First Regular-Season NCAA DI Men’s National Coaches’ Poll Announced

NEW ORLEANS – The first two weekends of the NCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country season are in the books. And while they didn’t produce any seismic shifts in the first regular-season National Coaches’ Poll, there were plenty of changes down the poll.

Preseason favorite and defending national champion Syracuse not only reprised its No. 1 position in the poll announced Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), but the Orange also captured all 12 first-place votes for the first time this season.

No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Northern Arizona, No. 4 Stanford and No. 5 Colorado rounded out the top five, all in the same positions as the preseason. In fact, each of the top-nine teams held steady from last time.

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

WOMEN’S NATIONAL POLL

NCAA Division I National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Syracuse Oregon Northern Arizona Stanford Colorado View Complete Men’s National Coaches Poll

Syracuse had claimed 11 of the 12 first-place nods in the preseason, with the lone remaining vote cast in favor of Oregon. The Ducks didn’t earn an FPV this week, but they did remain No. 2.

Cuse ran without its frontrunning duo of Justyn Knight and Colin Bennie, but still looked deep en route to a convincing win at the Penn State Harry Groves Spiked Shoe behind transfer Iliass Aouani, Philo Germano and Joel Hubbard.

Oregon will mark the start of its 2016 campaign this weekend at its home Bill Dellinger Invitational, which could likely see the 2016 debut of three-time reigning champ Edward Cheserek. The senior would be beginning his quest to become the first man in DI history to win four cross country titles..

No. 3 Northern Arizona, like Syracuse, ran without its top runners but still looked strong this weekend at Indiana State – the site of the 2016 NCAA Championships on November 19. Without Futsum Zienasellassie or Tyler Day, the Lumberjacks still managed a decisive win over a short-handed No. 18 Michigan squad behind a 1-2 finish from Matthew Baxter and Corey Glines.

No. 4 Stanford debuted two weekends ago at San Francisco with a conservative early-season tempo run. Top returners Sean McGorty and Grant Fisher did not compete for the Cardinal.

No. 5 Colorado made a similarly conservative debut at the Colorado State Invitational.

Remaining steady from last week were No. 6 Arkansas, No. 7 Georgetown, No. 8 Washington, and No. 9 Eastern Kentucky. Oklahoma State replaced now-No. 11 Wisconsin at No. 10.

Of the back half of the top-10, EKU posted the strongest performance of this early season with a big win at the Kentucky Bluegrass Invitational behind National Athlete of the Week Erick Rotich. The Colonels were also running without projected scorers All-American Jaime Escriche and Jakob Abrahamsen.

While only one team in the top-10 swapped spots from the preseason, the bottom two-thirds of the poll saw only three teams hold their spots from two weeks ago.

Making the biggest upward move was No. 27 NC State, which jumped up three spots from last time. No. 13 Virginia and No. 20 Mississippi both moved up two spots.

Heading in the opposite direction were No. 28 Louisville, No. 23 Furman and No. 15 UTEP. That trio fell four, three and two spots, respectively.