Bearcats Maintain Rankings in West Region of NCAA Division III

By Brandon Chinn, Athletics Communications Writer

SALEM, ORE. -- Themen's and women's track and fieldteams from Willamette University continue to hold theirregionalpositions for the third consecutive week in the latest rankings for the West Region of NCAA Division III,asreleased by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

For Willamette, the women's team held its fourth place ranking in the West Region while the men's team maintained its previous spot at #5.

After surpassing George Fox University for the top spot in the West Region a week ago in the women's standings, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) continued to hold its #1 ranking with a total of 475.20 points. George Fox remained in second place at 454.75. California Lutheran University held the #3 spot at 391.26, while Willamette was less than six points behind with a fourth place total of 385.69.

Linfield College, ranked #7 (242.47 pts.) and #8 Whitworth University (180.46 pts.) join George Fox and Willamette as thefour Northwest Conference teamscurrently ranked in the top ten.

Holding the top spot for men's teams in the West Region is Whitworth with 499.54 points. The University of Redlands (Calif.) remains #2 with 405.91 points, while La Verne ranks #3 with 366.41 points. Rounding out the top five are Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at #4 with 358.88 points and Willamette in fifth place with 294.73 points.

Other than Whitworth and Willamette, #6 Pacific Lutheran (264.13 pts.) is the only other NWC team listed in the West Regional men's rankings.

Wartburg College (Iowa) continued to dominate the NCAA Division III women's national rankings. After accumulating 336.95 points last week, Wartburg increasedits score by 29.64 points asit finished the week with a total of 366.60.

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh stayed at #2 with 176.42 points and Washington University (Mo.) remained third at 123.63. Illinois Wesleyan University utilized a 14.73-point increase to jump up three spots in the standings to #4 with a total of 98.19 points.

McMurry University (Texas) remained to be the #1 team in the men's national rankings with 249.05 points. Despite dropping 20.81 points this past weekend, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse barely managed to keepits #2 ranking with a total of 150.90.

Just behind UW-Lacrosse in the new rankings was UW-Oshkosh, which is ranked #3 with 150.70 points. Making some noise in the top ten was Central College (Iowa), which used a 22.56-point increase to jump from #15 to #9.

Selections for the NCAA Division III Championships will be announced on Sunday, May 20. The top 22 women's athletes and the top 20 men's athletes in each event will qualify for the championships, set for May 24-26 at Claremont-Mudd Scripps in Claremont, Calif.