By: Erin Madden

NEW ORLEANS - The Baldwin Wallace University women's indoor track and field team has raced its way into the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Ratings Index. 

After only receiving votes in the Week 2 ratings index, the Yellow Jackets have jumped all the way up to No. 9 in Week 3 and are the second-highest ranked team in the Ohio Athletic Conference, behind only crosstown rival John Carroll University. The University of Mount Union and Marietta College are the only other OAC schools to appear in this week's rankings at No. 17 and No. 23, respectively. BW ranks third behind John Carroll and Mount Union in the weekly regional rankings, also released by the USTFCCCA. 

Last weekend at the Dr. William Taraschke Team Challenge, the Yellow Jackets finished as the overall runner-up thanks to some dominating performances on the track, led by the reigning OAC Women's Track Athlete of the Week, senior distance runner Hastings Marek (Pataskala/Watkins Memorial), who won both the 1-mile and the 800-meter runs and now ranks among the best in NCAA Division III in both events. 

BW also currently owns the top USTFCCCA #EventSquad rankings in both the 800 and the mile. According to the USTFCCCA's website, "#EventSquad rankings places a rank order to a program's 'squad' of athletes in a particular event, using the cumulative season-best qualifying marks from a team's top-four ranked athletes on the national descending-order list." The Yellow Jackets' average time in the 800 is 2:20.67 while their average time in the mile is 5:07.29. 

BW returns to action on Sunday, February 14, at the OAC Elite Meet, hosted by Otterbein University inside the Clements Recreation Center.