USTFCCCA NCAA Division II National Team Rankings - Week 4

NEW ORLEANS – The Angelo State women's indoor track and field team made its first ever appearance in the national polls at No. 16 when the latest United State Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) NCAA Division II National Team Rankings were released Tuesday. At the midpoint of its inaugural women's indoor track season, Angelo State has seven provisionally qualifying marks for the NCAA Division II National Championships to be held March 12-13 in Albuquerque, N.M.

Grand Valley State's women remained at No. 1 in the week four poll, a place they have held since the beginning of the season. This season, for the first time the NCAA Division II's computer rankings were calculated using a mixture of best marks from the current and previous season. As customary using this procedure, fourth week rankings calculated and released by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) use data only from the current season (with exception of combined events) to formulate a team's ranking score.

“It's exciting for us,” Angelo State head coach James Reid said. “We've always been outdoors and have done well there. This is our first crack at indoors and we have a limited schedule that we're able to run because of where we are located in the country. To be where we are is exciting, especially with the young team that we have. We've got a few hold-overs from last year's national championship team, but most of the girls that are getting that ranking up there are all newcomers.”

The ranking comes a week after Chrystal Ruiz posted the third-best pentathlon score in the country this season – 3,658 at the Grand Valley State Big Meet – to bring ASU's total number of national qualifying times to seven. Ruiz also matched her previous provisional qualifying time in the 60-meter hurdles and joins teammate Bree Bennett as contenders in that event.

Andria Nussey, a member of ASU's 2010 NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championship team, provisionally qualified for nationals in the 800-meter run with the fourth-best time in the country, 2:12.05. High jumper Kati Holly and pole vaulters Summer Sutherland and Kelsey Wilson captured ASU's other provisional marks.

Angelo State will look to add to its collection of national qualifiers and improve on current marks when the team travels to Lubbock, Texas, for the SPC Invite Friday.

“We've got a relay team that we're waiting to get on the list and I think that will happen this weekend,” Reid said. “We have a couple of individuals on the list that need to move up a bit and we've got Kim (Williams) knocking at the door of getting on the list in shot put. We're looking for some good things this Friday.”

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