New Mexico’s Lead Dwindles In NCAA DI Women’s Coaches’ Poll

NEW ORLEANS — Two weeks into the NCAA Division I Women’s Cross Country season and the defending national champion New Mexico Lady Lobos are still No. 1 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s National Coaches’ Poll.

NCAA Division I National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) New Mexico Colorado Providence Oregon NC State View Complete Women’s National Coaches Poll

The biggest takeaway from the most recent poll, released Tuesday afternoon by the USTFCCCA, was that New Mexico’s lead over second-ranked Colorado and third-ranked Providence is almost nonexistent.

Last week the Lady Lobos owned nine of 12 possible first-place votes, a 10-point lead over the Buffaloes and 27-point edge over the Friars. This week those numbers dwindled to seven, three and 10, respectively.

Both Colorado and Providence stole a first-place vote from New Mexico, giving the Buffs two and the Friars three.

All three of the top-3 teams raced in the first two weeks of the regular season, but only Colorado and Providence gave an idea of how one or some of their top runners would fare.

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Regional Rankings: Week 1 Summary | Week 1 Recap

MEN’S WEEK ONE NATIONAL POLL

The Buffs opened the season at the Colorado State University Invitational along with Air Force, Colorado State, Wyoming and a few other programs. Colorado looked strong as its presumed top-4 of Kailyn Benner, Erin Clark, Sage Hurta and Dani Jones ran unattached and all finished in the top-6 within one second of each other.

The Friars participated in the UNH Season Opener and rolled to a 15-point win. Sarah Collins led the way with a near 10-second win over teammates Millie Paladino and Abbey Wheeler. Catarina Rocha or Lauren Mullins didn’t run.

The Lady Lobos rested just about everybody during the Lobo Invitational two weeks ago, but we should get an idea of what they can do in two weeks at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational. That’s where Joe Franklin’s juggernaut debuted its reign of terror last year.

Behind New Mexico, Colorado and Providence, it’s the same top-8 as last week: Oregon, NC State, Boise State, Stanford and Oklahoma State. The only changes to the top-10 were that Michigan State (No. 10 to No. 9) and Michigan (No. 9 to No. 10) swapped spots.

Two notable movers in this week’s poll were Virginia (No. 16 to No. 14) and BYU (No. 27 to No. 21).

The Cavaliers made it look easy at the UVA Duals with dominant victories over James Madison (18-40) and Liberty (15-50). We’ll see Virginia against better competition this weekend at the adidas XC Challenge in Cary, North Carolina.

The Cougars opened the season with a dual meet against another ranked team, Weber State. BYU rolled to a 19-40 win over the Wildcats as Erica Burk claimed victory with a time of 17:25.7 over the 5K distance. This is the highest the Cougars have been ranked this early in the season since 2010 (20th).

Expect there to be a lot more movement in the upcoming weeks as teams will look to gain valuable KOLAS points for at-large consideration to the 2016 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana.