Week 4 Rankings Show It’s Up For Grabs In NCAA DIII Women’s ITF

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NEW ORLEANS — The Week 4 NCAA Division III Women’s Indoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings look as if someone tossed those from Week 3 in a blender and hit mix a bunch of times.

With less than one month until the 2017 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships in Naperville, Illinois, down is up and up is down in the rankings.

This we know for sure: MIT is still the top-ranked team in the nation for the fourth consecutive week. This is the 11th time in program history that the Engineers have loomed over the NCAA DIII ranks.

NCAA Division III National Team Rankings Top 5 – Women
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
MIT	Ithaca	Washington (Mo.)	Williams	Ohio Northern
View Complete Women’s National Computer Rankings

Behind MIT is another story, as the other 24 teams in the Week 3 rankings swapped spots and some even fell out of the top-25, while others joined.

Ithaca is the new No. 2 team as it jumped from No. 5 to No. 2, a program-best mark. The Bombers are led by record-setting pole vaulter Katherine Pitman and distance standout Taryn Cordani (2nd, 5000; 3rd, 3000). Don’t forget about senior thrower Brandy Smith either (3rd, shot put; 6th, weight throw).

Both Washington (Mo.) and Williams moved down one spot to accommodate Ithaca’s rise. The Bears and Ephs lost 12.28 points and 13.88 points, respectively.

Ohio Northern shattered its previous high-water mark as it surged from 15th to 5th. The Polar Bears had never been ranked higher than 15th in the NCAA DIII rankings, but here they are now in the top-5. ONU is paced by mid-distance star Emily Richards (1st in the 800 and mile) as well as Madison Reed (3rd, pole vault).

We should note that this is the first week where marks from past seasons were removed (except for those athletes in the combined events) and only data from the 2016-17 season is combed through.

Let’s keep going deeper into the top-10, because that’s where we’ll find No. 6 George Fox, No. 7 Bates (up 17 spots), No. 8 SUNY Geneseo (up 15 spots), No. 9 John Hopkins (down 2 spots) and No. 10 UW-Whitewater (up 24 spots). Only Johns Hopkins and UW-Whitewater did not set program highs for their ranking.

Further down the rankings we come across UW-Stevens Point and Oberlin. The Pointers jumped 48 spots from Week 3 to Week 4, coming in at 14th, their best showing since they were 10th in Week 4 of 2010. The Yeowomen are slowly working their way closer to the top-12, where they were in Week 1 of this season.

New additions to the top-25 included Aurora (No. 33 to No. 21), Loras (No. 26 to No. 23), Carthage (No. 32 to No. 24) and Wartburg (No. 47 to No. 25).

We should see a bit more movement in the rankings as teams ramp up their qualifying efforts for NCAAs, which will be held from March 10-11 in The Prairie State.