GVSU Women Top Defending Champ Adams State in Preseason DII National Poll

NEW ORLEANS – Adams State and Grand Valley State have combined to win all but one NCAA Division II Women’s Cross Country national team title since 2003.

So it’s only fitting, then, that those are the two programs pegged to be battling for this year’s crown in the Preseason National Coaches’ Poll announced Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

While reigning national champ Adams State got the edge over GVSU at the NCAA Championships in Joplin, Missouri, in November of 2015, it is Grand Valley who came out on top to start 2016.

National PDFs: Top 25 Summary | Week-by-Week 2016 | Week-by-Week All-Time
Regional Rankings PDFs: Regional Rankings Summary | Rankings Recap

Division II XC Polls/Rankings Central | MEN’S PRESEASON POLL

NCAA Division II National Coaches’ Poll Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) GVSU Adams State Chico State Western State U-Mary View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

The Lakers earned five first-place votes to take the preseason No. 1 rank, followed very closely by the Grizzlies with three nods for the top spot.

No. 3 Chico State, No. 4 Western State and No. 5 U-Mary rounded out the top five.

GVSU returns three scorers from last year’s runner-up squad – including former national champion Kendra Foley and ninth-place Gina Patterson – plus last year’s No. 6 and 7 runners, both of whom finished 105th or better.

Adams State returns as many as five runners from its title-winning squad from a year ago, including top-15 finishers Jenna Thurman and Maura O’Brien.

Coming in at No. 3 after finishing fourth last November, Chico State returns four scorers from 2015, including All-American Sadie Gastelum and near-All-Americans McCall Habermehl and Alex Burkhart.

Also moving up one spot from a year ago was No. 4 Western State. Returning from its 2015 fifth-place team are All-Americans Georgia Porter and Alicja Konieczek.

Making by far the biggest move of any top-10 team was No. 5 U-Mary, which finished 12th at NCAAs last year. Individual national champion Alexis Zeis is one of seven returning members of last year’s nationals squad, and she led the Marauders to their highest preseason rank since starting the 2012 season ranked No. 4.

Rounding out the top-10 were No. 6 Alaska Anchorage, No. 7 Hillsdale, No. 8 Northern Michigan, No. 9 Western Washington and No. 10 Southern Indiana. Each of those teams finished top-10 at the NCAA Championships a year ago.

The highest-ranked team that did not qualify for the NCAA Championships a year ago was No. 16 Fort Lewis. It is the school’s highest national rank in program history, and its first national rank overall since 2006.

Also showing up in the rankings after not competing in Joplin last year were No. 20 Simon Fraser and No. 25 Cedarville.

Leading the way among all conferences were the RMAC and the GNAC, which both put four teams inside the top-25. The GLIAC, GLVC and NSIC all accounted for three ranked teams each.

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