.) (240.99), No. 4 Doane (Neb.) (223.20) and No. 5 Wayland Baptist (Texas) (204.13).

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Indiana Tech’s men (446.17) enter nationals with a sizable advantage over new No. 2 Concordia (Ore.) (275.59), which improved three spots from a week ago.

Siena Heights (Mich.) (268.22) stayed put at No. 3, while Wayland Baptist (259.20) dropped two spots and defending indoor national champion Oklahoma Baptist (242.43) slid down a notch to No. 5.

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. A full description of the rankings can be found here.

Qualification for the NAIA Championships will not be determined in any way by these rankings, which are not officially sanctioned or endorsed by the NAIA for the 2014 season. These rankings are supported by the NAIA from the standpoint of media and entertainment purposes only.

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

USTFCCCA NAIA
Men’s Indoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2014 Week #6 — March 3 (pre-Championships)
next ranking: none, NAIA Championships (FINAL)
Rank	School	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Indiana Tech	446.17	Wolverine-Hoosier	Doug Edgar (5th)	1
2	Concordia (Ore.)	275.59	Cascade	Isaac Frederick (2nd)	5
3	Siena Heights (Mich.)	268.22	Wolverine-Hoosier	Tim Bauer (30th)	3
4	Wayland Baptist (Texas)	259.20	Sooner Athletic	Rohan Thompson (3rd)	2
5	Oklahoma Baptist	242.43	Sooner Athletic	Ford Mastin (18th)	4
6	Carroll (Mont.)	179.84	Frontier	Harry Clark (1st)	8
7	Oklahoma City	164.52	Sooner Athletic	Conor Holt (3rd)	6
8	Concordia (Neb.)	159.91	Great Plains	Kregg Einspahr (22nd)	7
9	Doane (Neb.)	134.74	Great Plains	Ed Fye (12th)	9
10	Olivet Nazarene (Ill.)	122.95	Chicagoland	Michael McDowell (13th)	10
11	Dickinson State (N.D.)	109.13	Frontier	Michael Nekuda (1st)	12
12	Missouri Baptist	104.71	American Midwest	Patricia Hanna (4th)	16
13	Aquinas (Mich.)	101.08	Wolverine-Hoosier	Dave Wood (18th)	13
14	Hastings (Neb.)	97.81	Great Plains	Ryan Mahoney (1st)	14
15	Eastern Oregon	93.73	Cascade	Ben Welch (10th)	11
16	Embry-Riddle (Fla.)	93.41	Sun Conference	Michael Rosolino (11th)	15
17	St. Francis (Ill.)	69.47	Chicagoland	Jeff Barker (2nd)	17
18	Central Methodist (Mo.)	65.74	Heart of America	Mark Nelson (3rd)	19
19	Cornerstone (Mich.)	62.84	Wolverine-Hoosier	Rod Wortley (16th)	18
20	Westmont (Calif.)	58.64	Golden State	Russell Smelley (35th)	21
21	Southern Oregon	46.11	Cascade	Grier Gatlin (3rd)	20
22	Evergreen State (Wash.)	43.48	Cascade	Chris Ertman	35
23	Morningside (Iowa)	43.24	Great Plains	Dave Nash (11th)	25
24	Goshen (Ind.)	42.77	Crossroads	Doug Yoder (3rd)	30
25	Northwood (Texas)	41.29	Red River	Rick Watkins	27
Dropped out: No. 22 College of Idaho, No. 23 Concordia (Calif.), No. 24 Northwestern (Iowa)
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

 

Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	Wolverine-Hoosier	908.03	4
2	Sooner Athletic	689.82	3
3	Great Plains	538.87	4
4	Cascade	501.67	4
5	Frontier	347.43	2
6	Chicagoland	216.22	2
7	Crossroads	165.09	1
8	Heart of America	163.38	1
9	American Midwest	157.26	1
10	Golden State	134.52	1

 

USTFCCCA NAIA
Women’s Indoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2014 Week #6 — March 3 (pre-Championships)
next ranking: none, NAIA Championships (FINAL)
Rank	School	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Indiana Tech	546.48	Wolverine-Hoosier	Doug Edgar (5th)	1
2	Oklahoma Baptist	472.23	Sooner Athletic	Ford Mastin (18th)	2
3	Cornerstone (Mich.)	240.99	Wolverine-Hoosier	Paul Koutz (2nd)	3
4	Doane (Neb.)	223.20	Great Plains	Ed Fye (12th)	4
5	Wayland Baptist (Texas)	204.13	Sooner Athletic	Rohan Thompson (3rd)	5
6	College of Idaho	197.06	Cascade	Pat McCurry (10th)	7
7	Concordia (Neb.)	159.28	Great Plains	Kregg Einspahr (22nd)	6
8	Hastings (Neb.)	136.79	Great Plains	Ryan Mahoney (1st)	8
9	Embry-Riddle (Fla.)	117.18	Sun Conference	Michael Rosolino (11th)	12
10	Westmont (Calif.)	113.98	Golden State	Russell Smelley (35th)	9
11	Siena Heights (Mich.)	97.34	Wolverine-Hoosier	Kirk Richards (2nd)	10
12	Bethel (Ind.)	94.08	Crossroads	Tony Natali (16th)	13
13	Missouri Baptist	90.85	American Midwest	Patricia Hanna (4th)	17
14	Carroll (Mont.)	86.97	Frontier	Harry Clark (1st)	15
15	Biola (Calif.)	83.12	Golden State	Jonathan Zimmerman (8th)	11
16	St. Francis (Ill.)	80.98	Chicagoland	Jeff Barker (2nd)	14
17	Cal State San Marcos	77.42	Independent	Steve Scott (15th)	19
18	Olivet Nazarene (Ill.)	67.33	Chicagoland	Michael McDowell (13th)	16
19	Dordt (Iowa)	66.89	Great Plains	Craig Heynen (6th)	18
20	Cumberlands (Ky.)	61.84	Mid-South	Floyd Stroud (21st)	20
21	Indiana Wesleyan	55.74	Crossroads	John Foss (27th)	22
22	Vanguard (Calif.)	54.44	Golden State	Bryan Wilkins (26th)	23
23	Baker (Kan.)	52.57	Heart of America	Zach Kindler (7th)	21
24	Eastern Oregon	50.62	Cascade	Ben Welch (10th)	27
25	Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)	49.35	Frontier	Mike Collins (17th)	29
Dropped out: No. 24 Concordia (Calif.), No. 25 Morningside (Iowa)
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

 

Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	Wolverine-Hoosier	936.88	3
2	Great Plains	692.46	4
3	Sooner Athletic	676.35	2
4	Golden State	283.72	3
5	Cascade	281.16	2
6	Crossroads	234.51	2
7	Chicagoland	192.18	2
8	Sun Conference	180.66	1
9	Frontier	170.35	2
10	American Midwest	130.52	1