Top-10 Men’s Shake-Up Headlines Division III National Coaches Polls

NEW ORLEANS – A weekend of big meets against big competition produced some big changes in the top 10 of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division III National Coaches Polls released Wednesday.

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The men’s top-10 was most heavily affected with all but two spots occupied by different teams than a week ago, while four changes were made to the women’s top 10.

Strong performances by Williams and St. Olaf combined with tumbles by 2012 national runner-up Haverford, UW-Eau Claire and Bowdoin facilitated big changes on the men’s side, while a two-spot drop by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps opened up some action in the women’s poll.

MEN

NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Men
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
North Central (Ill.).	UW-La Crosse	Washington (Mo.) (+1)	MIT (+1)	Williams (+4)
View Complete Men’s National Coaches Poll

North Central (Ill.) remained the unanimous No. 1 after John Crain won the individual title in the Notre Dame Invitational Gold race and the team finished runner-up to No. 3 Grand Valley State of Division II and ahead of a host of Division I, II, III and NAIA programs. No. 2 UW-La Crosse took the team title at the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Invitational with five runners in the top 23.

Beyond that, the entire top 10 is different from a week ago.

Washington (Mo.) moved up to No. 3 following a strong third-place showing among non-Division I squads at the Greater Louisville Classic — ahead of Division II’s No. 8 Edinboro and No. 1 St. Francis (Ill.) of the NAIA. Former National Athlete of the Week Drew Padgett and Kevin Sparks finished 15th and 16th, respectively, in the largely Division I field to lead the Bears.

Formerly No. 3 in the nation, Haverford dropped seven spots to No. 10 — its lowest rank since being 15th near the end of the 2009 season — after slipping to the second spot in the Mideast Region behind No. 7 Dickinson Tuesday. The Fords finished 30th at Lehigh’s Paul Short Run in the Gold race, behind two other Division III programs.

Idle MIT improved to an all-time program-best No. 4, while New England Region rival Williams jumped four spots to No. 5 following a 17th-place team showing in the Gold race at Paul Short against mostly Division I competition. Colin Cotton led the Ephs with a 20th-place overall finish to the top team finish among non-Division I programs, ahead of No. 14 Lock Haven and No. 12 Mount Olive, both of Division II.

The No. 5 rank for Williams is the highest since it was No. 5 just before the 2011 NCAA Championships. The Ephs have been ranked as high as No. 4 nationally, and finished as high as runner-up at NCAAs in 2009 and third in 2008.

The No. 6 spot this week belongs to St. Olaf, which finished runner-up to No. 2 UW-La Crosse at UW-Eau Claire behind top collegiate finisher Grant Wintheiser. Never before have the Oles carried a single-digit rank or finished in the top 10 at NCAAs.

Dickinson moved up one spot to No. 7 after defeating regional rival Haverford at Paul Short with a 27th-place team finish. The last time the Red Devils were ranked so highly was sixth at the end of the 2011 regular season.

Tied at No. 8 are two teams new to this year’s top 10 in NYU and UW-Oshkosh. NYU, which was idle, improved three spots from a week ago; while UW-Oshkosh is up five spots from No. 13 last week following a 10th-place finish in the Gold race at the Notre Dame Invitational ahead of a number of Division I, II, III and NAIA programs.

NYU’s men are in the top 10 for just the second time in the past two seasons, most recently No. 5 just prior to last year’s NCAAs. Oshkosh is a top-10 squad for the first time since finishing fifth at the 2011 NCAA Championships.

After starting the preseason at No. 7 and then dropping to No. 32 by week two, Central (Iowa) is back in a big way with a 20-spot jump to No. 11 following a third-place showing at UW-Eau Claire.

Also making a 20-spot jump was SUNY Geneseo, which won its home invitational this past weekend to move from the edge of the poll at No. 35 to No. 15.

Going in the opposite direction was Bowdoin, which dropped from No. 6 last week to No. 22 this week.

New additions to the poll included DIII Pre-Nationals champion Loras at No. 25, ranked for the first time since the end of last season; and No. 33 Luther.

WOMEN

NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Women
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Johns Hopkins	Wartburg	Middlebury	MIT	Williams (+1)
View Complete Women’s National Coaches Poll

The women’s poll wasn’t quite as active as the men’s, with just four changes in the top 10 compared to the men’s eight.

Williams and Chicago each moved up one spot to No. 5 and No. 6, respectively. Williams was 27th overall in the mostly Division I Gold race at Paul Short, second among non-DI schools behind No. 1 defending national champion Johns Hopkins.

Chicago, despite idling this past weekend, moves back to the No. 6 spot. The team previously held the mark, which is an all-time program-best, for two weeks earlier this season.

The two aforementioned moves were facilitated by a two-spot drop by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps from No. 5 last week to No. 7 on Wednesday. The Athenas split its squad between DIII Pre-Nationals — though not with a contingent large enough to record a team score — and the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational, where they finished runner-up.

Allison Barnwell finished runner-up individually for the Athenas at Pre-Nationals, though it was a distant second nearly 45 seconds behind National Athlete of the Week Chelsea Johnson of St. Scholastica.

SUNY Geneseo won its home invitational to jump three spots to No. 10, its first top-10 appearance of the season and the first since a No. 9 mark in week five of last season.

Headlining the stationary teams this week was No. 1 Johns Hopkins, which finished 15th out of 47 mostly Division I programs at Paul Short, led by former National Athlete of the Week Hannah Oneda in 39th overall.

No. 2 Wartbug idled this past weekend, as did No. 3 Middlebury and No. 4 MIT.

No. 8 Calvin finished seventh overall and second among non-Division I programs in the Gold race at Notre Dame, keeping its spot in the poll from a week ago.

Trinity (Texas) remained No. 9 after winning the team title at Division III Pre-Nationals at Hanover with all five of its scoring runners through among the top 18 finishers, led by fourth-place finisher Maddie Murphy.

The biggest move of the poll was a 12-spot jump to No. 13 by Haverford, which finished runner-up to No. 18 Shippensburg of Division II among non-DI teams and third overall in the Brown race at Paul Short.

Four teams joined the poll for the first time this season: No. 28 Rochester, No. 29 DePauw, No. 33 TCNJ and No. 35 Mount Union.

Mount Union is ranked for the first time since 2006 (the beginning of USTFCCCA records) while DePauw is in the top 35 for the first time since a No. 34 mark in the 2010 preseason. TCNJ last appeared in the rankings in week one of the 2012 poll at No. 31.

The 2013 NCAA Division III National Championships will be contested November 23 in Hanover, Ind.