Colorado Tops Men’s Pre-NCAA DI Championships National Coaches’ Poll

NEW ORLEANS – If Monday’s final NCAA Division I Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll holds to form, the two-time defending men’s national champion Colorado Buffaloes are poised to become three-time defending national champs.

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

Mountain Region winner Colorado garnered 11 of 12 first-place votes and favorite status for Saturday’s NCAA Championships in Louisville, Kentucky, in the final poll of the 2015 season from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Northeast champion No. 2 Syracuse garnered the 12th and final first-place vote.

Colorado is going for its sixth title since the turn of the new millennium, and history is on the Buffaloes’ side. Since 2005, the pre-Championships No. 1 has gone on to win the NCAA Championships. Two of the four upsets came courtesy of none other than Colorado in 2013 and 2006.

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Stanford moved up one spot to No. 3, while Midwest champ Oklahoma State jumped two spots to No. 4. Great Lakes victor Michigan held firm at No. 5.

Over the past ten years, no team ranked lower than No. 3 has won the NCAA title: Colorado was No. 3 in 2013 when it started its current title streak. Oklahoma State in both 2009 and 2010 came in ranked No. 2, as did Colorado in 2006.

No. 6 BYU dropped three spots from the pre-regional poll after finishing third in the Mountain behind Colorado and the team now directly behind it in the National Coaches’ Poll: No. 7 UTEP, which moved up four spots from the poll prior.

Not since the final poll of the 2007 had the Miners been ranked in the top-10 nationally. They went into NCAAs ranked No. 4 in the country and finished 10th overall.

South Central winner Arkansas held steady at No. 8, while No. 9 Oregon fell two spots and No. 10 Iona dropped one position to round out the top-10.

Washington won a muddy West Region race on its home course, giving the Huskies a six-spot boost to No. 11 and a share of its highest-ever rank in the USTFCCCA polls archive (1996-present).

The Huskies weren’t the only team to pull an upset win at their regional championship on Friday. Louisville entered the ultra-competitive Southeast Region Championships as the sixth-ranked team in the USTFCCCA Regional Rankings and completely outside the National Coaches’ Poll; the Cardinals left as Southeast Region champs with momentum and NCAAs on their home course this weekend.

Louisville jumped all the way up to No. 14 with the win for its highest rank since the 2007 season. The Cardinals finished ninth that year. The Southeast Regional also provided a boost for third-place No. 18 Eastern Kentucky, which stepped up eight spots from a week ago.

Conversely, Southeast Rival No. 17 NC State took one of the biggest tumbles of the week with a seven-spot drop after finishing fifth.

Louisville was one of six teams that were either returning to or new to the top-30. No. 19 Michigan State, No. 24 Southern Utah, No. 27 California and No. 30 Florida State also all returned to the poll after previous appearances in 2015.

Completely new to the poll in 2015 was No. 25 Washington State. It was the Cougars’ first appearance since 2012 and its best showing since late 2011.

Of all the teams ranked in the previous poll, none made a bigger impression than No. 16 Minnesota. The Gophers improved 10 spots with a runner-up finish in the Midwest.

Teams that went the opposite direction were No. 20 Tulsa (down six spots), No. 28 UCLA (down eight) and No. 29 Air Force (down eight). Air Force was the lone team inside the top-30 that did not qualify into the NCAA Championships.

The list of teams that were ranked in the most recent edition of the poll that did not advance to the NCAA Championships included Columbia, Illinois, Villanova, Colorado State, Providence and Indiana.

The 2015 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships will be held Saturday, November 21, at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky.