2017 NCAA DIII Women’s Outdoor Team Rankings – Week 6

NOTE: Only USTFCCCA member programs are eligible for rankings. Please check your membership status HERE.

NEW ORLEANS – For the past two weeks in the NCAA Division III Women’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings, the top-7 has remained in place.

Washington (Mo.) is still No. 1 in the most recent rankings that were released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), followed by No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, No. 3 Williams, No. 4 Ithaca, No. 5 Nebraska Wesleyan, No. 6 SUNY Geneseo and No. 7 MIT.

That’s a testament to how strong the Bears, Athenas, Ephs, Bombers, Prairie Wolves, Knights and Engineers have been during crunch time of the outdoor season. After all, there are just two weekends left until the 2017 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

One athlete from Ithaca deserves special praise, however, and that’s Katherine Pitman. This past weekend Pitman broke the all-time NCAA DIII pole vault record at the NYSCTC Outdoor Championships. Pitman cleared 4.28m (14-0½) to edge the old mark by one-half inch.

That wasn’t the only all-time record broken this past weekend as UMass Boston’s Wadeline Jonathas smashed the NCAA DIII standard in the 200. Jonathas clocked a time of 23.67 to go under the old standard of 23.72 set 18 years ago. That helped the Beacons improve their ranking by two spots as they joined the top-10 for the first time in program history.

Bates soared 10 spots from Week 5 to Week, coming in at No. 11 following a great weekend. The Bobcats were buoyed by Allison Hill and Ayden Eickhoff, specifically. Hill jumped into the NCAA DIII lead in the 110 hurdles with her time of 14.04w, while Eickhoff is now ranked 4th over 800 meters (2:11.17). This is the best ranking in program history for Bates.

Aurora is ranked 14th after being ranked 32nd in Week 5 – and that’s a program-high mark. The Spartans saw Lisa Rodriguez notch a pair of top-10 times in NCAA DIII this past weekend in the 100 (11.93w, 8th) and the 200 (23.96w, 2nd).

UW-La Crosse vaulted 27 spots from No. 43 to No. 16 and Illinois Wesleyan went from No. 63 to No. 25 after big weekends. The former saw Kendra Antony hit a NCAA DIII-best mark in the shot put (14.73m/48-4), while the latter got an NCAA DIII-best mark from Molly McGraw in the high jump (1.77m/5-9¾).

Since we discussed NCAA DIII records before, we can’t forget about Whitney Simmons of UT Tyler. While the Patriots are ranked 46th, it’s not without fanfare from Simmons who broke the all-time NCAA DIII record in the hammer throw this past weekend. Simmons hurled the weight 63.08m (206-11) at the American Southwest Conference Championships.

You’ll see many of these athletes and teams at the 2017 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships set to be held May 25-27 in Geneva, Ohio. We’ll have the penultimate rankings of the season next week and the final rankings on May 22.