Men’s Top-Five Shakeup in Final Regular-Season DIII National Coaches’ Poll

NEW ORLEANS—With the regular season in the books, the NCAA Division III National Coaches’ Poll has a clear men’s No. 1, while the teams that will fill the next three steps on the podium are anything but.  Meanwhile, the women’s poll has had the same top five for the last three weeks, with the order staying static in each of the last two polls.

National Coaches Poll PDFs: Top 35 Summary | Week-by-Week 2014 | Week-by-Week All-Time
Regional Rankings PDF: Regional Summary

Division III XC Polls/Rankings Central

The national rankings were released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) North Central (Ill.) UW-Eau Claire Williams St. Olaf UW-La Crosse View Complete Men’s National Coaches Poll NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Johns Hopkins St. Lawrence Middlebury MIT SUNY Geneseo View Complete Women’s National Coaches Poll

North Central (Ill.)’s grip on the men’s top spot looks firmer than ever, as they beat No. 2 UW-Eau Claire by 104 points at Oshkosh.

NCC, UWEC, and No. 4 St. Olaf have been in the top five in every single poll this season. 

With No. 5 UW-La Crosse joining the elite quintet for the first time this fall, five teams have at one point or another filled those other two spots this year. The other four would be No. 3 Williams, No. 6 Central, No. 10 St. Lawrence, and No. 24 UW-Platteville.

Speaking of Platteville, Wisconsin was a cruel state to the Pioneers and No. 26 Johns Hopkins this weekend.  UWP fell 19 spots after finishing just fifth among DIII teams at La Crosse, while Hopkins tumbled 13 ranks after losing to ten DIII schools at Oshkosh.

No. 14 Haverford is on the opposite trajectory of its Centennial Conference rival; up six spots after a strong showing at Princeton, they’re tied for the biggest jump in this week’s poll.  (No. 16 Amherst also slid up six after demonstrating decent depth against Williams)

No. 33 St. Thomas (Minn.) is ranked for the first time this regular season; the Tommies have the seventh most NCAA appearances in DIII history, but have made nats just once since 2002.  And No. 35 John Carroll is ranked for the first time ever.  JC hasn’t run at NCAAs since 1977. St. Thomas is being rewarded for a nice race at La Crosse, while Carroll looked like the real deal at Oberlin.

Other notes:

• As No. 34 Bowdoin returns to the poll, 7 out of the 11 schools in the NESCAC are ranked.  That’s the most in the country.

• With No. 11 MIT also highly ranked out of New England, that region is tied with the Midwest at eight ranked teams each.  Those are going to be some brutal regional meets at Mt. Greylock (Williams) and Lake Breeze (Oshkosh).

• The Midwest has three teams in the top five.  That’s the tenth time that’s happened in the last two years.

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Voting history in the USTFCCCA archive goes back to 2006; the 2013 Johns Hopkins team are the only women’s unit in that period to be a unanimous No. 1 for the entire duration of a season. 

The Jays are on track to repeat that feat this fall, receiving all eight first place votes for the 14th straight poll.  They’ve traveled the country for those FPVs. Two weeks ago, they drove a relatively short 150 miles to Paul Short and beat No. 2 St. Lawrence; on Saturday, they flew 900 miles and edged out No. 4 MIT by ten points at UW-Oshkosh.

No. 3 Middlebury and No. 5 SUNY Geneseo held down their rankings after cruising to victories at Albany and Oberlin’s Inter-Regional Rumble, respectively, while St. Lawrence was idle.  

Three of the next four teams in the poll had their heady statuses confirmed by the Oshkosh meet.  No. 6 Calvin, No. 8 Washington (Mo.), and No. 9 Willamette finished just 14 points apart with just DIII teams scored. 

No. 7 Williams hosted and dominated a dual meet against Wesleyan and No. 21 Amherst.

While most of the rest of the poll was characterized by minor or nonexistent changes, four heartland teams made huge moves.  No. 16 Chicago jumped fourteen spots after beating seven ranked teams at Oshkosh, while previously unranked No. 17 Case Western Reserve hit its highest ranking in two years for beating four ranked teams at the Rumble. 

With Chicago and Case reaching the top 20, the UAA is tied with the NESCAC for the most teams in the top 20 at three each.

No. 21 St. Benedict is up eleven spots to its highest national ranking ever after a stellar performance at La Crosse; the Blazers haven’t made nationals since 1997.   And No. 29 Wheaton is back in the national poll for the first time in the Obama administration.  The Thunder finished ahead of three ranked teams at Oshkosh.

The NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships will be held November 22 in Mason, Ohio.