Showdowns at Paul Short, Eau Claire, Geneseo Shake Up DIII National Polls

NEW ORLEANS—For the second week in a row, Johns Hopkins, MIT, and St. Lawrence held down the top three spots in the NCAA Division III National Coaches’ Poll.  The poll, released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) reflected the most intense weekend of the cross country season so far.

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

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

In enormous and high-caliber fields, it can be difficult to suss out the performance of teams that aren’t facing off against their typical competition.  But there is no doubting the quality of Hopkins’s race against No. 3 St. Lawrence at Paul Short. 

Led by 18th-place individual finisher and National Athlete of the Week Sophia Meehan, the Blue Jays finished 10th out of 138 teams with 315 points, well ahead of St. Lawrence in 14th with 494 points. JHU also took down Division II’s No. 2 Adams State (12th) and seven regionally ranked Division I teams.

The next top-three women’s showdown will be October 18 at UW-Oshkosh, where Hopkins and No. 2 MIT face off.

Speaking of the state of Wisconsin, this week’s poll highlighted a new era in what has long been the best men’s conference in DIII: the WIAC.

No. 3 UW-Eau Claire and defending national champion No. 2 St. Olaf flip-flopped in the poll after Olaf beat the Blugolds at Friday’s UWEC Blugold Invitational, 48-52, avenging an earlier season loss. (The two teams have now both lost to each other on their own home courses). National Athlete of the Week Grant Wintheiser led the way for the Oles with the individual win.

Eau Claire last won the WIAC in 1980; since then, all 33 titles have been won by UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, and UW-Stevens Point.

This year, the coaches have UWEC tapped as the favorite, and they’re trailed by two more historic underdogs: No. 5 UW-Platteville and No. 17 UW-Stout both rose to their highest ranking on record*; Platteville did finish fourth at nationals in 2010, while Stout last qualified for NCAAs in 1981. Those upstarts sandwiched more traditional powerhouse No. 10 UW-La Crosse.

*Weekly reminder: the DIII polling archives currently date back to 2006.

Wisconsin will give us a much clearer view of the men’s national picture in ten days.  Ten of the top fourteen teams in the national poll are racing at either Oshkosh or La Crosse.

Stout’s nine-spot jump after a strong race at Eau Claire was the biggest move in the men’s poll this week.  The second biggest was made by No. 4 Williams, up six spots after posting very fast times at Paul Short.

Overall, four of the top five men’s teams changed places. While five of the top six women’s teams stayed stagnant, every single one of the next 29 spots in that poll was reshuffled.  The biggest change came from the meet hosted by No. 5 SUNY-Geneseo, where the hosts’ decisive win knocked No. 28 Dickinson down 19 spots in the poll.  (It was a tough week for the Centennial Conference past No. 1, as No. 25 Haverford fell 12 spots)

21 of the 29 women’s teams swapping ranks this week were in one of five locations over the weekend. Here they are:

• All-Ohio: No. 7 Oberlin, No. 11 Mt. Union, No. 32 Ohio Wesleyan
• UW-Eau Claire: No. 12 Carleton, No. 19 St. Olaf, No. 34 St. Benedict
• Paul Short: No. 8 Williams, No. 22 Amherst, No. 25 Haverford, No. 30 SUNY Cortland, No. 35 TCNJ.
• Geneseo : No. 5 SUNY Geneseo, No. 12 SUNY Oneonta, No. 20 RIT, No. 21 Elizabethtown, No. 28 Dickinson
• Idle: No. 9 Tufts, No. 15 UW-La Crosse, No. 17 NYU, No. 26 Vassar, No. 29 Chicago, No. 33 Carnegie Mellon

11th is the best ranking ever for Mt. Union, who was never ranked better than 32nd before last week.  Also hitting their best-ever ranks were No. t12 SUNY Oneonta and No. 20 RIT.

No. 30 SUNY Cortland joined the poll for the first time this year.

On the men’s side, No. 28 Widener is nationally ranked for the first time.  In the 40-year history of DIII cross country, the Pride have never qualified for NCAAs.  As mentioned above, Platteville and Stout are at their best ranks ever; that’s also true for No. 12 Wabash (tying their top ranking), and No. 26 SUNY Oneonta.  Like Widener, Oneonta has never made nationals.

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