New Mexico JC Women Overtake Top of NJCAA Rankings

NEW ORLEANS – While the Iowa Central CC men remain decisive favorites in the second edition of the National Team Computer Rankings for NJCAA Indoor Track & Field, the same can no longer be said of their female teammates.

New Mexico JC’s women have pulled ahead of now-No. 2 Iowa Central in the rankings announced Wednesday, and the Tritons just narrowly avoided falling to third behind No. 3 Monroe College.

While Iowa Central (335.69 points) took the weekend off from competition, NMJC was quite busy. The Thunderbirds notched 18 season-best individual/relay performances at New Mexico that ranked top-30 in the NJCAA, boosting their team rankings score to 361.05 points. Top-ranked Jahneya Mitchell (600 meters) and Latavia Coombs (pentathlon) led a nearly 36-point surge from last week.

The USTFCCCA National Rankings are generated using the 2016 national descending order lists from TFRRS. Athletes and relay teams are assigned more points based on how highly they are ranked in their respective event(s). Each team is assigned a team score based on the sum of its athletes’ point totals.

The National Rankings formula is not equivalent to the NJCAA Championships scoring system.

Though not reflected in a position change, no team made bigger strides this weekend than No. 3 Monroe College (331.41 points). The Mustangs improved nearly 70 points from last time behind top-ranked athletes Zakiya Denoon, Susan Ejore and Nokuthula Dlamini.

No. 4 Iowa Western CC (199.53) and No. 5 Barton County CC (175.14) remained steady to round out the top five.

The Iowa Central men remained heavy favorites, checking in with 520.95 points to new No. 2 Iowa Western CC’s 223.39 and No. 3 Barton County CC’s 222.20. Both Iowa Western and Barton County swapped spots from a week ago, and both are only narrowly ahead of the stationary No. 4 Coffeyville men (211.31).

Butker (Kan.) CC (176.34) moved up two spots to complete the top five.

No. 10 Central Arizona’s women and men debuted this weekend to jump from unranked to the top 10. Another big move in the rankings for both genders came just outside the top-10 as Western Texas’ men climbed 10 spots to No. 11 and their women also improved 10 to No. 12.