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Indiana Tech Men & Women Set to Enter NAIA Championships as the Favorites
By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA
March 3, 2014
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 |
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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 |
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| 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 |
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Men’s Indoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25) |
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2014 Week #6 — March 3 (pre-Championships) |
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| 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 |
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Women’s Indoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25) |
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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 |
