NEW ORLEANS, LA --- The Moravian College men's & women's track & field teams are both ranked in the Mideast Region in the fifth NCAA Division III Regional Team Index of the 2012 indoor season released by the U S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Wednesday. The Greyhound women remained third while the men slipped one spot to third in the top-ten regional rankings.
Johns Hopkins University is currently first in the women's Mideast Region with 195.75 points while Salisbury University is second at 160.33. Moravian is third with 160.23 points while Misericordia University is fourth with 150.03 points, and Haverford College rounds out the top five with 123.82 points. Swarthmore College, Franklin & Marshall College, Lebanon Valley College, Elizabethtown College and Ursinus College fill in spots six through ten, respectively.
The Greyhound men have a total of 168.22 points while sitting in third place. Haverford College leads the Mideast Region with 268.77 points while Widener University is second at 173.15 points. Gwynedd-Mercy College holds down the fourth spot at 151.37 points and is trailed by Elizabethtown College in fifth place with 134.09 points. Johns Hopkins University, Messiah College, Carnegie Mellon University, Dickinson College and Salisbury round out spots six through ten, respectively.
To view the full rankings, visit http://www.ustfccca.org/assets/rankings/div3/2012-itf/NCAAD3_2012_indWk5_TF_RegionalIndexTop10.pdf.
Moravian will return to action on Saturday, February 25th when they travel to the Susquehanna University for the 2012 Landmark Conference Championships. The Greyhound women are seeking their fifth straight conference title while the men are looking for their fourth Landmark Conference Championship in five years. The meet is scheduled for 10 a.m.
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.
