WWU men and UW women only ranked teams in this week's USTFCCCA rating index...
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| Central Washington's 4x400 team of (L to R) Donna Marie Harris, Elise Hopper, Ellie DeGroot & Carley Huber are currently the number 3 team in NCAA D2 after running 3:36.90 at the GNAC championships (Nathan Herde/GNAC photo) |
With the GNAC championship meet concluded Tuesday and the University of Washington and Eastern Washington University competing for their respective conference championship meets next weekend, the USTFCCCA released its weekly national Division I and II rankings on May 5th.
In Division II, the rating index was released before the results of yesterday's GNAC championships were factored in. The results from the GNACs will be entered in next Tuesday's rankings.
That said, depending on results from other Division II conference meets this weekend, there will be some shuffling of the rankings when the next report comes out on May 12th.
The Western Washington men, who are the only GNAC school on either the men's or women's side ranked in the national top 25, dropped six spots in the national D2 rating index to number 23, as nearly all schools in the GNAC were off last week to prepare for the conference championships.
Pittsburg State, Grand Valley State, Minnesota State, and Missouri Southern are the nation's top five men's teams after the previous weekend's meets.
The Western Washington women's squad is the only GNAC school close to the top 25, coming in at number 27.
The top five women's teams in Division II are in order: Pittsburg State, West Texas A&M, Grand Valley State, Missouri Southern, and Colorado School of Mines.
Sunday is the final day for Division II teams to record marks for the NCAA championships in Emporia, Kansas on May 21-23. After the results of all conference championships are recorded, the NCAA will announce qualifiers to the nationals on May 12th. The top 22 athletes in individual events advance to the national championships.
In Division I, the Washington women dropped one spot from last week to number 22. The Huskies had no athletes who competed last week either in Corvallis or Tucson crack into the top 20 in their events or improve upon marks set earlier in the season.
The nation's top five women's teams are in order: Georgia, Florida, BYU, South Carolina, and LSU.
Big Ten women's teams in the top 25 include number 6 Nebraska, number 11 Illinois, number 15 USC, and number 23 Minnesota.
In the men's D1 rating index, the top five men's teams are in order: Arkansas, Georgia, Oregon, LSU and Texas A&M.
Big Ten mens' squads in the national top 25 include number 7 USC, number 9 Nebraska, number 16 Minnesota, number 18 Iowa, and number 21 Penn State.
PRO NOTES...
Here's some pro results we missed over the weekend:
Washington State alum Jasneet Nijjar (3rd from left/photo courtesy Athletics Canada) was part of the Canadian team that competed in Gaborone, Botswana at the World Relays, the qualifying meet for next year's world championships in Beijing.
Nijjar ran the third leg in both the semifinals and finals for the Canadian squad. In Saturday's semifinals, she ran a 50.73 leg to help the Canadian squad to victory, assuring a spot in next year's world championships. The Canadians ran 3:22.66 to advance to Sunday's finals.
In Sunday's finals, the Canadians finished third, running a season best 3:22.66, with Nijjar running a split of 50.85. Norway won in a world leading time of 3:20.96, with Spain second in a national record 3:21.25.
At the Torrin Lawrence Memorial meet in Athens, Georgia, hosted by the University of Georgia last Saturday, Washington alum Luke Houser dropped down in distance to 800 meters.
Paced by fellow UW alum Justin O'Toole, Houser set a personal best, running 1:46.05 to finish second by 1/100th of a second to his Atlanta TC teammate Rynard Swanepoel.
NOTE: The GNAC, Athletics Canada, World Athletics, USTFCCCA, and the sports information office of Central Washington contributed to this report.
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