Four New No. 1s in Final Regular Season DIII Regional Rankings

NEW ORLEANS—In the last NCAA Division III regional rankings before the postseason kicks off, four new No. 1s emerged.  The rankings were released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

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In the West Region, the SCIAC holds what amounts to a conference championship dry run two weeks before the real thing.  At the SCIAC Multi-Duals on Friday, the Pomona-Pitzer men handily defeated Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and so the Sage Hens and Stags switched spots atop the West.  Action at the Multi-Duals also caused new Nos. 3-5 Willamette, Puget Sound, and Whitman (NWC teams) to all leapfrog No. 6 Occidental.  All told, nine of the ten West Region rankings are occupied by different teams than they were a week ago.

Emory is the third team to hold the No. 1 spot in the South/Southeast region this fall; they rose to that ranking after a 12th-place showing at the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble.

Haverford is the third new men’s No. 1 team this week.  It and Mideast No. 3 Johns Hopkins flip-flopped around idle No. 2 Dickinson after the Goats impressed at Princeton and the Jays underwhelmed at UW-Oshkosh.

The fifth major meet of the weekend, Jim Drews/Tori Neubauer at UW-La Crosse, brought about the biggest drop of the week, and it portends a shakeup at the top of the men’s national poll.  UW-Platteville (currently sitting at No. 5 nationally) fell four spots to No. 7 in the Midwest after finishing as the fifth DIII team at La Crosse on Saturday.   

The other Midwest moves showed the true quality of the region.  UW-La Crosse beat national No. 2 St. Olaf, but only moved up to No. 3 in the region.  WIAC rival UW-Eau Claire stayed at No. 2 after beating DII No. 8 Augustana (SD) at Oshkosh, and No. 4 Washington (Mo.) and No. 5 UW-Oshkosh both moved up after strong Oshkosh performances.

Oshkosh kept the top two Great Lakes teams (Wabash and Calvin) intact, but Oberlin shook up spots 3-7.  The teams ranked there finished in that exact order at the Rumble.

Association regional polling archives for DIII only go back to 2010.  This is the first time in that half-decade that the No. 10 Gustavus Adolphus men cracked the Central rankings.

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The biggest shakeup in the week six women’s rankings came in the Great Lakes.  Last week’s top four went Oberlin, Mount Union and Calvin (tied for second), Hope.  This week: Calvin, Oberlin, Case Western, Mount Union.  Calvin takes the top spot after beating several top-ten teams at Oshkosh, while the latter three finished in that order at Oberlin.

Though Oberlin’s meet was titled the Inter-Regional Rumble, the results from Oshkosh reverberated to three regions.  In the Midwest, Nos. 3 and 4 Chicago and North Central (Ill.) switched spots after the Maroons beat the Cardinals at the AAE Invitational.  And No. 5 Wheaton (Ill.) moved up five ranks, the biggest jump of any team in this week’s polls.

The Thunder haven’t qualified for nationals since 2008, and No. 5 is their highest regional ranking in the five years in the archives.  (In that period, they haven’t finished in the top ten at regionals).

All in all, nine of the top ten Midwest teams raced at the Oshkosh meet; they’ll all reconvene there in a month for the regional meet.

The team that didn’t race at Oshkosh was No. 2 UW-La Crosse; they were too busy hosting a meet.  Central No. 3 St. Benedict jumped No. 4 St. Thomas (Minn) after beating the Tommies there.  And St. Olaf moved up to No. 2 in the Central.  The Oles actually beat region No. 1 Carleton at Oshkosh, but the Knights were missing two of their top three and expect both to return.

Re-joining the poll is Atlantic No. 9 Stevens.  That’s the highest regional ranking for the Ducks men or women in the five years of USTFCCCA polling history.

USTFCCCA Regional Cross Country Rankings are determined subjectively by a single member coach in each respective region, or by a panel of coaches in the region. The regional representative is tasked with weighing returning team strength with current-season results in determining predicted team finishes at the NCAA Regional Championships.