NEW ORLEANS – The final edition of the NCAA Division III track & field computer team rankings based on the descending order lists—next week’s will be based on the championship entries—look a lot like the first seven editions.

UW-La Crosse’s men and women were ranked No. 1, as they have been in all eight rankings.   The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) released today’s edition.

(Note: today’s rankings were compiled on Monday morning before the early-week last chance meets)

Ninety miles north of La Crosse, the men and women of UW-Eau Claire were perched at No. 2 for the second straight week. (The Blugold men have been ranked second or third all season.

UW-La Crosse’s grip on the women’s top spot loosened very slightly, but they still have nearly double the rankings points of any other team. But the men’s team battle is shaping up to be as spicy as it was at indoor nationals, where Eau Claire slipped by La Crosse by two points. La Crosse’s lead over the UWEC men was the narrowest it has been all season–just 7.06 points.

For the third straight week, the UW-Whitewater men filled out the top three.  The next four men’s teams shuffled around slightly: they were No. 4 Monmouth (Ill.), No. 5 Salisbury, No. 6 Augustana (Ill.), and No. 7 St. Olaf.

Joining them in the top ten for the first team in nearly a month was No. 8 North Central (Ill.). The Cardinals were ranked in the top four for the first three weeks of the season, before spending an unprecedented three straight weeks out of the top ten.

NCAA DIVISION III COMPUTER RANKINGS TOP 5 – MEN 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) UW-La Crosse UW-Eau Claire UW-Whitewater Monmouth (Ill.) Salisbury View Complete Men’s Computer Rankings   NCAA DIVISION III COMPUTER RANKINGS TOP 5 – WOMEN 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) UW-La Crosse UW-Eau Claire MIT UW-Oshkosh Illinois Wesleyan View Complete Women’s Computer Rankings

They picked up twelve points fromAron Sebhat slashing his 1500 PR from 3:52 to 3:47 on his home track.

Further down the men’s rankings,SUNY Oneonta rejoined the top ten after exactly one week away. The Red Dragons were ranked No. 10 for the fourth time in the last seven weeks.

No. 12 Wartburg, No. 19 UW-Platteville, and No. 25Washington (Mo.) were the three teams to join the men’s top twenty-five this week.

WashU made the biggest leap of the week. The Bears clawed their way from No. 58 to No. 25 after Deko Ricketts (800), Josh Clark (1500), and Drew Padgett (5k) went for a whopping thirty-eight rankings points after posting nationally elite times at North Central’s Dr. Keeler Invitational.

In the women’s rankings:

Past La Crosse and Eau Claire, No. 3 MIT, No. 4 UW-Oshkosh, and No. 5 Illinois Wesleyan were the rest of the top five. All three of those schools have been ranked in the top five at least three times this year.

No. 6 WashU, No. 7 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, No. 8 Whitewater, No. 9 North Central, and No. 10 Baldwin Wallace all returned to the top ten for the second straight week.

Just one women’s team joined the rankings this week. That would be No. 25 Cornell College of Iowa, which moved up four slots. The two biggest moves came from national championship hosts St. Lawrence–up eight to No. 15 after Divya Biswal’s massive 5.80m long jump–and No. 12 Rhodes, also up eight slots. Rhodes and Cornell both made their moves thanks to other teams’ athletes sliding down the descending order lists, while their athletes held steady.

The DIII pre-championship rankings will be released Monday, May 18.