South Plains Men, Iowa Central CC Women Enter NJCAA Championships as Narrow Favorites

NEW ORLEANS – The South Plains men and the Iowa Central CC women will enter as the favorites for the NJCAA National Championships team titles, according to the final U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Team Computer Rankings of the 2015 indoor season released Tuesday based only on championship entries.

However, in order to fulfill that top billing by winning NJCAA team titles March 6-7 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, both will have to contend with teams that are right on their heels in the rankings. Fans who are Flotrack Pro subscribers can watch it unfold live online.

For the South Plains men, the top projected challenger will be No. 2 Central Arizona. South Plains checked in with a team ranking point total of 467.13, followed relatively closely by Central Arizona at 429.05. The next-closest challenger is No. 3 Iowa Central CC at 275.73, with No. 4 Iowa Western CC nearly another 100 points back.

The points system used in the USTFCCCA National Team Computer Rankings formula does not equate to the NJCAA Championships scoring system. It is based on assigning more points to athletes ranked higher in their national event rankings, and then summing the totals of each teams’ athletes. A full explanation of the process can be found here.

Iowa Central CC’s women are projected slightly closer to South Plains, 460.74 to 427.37, with No. 3 New Mexico JC and No. 4 Central Arizona nearly 200 points back.

New Mexico JC and Central Arizona were the only two teams in either gender’s top five to move places this week, swapping places at No. 3 and No. 4. The two are only separated by 10 points in the rankings, 248.67 to 238.64.

A look at the schools’ entries sorted by seeding reveals why those two-horse races have developed in the rankings heading into NJCAAs.

Central Arizona’s men have 26 entries ranked in the top 10 on the national descending order list to South Plains’ 25, but SPCC has the advantage in high seeds. Of those 25 entries for South Plains, 15 are ranked among the top three in their events nationally – including seven at No. 1 – while Central Arizona has 10 with four top seeds.

A similar plotline emerged between the Iowa Central CC women and South Plains, with 29 and 24 top-10-ranked entries, respectively. Both have 13 entries ranked among the top three in their events nationally, with Iowa Central holding the advantage in No. 1 seeds, five to four.

For a breakdown of the entries for each team ranked within the top 10 nationally, click here. For the full breakdown of all entries by team (broken into event groups), click here.

The lone new top-five team this week for either gender was the return to No. 5 for the Monroe men, which constituted a two-spot jump from last week.

Moving up three spots to No. 6 for the women was Barton County CC.

No top-25 team in the country made a bigger jump than the No. 25 Dodge City CC women, who moved up nine spots from a week ago. Other big moves came from the No. 10 Colby (Kan.) men (up six) and the No. 15 Monroe women (up five).

There were no new top-ranked regional teams in the final region rankings of the year.