Indiana Tech Remains Atop NAIA National Indoor T&F Rankings

NEW ORLEANS – Indiana Tech‘s men and women remained comfortably atop the NAIA National Team Computer Rankings published Wednesday morning by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), but the gap is slowly shrinking.

Using marks only from this 2014-15 season, the rankings utilize the national descending order lists to calculate a point total for each team. The higher an athlete is ranked in the descending order lists, the more points they accrue for his or her team; the more high-ranking athletes a team has, the higher their score.

Both the Warrior men’s and women’s bevy of top-ranked performances have put them far and away ahead of the rest of the country. The women topped the 500-point plateau, followed next by Doane (Neb.) at No. 2 with 364.51. That gap is actually smaller than a week ago, as Indiana Tech’s score fell by 66 points; Doane’s only dropped 12.

Making big inroads was No. 3 Wayland Baptist, which improved 50 points to 318 total points, led by the Nos. 3 and 5 runners at 5000 meters in Selene Lopez and Sara Jerotich, respectively.

Defending national champion Oklahoma Baptist remained No. 4 at 228.54 and Cornerstone (Mich.) moved up one spot to No. 5 (202.18).

No. 9 British Columbia made a big 14-spot jump into the top 10, but that was nothing compared to the 62-spot improvement by No. 17 Missouri Baptist.

On the men’s side, defending national champion Indiana Tech kept on top at 465.03 points. That total is nearly 40 points lower than a week ago, while No. 2 Doane made marginal progress toward the top spot with a four-point gain to 292.82 points.

That small gain was crucial to keep Doane ahead of No. 3 Wayland Baptist, which improved nearly 33 points to a score of 290.21.

It was a pair of teams called "Concordia" that made the biggest top-10 improvements, however. Concordia (Neb.) jumped up three spots to No. 4 in the rankings with a score of 216.71 after 76-point improvement, while Concordia (Ore.) jumped up 17 spots to No. 6 behind a 83-point leap to 140.79.

Providing the boost for the Nebraska squad were 19 season-best performances, including three of the top eight heptathletes in No. 2 Lucas Weichman, No. 4 Brandon Ramos and No. 8 Brandon Cook. Oregon’s driving force came courtesy of a pair of NAIA leaders at 800 meters and in the mile from Matthew Clowes, as well as the top-ranked DMR.

In between the two Concordias was No. 5 Oklahoma Baptist, down a spot from a week ago.

Just like their women’s teammates, the Missouri Baptist men made the biggest jump into the top 25 of any team this week, up 61 spots from last time to No. 24.