Colorado Mines Men Move Up in Tranquil Division II XC National Coaches’ Poll

NEW ORLEANS – With little movement in Tuesday’s NCAA Division II Regional Team Rankings, the relative steadiness of Wednesday’s U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches’ Polls should come as no surprise.

Only a handful of teams moved either up or down more than one spot in the top 25, with the picture at the top largely unchanged.

One final regular-season edition of the poll is out next week (though this upcoming weekend presents few head-to-head top-25 match-ups), with two more polls following most of the conference championships meets on November 12 and after regionals weekend on November 25.

National Coaches Poll PDFs: Top 25 Summary | Week-by-Week 2014 | Week-by-Week All-Time
Regional Rankings PDF: Regional Summary | Regional Week-by-Week

Division II XC Polls/Rankings Central

NCAA Division II National Coaches’ Poll Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Adams St. GVSU Chico St. Colorado Mines Southern Indiana View Complete Men’s National Coaches’ Poll NCAA Division II National Coaches’ Poll Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) GVSU Adams St. Minnesota Duluth Western St. Chico St. View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

This weekend, Colorado Mines performed well enough in a 33-45 win over No. 6 Western State at Fort Hays State that the Orediggers were rewarded with a one-spot improvement to No. 4. Dropping down to No. 5 in their place was Southern Indiana.

The top three ahead of CSM remained the same. Two-time defending champ unanimous No. 1 Adams State stayed on top, followed by No. 2 Grand Valley State – despite a decisive loss to DIII No. 1 North Central (Ill.) at UW-Oshkosh – and No. 3 Chico State.

The West Region had the only two teams for either gender that moved up more than one position. UC San Diego – idle since late September – moved up two into a tie with Sioux Falls at No. 12, while No. 19 Cal Baptist rejoined the poll following an 11th-place finish at Santa Clara.

Even more quiet was the women’s poll, which saw each of its top 10 teams remain stationary. Of note, two-time defending champion unanimous No. 1 Grand Valley State defeated No. 3 Minnesota Duluth for the second time in the past three weekends, this time at UW-Oshkosh, 40-98.

The only team to move more than one spot was No 23 Wayne State (Mich.), which fell two spots from a week ago.

Both polls featured added new teams at No. 25: the Colorado Mesa men and U-Mary women. Dating back to the beginning of the USTFCCCA archives in 2000, this is the first time Colorado Mesa has broken into the top-25.

The Division II National Championships will be held Saturday, December 6, in Louisville, Kentucky.