Defending Champ Williams Stands Tall In NCAA DIII Women’s Preseason Poll

NEW ORLEANS — What’s the reward for a team that dismantled the competition last year at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships and returns six of those seven athletes that helped that cause?

NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Williams SUNY Geneseo Johns Hopkins Washington (Mo.) Tufts View Complete Women’s National Coaches Poll

A unanimous No. 1 ranking in the NCAA Division III Women’s Cross Country Preseason National Coaches’ Poll.

Last year Williams set fire to the 6K course at Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne, Wisconsin and won by 98 points over runner-up SUNY Geneseo. There was no stopping the Ephs as they put their entire scoring lineup inside the top-40.

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Regional Rankings: Preseason Summary | Preseason Recap

MEN’S PRESEASON NATIONAL COACHES’ POLL

Williams is back and better than ever this year and the voting coaches gave Pete Farwell’s team all eight first-place votes. This is the first time in program history that the Ephs are ranked No. 1 in the preseason. Last year at this time, Williams was No. 2.

The two biggest returners for the Ephs are Hannah Cole and Victoria Kingham. Cole, now a senior, placed fourth at NCAAs last year, while Kingham, now a junior, took 11th. Anna Harleen, now a junior, was the other athlete to finish top-40 in 2015 (39th).

Starting the season at No. 2 behind Williams is last year’s runner-up SUNY Geneseo.

The Knights welcome back five of the runners from their NCAA lineup, including Sara Rosenzweig (37th place) and Marissa Cossaro (63rd place). SUNY Geneseo hasn’t been ranked higher than third since 2006 when it was the preseason favorite.

What would a poll be without Johns Hopkins in the top-5? Well, the Blue Jays come in at No. 3 after a fourth-place finish in 2015 saw their quest for a fourth consecutive crown fall short. The good news for Johns Hopkins is that two of its top-3 runners from NCAAs return with a chip on their shoulder — Caroline Smith (12th) and Tess Meehan (35th).

The fourth-ranked team in the preseason is Washington (Mo.). Last year the Bears finished fifth in Wisconsin and welcome back five of the seven runners that competed at NCAAs, including Aly Wayne (47th) and Sarah Curci (56th).

Tufts rounds out the top-5 and the team will need to find depth to improve upon its seventh-place finish last year at NCAAs. The Jumbos do return five runners from its championship lineup in 2015, yet top finisher Brittany Bowman placed 82nd.

The rest of the top-10, in order, is No. 6 SUNY Oneonta, No. 7 MIT, No. 8 Middlebury, No. 9 RPI and No. 10 UW-La Crosse. The top returning finisher from NCAAs last year for any of those teams is RPI’s Jaime Lord at 15th. MIT’s Maryann Gong finished one spot behind her at 16th, while SUNY Oneonta’s Alyssa Drapeau was 18th.

All of these teams will most likely be in action on November 19 when the 2016 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships are held at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky.