Big Movers Shake Up First NCAA DII Women’s ITF Rankings Of 2017

NEW ORLEANS — Out of the 25 teams that were ranked in the first NCAA Division II Women’s Indoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings at the start of the season, three remained in place when the first rankings of 2017 made their debut.

NCAA Division II National Team Rankings Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Grand Valley State Pittsburg State Adams State Johnson C. Smith Chadron State View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

One of those teams is ranked No. 7, while the two others are No. 23 and No. 25.

It’s safe to say there was a lot of movement since December.

Grand Valley State and Pittsburg State switched spots atop the rankings. The Lakers are now No. 1 after gaining 41.79 points thanks to five athletes/relays ranked in the top-5, while the Gorillas lost 40.62 points and fell to No. 2.

GVSU is led by six athletes or relays ranked in the top-5 of their respective events. Kendra Foley is tops in the 5000 and 2nd in the mile. Rachael Walters is 3rd in the 800. Kathryn Mills is 3rd in the high jump, while Stacey Metzger is 4th in the 5000 to form a potent 1-2 punch with Foley. The Lakers’ 4×400 team is currently 3rd.

Adams State jumped 14 spots from No. 17 to No. 3 this week. The Grizzlies have two top-ranked athletes in Jenna Thurman (mile) and Sunayna Wahi (200). Thurman also is highly-ranked in the 5000 (2nd) and 3000 (3rd).

Johnson C. Smith went from No. 5 to No. 4, which made space for Chadron State to leap 23 spots from No. 28 to No. 5. Field events boosted the latter, as Mel Herl (weight throw) and Stachia Reuwsaat (long jump) are both No. 1 in their respective events.

As a note, the National Team Computer Rankings formula works by assigning more points to higher-seeded athletes/relay teams in each event and sums the totals of all of each teams’ athletes (it is not analogous to the NCAA points scoring system).

Minnesota State went from No. 21 to No. 6 after Khadiya Hollingsworth posted a top-ranked mark in the high jump this past weekend.

Two other teams vaulted into the top-10 — Southwest Baptist and Bellarmine. The former went from No. 25 to No. 9, while the latter climbed from No. 59 to No. 10.

Big moves weren’t restricted to those teams either, as Azusa Pacific went from No. 51 to No. 12, Central Missouri and CSU-Pueblo bounced 17 spots, while American International (No. 61 to No. 19), McKendree (No. 90 to No. 21) and St. Cloud State (No. 58 to No. 22) all worked their way up the rankings.