Final Division II XC Regional Team Rankings Foreshadow Dramatic Regional Championships

NEW ORLEANS – Tuesday marked the final edition of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II Cross Country Regional Team Rankings prior to regional Saturday on November 22, but based on the results of conference championships this past weekend, these lists are anything but final.

Regional Rankings Summary PDF | Week-by-Week (also All-Time) | DII XC Rankings Central
QUICK LINKS: Men’s Regions | Women’s Regions

For instance, two new women’s teams assumed the No. 1 spots in the respective regions after taking down the previous regional favorite at their conference meets: Augustana (S.D.) in the Central and Saint Leo in the South.

Their combined margin of victory? One point.

Augustana (S.D.) (No. 7 nationally) won a tiebreaker over Minnesota Duluth (No. 3 nationally) at the NSIC, while Saint Leo notched a one-point victory over Tampa (receiving votes nationally) to snap the Spartans’ seven-year reign atop the Sunshine State Conference. Saint Leo, which had been just inside the region’s bubble at No. 3, moved up two spots with the win.

Five new men’s teams moved into potential NCAA Championships qualifying territory (remember, each region only gets a set number of qualifiers based on last year’s results), as did three more women’s squads.

Nowhere is the regional picture more unsettled than in both the men’s and women’s Midwest Region – the only region in the nation with more nationally ranked teams (seven for the women and six for the men) than qualifying positions (four for both men and women).

How cutthroat is the competition in the Midwest? Take the Northern Michigan women, who entered the weekend No. 10 in the nation and third in the region but after a fourth-place finish at GLIACs now find themselves on the outside looking in at No. 5 in the region. Knocking them down in the rankings were a resurgent Wayne State (Mich.) squad up three spots to No. 3 and GLVC champ Southern Indiana at No. 4 up one position.

The Hillsdale men (No. 14 nationally) found themselves in a similar situation as Northern Michigan’s women, dropping from fourth in the region to sixth with a fourth-place finish at GLIACs. Swapping spots with the Chargers was GLVC runner-up UW-Parkside (No. 25 nationally).

Want another example? Despite finishing just one point shy of regional No. 3 Malone (No. 10 nationally) at GLIACs, Ashland (No. 20 nationally) remained No. 5 in the region and was vaulted by UW-Parkside.

Of the remaining six teams newly projected as NCAA qualifiers, all but one were slotted into their regions’ final qualifying position. That one team was the Cal Poly Pomona women, who surprised for a runner-up finish in the CCAA to move up to No. 5 in the West. (Also of note from that region, former regional No. 3 and national No. 9 UC San Diego plummeted to No. 10 in the region with a distant fourth-place effort at CCAAs).

On the men’s side in the West Region, Academy of Art went from unranked to No. 6 – an all-important sixth since the region will send six to NCAAs – with a runner-up showing at the PacWest meet. Western Washington moved up two spots to No. 5 with its runner-up GNAC showing a week ago, and Cal Poly Pomona (No. 21 nationally) moved away from the bubble with a two-spot jump to No. 3 after a runner-up CCAA effort.

The South Central Region, another deep region that will send six teams to nationals, saw new No. 6 squads for both genders. The Metro State men were fifth in the RMAC meet to move up one into the sixth slot, while the Colorado Mesa women were fourth at RMACs to move up two positions to No. 6. Lurking just behind Metro State’s men is Eastern New Mexico, which jumped into the rankings at No. 7 with a runner-up effort at the Lone Star Conference Championships.

From the South Central to just the regular Central, the Nebraska-Kearney men moved up a spot to No. 4 with a runner-up finish in the MIAA. Making the biggest jump of the men’s rankings just behind the Lopers were the Pittsburg State men, who moved up five spots to No. 5 with its third-place showing at MIAAs (though a fair distance behind Neb.-Kearney, 55-94).

Beyond the Saint Leo women moving up to No. 1 in the South, it was a good weekend for teams with the word "west" in their names. (Well, most of them, anyway. The West Florida men fell off the bubble, dropping twp spots from No. 4 to No. 6.)

The West Alabama men leapt three positions to No. 3 with their first-ever Gulf South Conference title to displace Alabama-Huntsville for that projected third and final qualifying bid. On the women’s side, West Florida moved up a spot onto the bubble at No. 4 with a runner-up showing at Gulf South, while West Alabama moved up four spots to No. 5 with its third-place GSC effort.

The too-long-didn’t-read version: be sure to check out the regional championships November 22 because this is all certain to change again as these teams face off with NCAA Championships bids on the line. Follow along on USTFCCCA’s Regional Championships Central.

Also joining the men’s rankings this week were West Virginia Wesleyan (Atlantic); Northwest Missouri (Central); Southern Connecticut and Philadelphia (East); Michigan Tech (Midwest); Valdosta State and West Georgia (South); New Mexico Highlands (South Central); Wingate (Southeast); and Azusa Pacific (West).

For the women, the newcomers were East Stroudsburg and Mansfield (Atlantic); Southern New Hampshire and Adelphi (East); UW-Parkside (Midwest); and Mount Olive and Lenoir-Rhyne (Southeast).

USTFCCCA Regional Cross Country Rankings are determined subjectively by a single member coach in each respective region. The regional representative is tasked with weighing returning team strength with current-season results in determining predicted team finishes at the NCAA Regional Championships.