Final DII Regional Rankings Set the Stage for Region Championships

NEW ORLEANS – Conference championships shook up the final 2016 edition of the NCAA Division II Cross Country Regional Rankings, setting the stage for the Regional Championships next weekend.

Defending men’s national champion Colorado Mines reclaimed the top spot in the South Central Region, headlining a group of three new No. 1 squads. The move will surely cause waves in the new National Coaches’ Poll, which will be announced on a live podcast on USTFCCCA.org at noon ET.

Additionally, eight more teams between both genders moved up into position to earn berths to the NCAA Championships based on their performances this weekend.

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Only a predetermined number of teams from each of the eight regions for each gender will qualify from the Regional Championships on November 5-6 into the NCAA Championships on November 19 in Saint Leo, Florida. The number of qualifiers per region varies based on 2015 NCAA Championships results.

Mines’ national No. 3 men took down national No. 1 Adams State at the RMAC Championships in convincing fashion, scoring 20 points with five runners across the line before the Grizzlies’ second runner. Adams State finished runner-up with 44 points.

The top spot in the men’s Atlantic Region also reverted back to a previous occupant as Shippensburg reclaimed the top spot from Lock Haven. Ship won a hard-fought battle at the PSAC Championships over LHU, 47-54.

Another swap at the top with national top-10 implications came in the women’s West Region, where national No. 9 Chico State overtook No. 8 Cal Baptist. Both teams won their respective CCAA and PacWest titles, respectively, but the Wildcats looked more convincing with a 20-76 victory over Cal Poly Pomona.

Cal Baptist took down Point Loma Nazarene, 23-45.

With its runner-up finish in the CCAA, the Cal Poly Pomona women were one of eight teams to put themselves into position to earn a qualifying spot to the NCAA Championships.

The Broncos moved up four spots to No. 6 in the six-bid West Region.

Other teams that moved into qualifying position:

• No. 2 Saint Leo men in the three-bid South (up two spots)

• No. 3 Bentley men in the three-bid East (up two spots)

• No. 3 Flagler men in the three-bid Southeast (up one spot)

• No. 3 East Stroudsburg women in the three-bid Atlantic (up two spots)

• No. 4 MSU-Moorhead women in the four-bid Central (up two spots)

• No. 5 Lewis men in the five-bid Midwest (up one spot)

• No. 5 West Texas A&M men in the five-bid South Central (up one spot)

Though these teams and many others may find themselves on the right side of the bubble with less than two weeks to go until Regionals, everything can change in the course of less than 30 minutes on race day.

The United States (as well as Canada and Puerto Rico) is split into eight distinct regions for both the men and the women, combining for 16 total. Teams qualify to the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships on November 19 based on their finishes at these regional championships on November 5-6, with each region allotted a specific number of NCAA Championship berths based on 2015 results.

These rankings aim to predict how teams will fare within those regional championship races. They are determined subjectively by a single member coach in each respective region. The regional representative is tasked with weighing returning teams strength with current season results (if applicable) in determining predicted team finishes at the NCAA Regional Championships.