NEW ORLEANS, LA --- The Moravian College men's & women's track & field teams are both ranked in the Mideast Region in the first NCAA Division III Regional Team Index of the 2013 outdoor season released by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Wednesday. The Greyhound men and women are both ranked third in the top-ten regional rankings.
The Greyhound men have a total of 216.74 points. Salisbury (Md.) University leads the Mideast Region with 373.5 points while Carnegie Mellon University is second at 273.94 points. Messiah College holds down the fourth spot behind Moravian with 212.17 points while Elizabethtown College is fifth with 210.76 points.
The Greyhound women have a total of 216.52 points. Johns Hopkins University is currently first in the Mideast Region with 405.23 while Salisbury is second at 244.45 points. Misericordia University trails Moravian in fourth place with 178.51 points while Carnegie Mellon is fifth with 176.81 points.
To view the full rankings, visit http://www.ustfccca.org/assets/rankings/div3/2013-otf/NCAAD3_2013_outWk1_TF_RegionalIndexTop10.pdf.
Moravian will return to action on Friday and Saturday, April 5th and 6th when the Greyhounds travel to both the Sam Howell Memorial Invitational hosted by Princeton University and the Muhlenberg College Invitational.
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.
