USTFCCCA Rankings, Honors

The Gopher men fell three spots to 39th in the NCAA DI rankings despite a second place finish in the Big Ten meet, which once again illuminates that these national rankings are based on NCAA qualifying individuals who, based on their performances thus far in the season, would theoretically place at the NCAA Championships.  So, you can have a great dual meet or conference team, but not score as well at NCAAs.

Minnesota State Mankato rose two spots to eighth in the DII men's rankings.  U-Mary fell four spots to 20th in the women's DII rankings while Winona State again maintained its 25th place ranking. Full list is HERE.

In DIII, the St. Thomas women rose six spots to 16th.

Minnesota State Mankato's Jerrell Hancock was selected USTFCCCA DII male Athlete of the Week. Hancock (St. Louis, Mo.) won in two individual titles and was a member of two winning relay legs en route to helping his team to an NSIC team championship. His winning time of 20.49 (+1.1m/s) at 200 meters was a school record, also putting him the No. 11 performer in the event in DII history. The MSU record of 20.84 that was set by Michael Lawrence in 2004.  

The performance makes him just the third since the turn of the century to dip under 20.50. He also claimed a title at 100 meters in 10.32w (+3.5m/s), placing him seventh among DII qualifiers. In addition to his individual efforts he ran legs of the winning 4×100 and 4×400 relays. He made up approximately 15 meters on the final leg of the 4×400 relay to edge out a photo-finish victory.

A USTFCCCA DII women's Athlete of the Week Honorable Mention was awarded to U-Mary's Melissa Agnew(Onamia, MN), who helped her team win the NSIC Championship with wins at 800 (2:13.98) and 1500 (4:33.77) meters.