A Tale of Two Team Title Races in NJCAA DIII National Rankings

NEW ORLEANS – A quick glance at the fourth edition of the NJCAA Division III National Team Computer Rankings might indicate an uneventful week – after all, each of the top seven women’s teams and the top five men’s teams remained static from a week ago.

But look deeper at the rankings released Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) and you’ll see a men’s team race that appears to have been blown wide open, and a women’s race that continues to get closer.

With little more than two weeks remaining until the NJCAA DIII Championships in Utica, New York, on May 7-9, the No. 1 SUNY Delhi men have taken a commanding lead in the rankings over No. 2 Harper. Meanwhile, the No. 1 Mohawk Valley CC women are being chased down by No. 2 Suffolk County CC and No. 3 SUNY Delhi.

The men of Delhi cracked the 1000-point barrier, checking in at 1008.96 team ranking points – well ahead of No. 2 Harper at 684.17. Team totals are determined by assigning more points to athletes ranked higher in the national rankings, and then adding up the sum of each teams’ athletes’ scores. The formula is not equivalent to the scoring system used at the NJCAA Championships.

Powering the Broncos’ 172.12-point improvement from a week ago was the definition of “peaking at the right time”; a whopping 33 season-best performances that affect the national rankings were recorded by Delhi. That includes No. 1 Tyler O’Bryant at 100 meters. No. 1 Brian McLeod in the long jump, No. 1 Michael Couch in the discus, and Jack Flood leading the nation’s top three decathletes.

Behind Delhi and Harper were No. 3 Montgomery-Rockville (614.52), defending champion No. 4 Rowan-Gloucester (541.22) and No. 5 Mohawk Valley (509.98).

For the women, Mohawk Valley (731.97) remained on top and even saw a nearly 25-point improvement from a week ago. Nevertheless, both No. 2 Suffolk County (666.13) and No. 3 defending national champion SUNY Delhi both made up ground on the nation-leaders.

Of the two, it was again Delhi making the biggest strides, improving 82.73 points to Suffolk’s 32.09.

Rounding out the women’s top five were No. 4 Rowan-Gloucester and No. 5 Montgomery-Rockville.

No team in the rankings moved more than the women of No. 8 Herkimer County CC and No. 14 Finger Lakes, who both improved three spots from a week ago.

A pair of teams moved up two spots on the men’s side in No. 6 Suffolk County and No. 7 Herkimer County.