NCAA Division III Indoor National Titles Up for Grab This Weekend

NEW ORLEANS – The final regular-season rankings are out for the NCAA Division III indoor track & field season with not much has change from last week’s U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national-ranking tally. The top-ranked men of North Central (Ill.) will enter this weekend’s NCAA Championships in Columbus, Ohio, with a meet-high 14 entries in pursuit of their second-straight indoor national title. In addition, the No. 1 women’s team, UW Oskhosh will be looking for their record-breaking seventh national indoor crown.

National Computer Rankings:
PDFs: Top 25 | Full by Team | Event-by-Event | Week-by-Week
Previous Rankings | Rankings Guidelines & Rationale
Regional Index: Top 10 Teams by Region
Dual Meet RPI: Website

NCAA Championships Field Summary: By Team | By Conference

NCAA.com Championships Page

Although North Central leads the men’s field with 14 entries, No. 2 UW La Crosse, with 11 entries will be there to try and spoil the Cardinals’ party. La Crosse and North Central will go head-to-head for big points in the jumps as both squads lead the field with five entries in those events, apiece. No. 4 UW Oshkosh, with nine entries and third-most overall, has a meet-high six entries in throwing events.

Al Carius’ North Central crew won last year’s event with a 52-34 decision over runner-up UW Stevens Point. A title would be the first back-to-back conquest for the school in the indoor season. No. 2 UW La Crosse has a national record 15 indoor NCAA D-III titles. UW Oshkosh last won the event in 2009 in a shared victory with La Crosse. No. 3 Amherst’s highest national finish in their history was a sixth-place showing in 1998.

On the women’s side, No. 2 Wartburg will prove to be a legitimate adversary to No. 1 UW Oshkosh with a meet-high 13 entries, seven of which highly surpasses the rest in the sprint and hurdle arenas. Just as their male counterparts, UW Oshkosh’s strength lies in the throws where the squad leads all in the meet with six of their ten entries in those events. No. 3 MIT is third in the entry count with nine.

Wartburg is the two-time defending national indoor champion in Division III. Last year, Marcus Newsom’s squad secured a tight 33-29 victory over runner-up UW Oshkosh on the final salvo, the 4×400 relay. In 2009, UW La Crosse was the runner up. Should No. 1 UW Oshkosh claim victory it would be a record-setting event as it would capture their seventh indoor NCAA D-III national crown in team history. Currently, UW Oshkosh is tied with Christopher Newport in the category but has been off the top of the award stand since 2006. Third-ranked MIT has not won a national title, and their highest finish in NCAA competition came last year when the squad finished tenth.

About the Rankings
For more on the national team rankings and links to guideline and rationale information visit …
http://www.ustfccca.org/rankings/division-iii-rankings

Rankings are determined by a mathematical formula, which is based on current national descending order lists. This is what’s used to compile a team’s ranking. The purpose and methodology of the rankings is to create an index that showcases the teams that have the best potential of achieving the top spots in the national-title race.

The Regional Index is determined using a similar method as national rankings, but on a smaller scale, comparing teams versus others within the same region. The result is a ranking that showcases squads with better all-around team potential — a group makeup critical for conference or similar team-scored events. A team may achieve a better regional ranking than a counterpart that has a better national ranking. Historically, some teams are better national-championship teams than conference-championship teams, having a few elite athletes that score very well in a diverse environment where teams do not have entries in more than a few events. Some teams are better at conference championships or similar team-scored events where they enter, and are competitive, in many of the events.

How a team fares in a national championship, conference championship, or scored meet with only a couple or few teams (like a dual or triangular) can be very different, given the number of events, competition, scoring, and makeup of entries — thus the rationale behind each of the ranking systems. Similar arguments about team makeup and rankings can also be found in swimming & diving and wrestling as their sports also have a similar trichotomy when it comes to team theory.