Ever-Changing NCAA DIII Dual Meet Rankings Shift Again
NEW ORLEANS — Who is the top team according to the NCAA Division III Dual Meet Rankings?
Well, the answer to that question changes depending on which week you ask it.
QUICK LINKS: Men’s Rankings | Women’s Rankings
Last week it was the men of Rowan and the women of Whitworth.
This week the Augustana (Ill.) men and the UW-La Crosse women ascended to the top of the rankings.
The Vikings went from ninth to first in the span of a week and jumped over eight teams in the process. Augustana (Ill.) now has a 5.67-point lead over the Owls, who fell to second. Right behind Rowan is UW-La Crosse with 208.66 points, followed by Williams College and George Fox.
The Eagles were in second last week and vaulted over the Pirates.
UW-La Crosse has a 10.38-point advantage, while Whitworth has some distance on third-ranked UW-Stout. Following behind the Titans are fourth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and fifth-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan.
The full rankings — including breakdowns by region, conference and head-to-head matchups — can be found on D3Rankings.us.
These rankings, compiled by Carnegie Mellon’s Gary Aldrich and released every Thursday during the season, differ from the USTFCCCA National Team Computer Rankings in one important respect.
While the USTFCCCA Rankings are designed to forecast how programs might fare at the NCAA Championships, these Team Dual Meet Rankings are indicative of how full teams with two athletes per event would fare in head-to-head competition.
Scores are the sums of all points earned by a team in each event. Only two athletes per team may be considered in each event (and one relay team per event), and an athlete can only be used in up to three events, excluding relays. Points are based on the best marks by those athletes in the current season.
Programs must be a member of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association to be eligible for the rankings. You can check your membership status here.
In addition, a member of that program’s coaching staff has to submit the marks to the rankings.
