Minor Changes in 1st Regular-Season NCAA DI Men’s National Poll

NEW ORLEANS – While the first regular-season edition of the women’s NCAA Division I Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll was rife with changes, the status quo remained mostly intact for the men’s poll announced Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Two-time defending national champion Colorado remained on top with all 12 first-place votes, followed by No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Syracuse and No. 4 Wisconsin.

National PDFs: Top 30 Summary | Week-by-Week 2015 | Week-by-Week All Time
Regional Rankings: Summary | Recap

WOMEN’S NATIONAL COACHES’ POLL

NCAA Division I National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Colorado Stanford Syracuse Wisconsin Oklahoma St. View Complete Men’s National Coaches Poll

The lone change to the top five came with a preseason tie at No. 4 between Wisconsin and Oklahoma State – both of whom combined for the four national titles before Colorado’s current run – was broken in favor of the Badgers. Oklahoma State checked in at No. 5 by the slimmest of margins.

Moving up one spot to No. 6 was Villanova – which has not debuted its top squad – in a swap with No. 7 Oregon.

The Ducks swept their home opener at the Bill Dellinger Invitational with two-time defending national champion Edward Cheserek kicking off his campaign to become the first-ever back-to-back-to-back NCAA DI men’s cross country champion by leading a flock of five UO runners across the line side-by-side.

No. 8 Iona and No. 9 Virginia both remained stationary, while Indiana moved up a spot for a top-10 appearance. Big Ten rival No. 11 Michigan also moved up one spot as former No. 10 Northern Arizona dropped to twelfth in the poll.

That’s the lowest for the Lumberjacks since a No. 18 showing near the end of the 2012 season, before going on to finish fourth at NCAAs.

Overall, no team moved up more than one spot in the poll, and none fell any farther than the two-position drop by NAU. No new teams joined the top 30.

Just outside in “also receiving votes” territory, UTEP came within eight points of making its first top-30 appearance since the end of the 2008 season.

All of these teams will be fighting for the national championship on Nov. 21 in Louisville, Kentucky on the course inside E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park.

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