Heated Battle Developing at the Top of NCAA DII Men’s National Poll

NEW ORLEANS – By the narrowest of margins, the Adams State men avoided becoming the second three-time defending NCAA Division II cross country team champion to lose its spot atop the week two National Coaches’ Poll announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Wednesday.

The Grizzlies, winners of three NCAA titles in a row and six of the past seven, were only barely able to hold off two-time national runner-up No. 2 Grand Valley State as both teams earned four first-place votes. ASU earned 196 points out of a maximum 200, with GVSU just behind at 195.

The three-time defending national champion GVSU women were displaced by Hillsdale Wednesday as the No. 1 team in their gender’s poll.

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Division II XC Polls/Rankings Central

NCAA Division II National Coaches’ Poll Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Adams State GVSU Chico State Colorado Mines Augustana (S.D.) View Complete Men’s National Coaches’ Poll

Grand Valley State, which returns four All-Americans from 2014, scored a decisive season-debut win at the Michigan State Spartan Invitational with 42 points and seven finishers inside the top 20.

Leading the way for the Lakers wasn’t their cavalcade of returning All-Americans, but rather redshirt frosh Zach Panning in seventh place.

Adams State will get its chance to sway voters this coming weekend as it takes on a strong NCAA Division I field Saturday afternoon at the Minnesota Roy Griak Invitational. The race will be streamed live on FloTrack Pro and covered live by the USTFCCCA on the National Results Wall.

Behind those two teams, the rest of the top eight also stayed stationary: No. 3 Chico State, No. 4 Colorado Mines, No. 5 Augustana (S.D.), No. 6 Southern Indiana, No. 7 Alaska Anchorage and No. 8 Western State.

From that point on, however, 15 of the final 16 teams checked in at a different position than a week ago.

With a 14-spot drop by former No. 9 Sioux Falls to No. 23, Cal Poly Pomona and UW-Parkside moved up one spot each to No. 9 and No. 10, respectively. For Cal Poly Pomona, this is the program’s first single-digit rank dating back to the beginning of the USTFCCCA archives in 2000.

Moving up from unranked to No. 12 this week was New Mexico Highlands, which appeared in the poll for the first time since 2013. The Cowboys were the winners at the West Texas A&M Buffalo Stampede, 30-45 over the hosts. West Texas A&M dropped one spot to No. 13 as a result.

At No. 14, Simon Fraser moved up seven spots after finishing runner-up in the open section of the Washington Sundodger Invitational. This is their highest rank in program history at the NCAA level.

Also new to the poll is No. 16 East Central (Okla.), which appears in the top-25 for the first time since 2012. The Tigers won the Missouri Southern Stampede/Pre-National Invitational.

The third and final new team to the top 25 was No. 25 Saginaw Valley State, which finished fourth at the Spartan Invitational. This is the Cardinals’ first top-25 showing since the 2009 season.

The NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships will be held November 21 in Joplin, Missouri.