Team Battles Hold Steady as NJCAA Championships Approach

NEW ORLEANS – Just over two weeks remain until the NJCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on March 4-5, and the list of top contenders remained steady from a week ago.

The Iowa Central CC men maintained a significant advantage over defending national champion No. 2 South Plains in the third-to-last edition of the rankings announced Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), while the New Mexico JC women remained atop a heated women’s battle with Iowa Central CC and Monroe College.

Iowa Central CC’s men actually put some ground between themselves and South Plains. The Tritons rose 24 points to 490.61 ranking points – nearly 210 points clear of the 280.75 total from South Plains, which recorded a more modest seven-point improvement.

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.

With a whopping 32 performers ranked top-10 nationally in their events and 12 ranked among the top-three in the country, it’s no surprise the Tritons hold such a commanding lead. South Plains has the next-best totals in both of those categories with 17 top-10 performers and seven top-three performers.

No. 3 Iowa Western CC (204.42) held steady, just narrowly edging out No. 4 Central Arizona (199.26) as it jumped two spots from a week ago. The Vaqueros are matched only by Iowa Central with four athletes ranked No. 1 in their respective events.

Butler (Kan,) CC (185.60) stayed put to round out the top five.

While each of the top three women’s teams gave up some points from a week ago, New Mexico JC actually strengthened its position at No. 1 by virtue of giving back the fewest points. The Thunderbirds dropped less than four points to 347.38, while Iowa Central dropped 16 to 318.47 and Monroe fell 11 to 299.

While the Iowa Central men have a distinct advantage in firepower, none of the three top-contending women’s teams separated themselves in terms of the volume of top-ranked athletes.

NMJC has 25 performers ranked top-10 nationally at present for a narrow advantage over Iowa Central’s 21 and Monroe’s 20. When considering top-three performers, Monroe has the advantage with 10 – six of which are No. 1 in the country – followed by NMJC’s nine and Iowa Central’s eight.

Like their male teammates, the Central Arizona women (219.70) moved up two spots to No. 4, an increase duplicated by defending national champion South Plains (205.61) as it moved from No. 7 to No. 5.

The men of No. 9 Western Texas and No. 22 Hutchinson CC shared the title of biggest mover with respective six-spot improvements from a week ago. The two schools also made the biggest moves on the women’s side with four-position increases. Western Texas moved up to No. 9, while Hutchinson checked in at No. 20.