Up-and-Coming Team Continues Its Top-Five Rise in NCAA DII Women’s National Poll

NEW ORLEANS – With two individual national champions in the past three seasons, U-Mary has stood atop the individual podium at the NCAA Division II Women’s Cross Country Championships quite frequently of late.

Based on the newest National Coaches’ Poll, the Marauder women just might be making a run at both the individual and team podiums in 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 POLL

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

Led by reigning national champion and National Athlete of the Week Alexis Zeis, U-Mary moved up one spot to an all-time program-best No. 4 in the latest National Coaches’ Poll announced Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Preseason favorite Grand Valley State maintained its No. 1 status with six first-place votes, with defending national champion Adams State checking in at No. 2 with the remaining pair of first-place nods. No. 3 Chico State, No. 4 U-Mary and No. 5 Western State rounded out the top one-fifth of the top-25.

For U-Mary, that No. 4 position holds some significant meaning; the top four squads are the ones who leave the NCAA Division II National Championships in Saint Leo, Florida, on November 19 with team trophies.

The closest U-Mary has been? Fifth, all the way back in 2011, when it came up just 11 points shy of the hardware.

While glory at Saint Leo is still but a distant goal, the Marauders certainly showed promise at the MSU-Moorhead Dragon Twilight. Zeis won the 4K race (remember, championships distance is 6K) in 13:12.3 to win by no fewer than 12 seconds over a handful of past All-Americans from No. 10 Minnesota Duluth, while her teammates packed up to give the Marauders six in the top 10.

Top-ranked GVSU will get its chance for a strong debut this weekend at the Michigan State Spartan Invitational.

No. 2 Adams State won its home opener this past weekend with a perfect score of 15, led by overall winner Jenna Thurman of Adams State.

Chico State faced a stiffer challenge at the Humboldt State Invitational, fending off No. 24 Seattle Pacific, 40-55. The Wildcats put three in the top six and all seven of its top runners in the top-15.

Western State finished fifth behind four DI schools at the Colorado State Invitational, led by 10th-place finisher Georgia Porter.

No. 6 Alaska Anchorage, No. 7 Hillsdale, No. 8 Southern Indiana, No. 9 Northern Michigan and a tie at No. 10 between Minnesota Duluth and Western Washington rounded out the top-10.

Among all top-25 teams for both genders, no squad moved up farther from the preseason than did the No. 14 Cedarville women. The Yellowjackets finished as the runner-up at the Queen City Invitational behind DI Cincinnati to move up 11 spots to a new program-best rank.

No. 17 Dallas Baptist also made a big move, jumping up four spots after winning its home Patriot Invitational with a score of 17. The rank is DBU’s highest since entering the NCAA Championships ranked 13th in 2009.

New to the poll this week was Winona State, which entered in a tie with Montevallo at No. 18.

The full women’s poll can be found below.