DIII Cross Country National Coaches Polls Feature a New Men’s No. 1

NEW ORLEANS—Often, when a coach submits his or her regional rankings, they will come appended with some remarks about how each team is looking. On at least one occasion this fall, the coach responsible for the Midwest Region rankings has written about a certain team:

“They’re North Central—what more is there to say?”

That sounds about right. What more is there to say about the historically dominant program that has reclaimed its position as the new No. 1 team in this week’s NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll? In the poll, released Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), the Cardinals received all eight first-place votes.

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.) UW-Eau Claire St. Olaf St. Lawrence Central (Iowa) View Complete Men’s National Coaches Poll NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Johns Hopkins Williams St. Lawrence MIT Washington (Mo.) View Complete Women’s National Coaches Poll

While NCC’s last race was impressive—it came within ten points of beating DI regionally ranked Iowa and Indiana State—the Cards were idle this weekend, and moved up largely on the basis of what went down in Northfield, Minnesota.

There, new No. 2 UW-Eau Claire knocked off previously top-ranked defending national champion St. Olaf on its home course. The Oles slid to No. 3 in the national poll. That’s the highest-ever national ranking for the Blugolds, who finished only seven points behind DII No. 17 Sioux Falls on Saturday.

The other race that caused multiple big moves in the national men’s poll was Dickinson’s Long-Short meet. On the basis of split squad performances there, the hosts moved up five slots (into a rare three-way tie) to No. 13, and Carnegie Mellon leapt from No. 31 to No. 25.

The only other team to move up that many spots was new No. 13 Wabash, which dominated the “Little State” division of the Indiana Intercollegiates.  

One new team joined the poll this week: No. 35 UW-Stevens Point. With the Pointers getting enough points, that means 17 out of 35 ranked teams are either from the Midwest or New England Regions; out of those 17 teams, 12 are from the WIAC or NESCAC.

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While the women’s top three remained unchanged from a week ago—No. 1 Johns Hopkins, No. 2 Williams, and No. 3 St. Lawrence—the rest of the poll saw enormous turmoil, with two unranked teams shooting into the top 25 and two more teams making double-digit shifts.

Three of those shifts came from Midwest showdown at St. James Farm for the Wheaton (Ill.) Gil Dodds Invitational. There, Washington (Mo.) beat North Central (Ill.), which beat Chicago. That caused UAA rivals No. 5 WashU and No. 26 Chicago to essentially switch spots in the poll, while NCC went from unranked to No. 22.

The fourth team to move more than ten places was St. Thomas (Minn.), which jumped from unranked to No. 24 after beating DII No. 18 Lewis at the National Catholic Cross Country Invite.

Climbing to highest-ever (well, “ever” beginning with the USTFCCCA archives in 2006) national rankings in this week’s poll are No. 13 SUNY Oneonta and No. 30 RIT, both out of the Atlantic Region and both for strong runs at the Rochester Yellowjacket. That’s the first national ranking for the Rochester Institute of Technology women.

With the No. 27 Carnegie Mellon Tartans entering the poll, the UAA (six) takes the lead from the NESCAC (five) for most nationally ranked teams.

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