South Plains Surges in Latest NJCAA National Team Rankings

NEW ORLEANS – While the Iowa Central CC men may remain comfortably atop the latest NJCAA Indoor Track & Field National Rankings, there is a very familiar, very formidable squad now in hot pursuit with the national championships in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, now less than a month away.

Defending national champion South Plains College jumped four spots to No. 2 in the latest edition of the rankings, which were released Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Meanwhile, the USTFCCCA computers continued to project a tight, three-team race in the women’s rankings as No. 1 New Mexico JC, No. 2 Iowa Central and No. 3 Monroe all reprised their positions from a week ago.

Three more sets of rankings will be announced between now and the NJCAA Indoor Championships on March 4-5 in Winston-Salem.

For the SPC men, this past weekend at Texas A&M produced a whopping 10 performances that rank among the top-10 nationally in their respective events. National Athlete of the Week Hassan Abdi led the charge with a national lead at 3000 meters and a No. 3 clocking at 5000, while both Robert Dunning (60-meter hurdles) and Gabe Moore (heptathlon) moved to No. 2 in the nation.

Combined, those efforts boosted the Texans 125.1 points for a team score of 273.30, still well behind Iowa Central’s 466.39. The Tritons did, however, give up more than 50 points from a week ago.

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.

Displaced one spot each by South Plains’ rise were No. 3 Iowa Western CC (216.15) and No. 4 Barton County CC (202.05). Butler (Kan.) CC held steady to round out the top five.

Central Arizona made a hard charge for the top five, falling just short at No. 6 but moving up four spots, nonetheless.

On the women’s side, New Mexico JC checked in with 350.84 points, just 16 ahead of Iowa Central CC (334.53) and not much farther clear of Monroe (310.49).

Barton County CC (208.12) climbed one spot in the rankings to No. 4 behind National Athlete of the Week pentathlete Ayesha Champagnie. Consequently, Iowa Western (203.02) fell one spot to round out the top five.

Just like their male teammates, the Central Arizona women made a four-spot push to No. 6. Defending national champion South Plains checked in at No. 7 for a second week in a row.

The “Most Improved” award for the biggest move of the week was split three ways between the No. 12 Pima CC men, the No. 17 Cuyahoga CC women, and the No. 21 Meridian CC women – all of whom climbed seven spots from a week ago.