Saint Augustine’s Men & Women Remain Atop DII National Rankings

NEW ORLEANS – Now one month removed from the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships, the outdoor DII National Team Computer Rankings are starting to become steadier.

But that doesn’t mean there weren’t still plenty of changes from near the peak of the top-25 all the way down in the latest edition announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Tuesday.

For the first time this season, the top-ranked men’s and women’s teams held steady from the previous rankings as Saint Augustine’s’ two-time defending national champion men and its women held on to the No. 1 position for a second week in a row.

The Falcon men (220.25 team points) led a mostly-stable men’s top five ahead of stationary No. 2 Texas A&M-Kingsville (168.00), No. 3 Grand Valley State (141.47) and No. 4 Chico State (116.20). Fifth-ranked Angelo State (105.89) rejoined the top five with a one-position improvement from last time.

The SAU women (179.19) maintained a slimmer margin over No. 2 Johnson C. Smith (157.90) as the remainder of the top-five switched spots from last time.

No. 3 West Texas A&M (139.24) jumped four spots from last time, while No. 4 Chico State (121.21) stepped up one rung on the ladder, and No. 5 Texas A&M-Kingsville (114.26) climbed three.

Defending national champion Central Missouri fell one spot to No. 7, despite the efforts of National Athlete of the Week Heavin Warner.

Particularly on the men’s side, this past weekend could be classified as something of a “moving weekend.”

Cross country champion Colorado Mines moved up seven spots to No. 6 – a move that was bettered among top-25 teams of either gender by only the eight-spot improvements of No. 9 Texas A&M-Commerce and No. 10 Azusa Pacific.

All told, only seven of the top-25 men’s teams and eight of the top-25 women’s squads occupied the same levels on the totem pole as a week ago.

The National Team Computer Rankings are complied by a mathematical formula 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.