Four NCAA DII Men’s Teams Earn First-Place Votes in New Poll

NEW ORLEANS – With a little more than six weeks left on the calendar until the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships, the race for the 2016 men’s national team title has never been more wide open.

Four teams – all of whom notched strong performances this past weekend – earned first-place votes in the most recent National Coaches’ Poll announced Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Despite getting the win in the non-Division I competition at the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival, it wasn’t defending national champion Colorado Mines that emerged from the first weekend of October with the top spot in the polls.

Instead, it was South Central Region and RMAC rival Adams State – moving up two spots from last week – that claimed this week’s status as the favorite on November 19 in Saint Leo, Florida.

The Grizzlies notched five of the eight first-place votes after their strong showing at Paul Short, while No. 2 Grand Valley State, No. 3 Colorado Mines and No. 4 Chico State all garnered one first-place nod apiece.

National PDFs: Top 25 Summary | Week-by-Week 2016 | Week-by-Week All-Time
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Division II XC Polls/Rankings Central | WOMEN’S POLL

NCAA Division II National Coaches’ Poll Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Adams State GVSU Colorado Mines Chico State Cal Poly Pomona View Complete Men’s National Coaches’ Poll

The National Coaches’ Poll has existed in its current form since 2013; during that time, never had more three teams at once earned first-place votes.

After displacing Colorado Mines atop yesterday’s Regional Rankings, the Grizzlies and Orediggers swapped spots in Wednesday’s National Poll. Adams State was topped only by NCAA DI No. 8 Iona and No. 17 Georgetown in the Paul Short Run’s top Gold race, led by fourth-place finisher Sydney Gidabuday.

Meanwhile, Grand Valley topped the entire field at the Greater Louisville Classic, scoring 82 points to top NCAA DI No. 29 Middle Tennessee’s 100. Zach Panning was fourth and Chris May was ninth for the Lakers, who put all seven varsity runners in the top-50.

For its part, Mines continued winning. The Orediggers topped new No. 6 CSU-Pueblo (its highest rank in program history), 62-90, in the non-DI competition at Arkansas.

Led by individual winner Will Reyes, Chico State was the overall top team at the CXC West Region Preview. The Wildcats accounted for six of the top 11 finishers in the mostly NCAA DI race.

Cal Poly Pomona held steady at No. 5.

After CSU-Pueblo’s five-spot move to No. 6 came No. 7 Augustana (S.D.), a tie at No. 8 between Western State and Alaska Anchorage, and No. 10 Southern Indiana.

No team made a bigger move this week than No. 18 Cal Baptist, which improved seven spots after a runner-up finish to Chico State in the non-DI standings at CXC.

Also making big moves were Missouri Southern and Black Hills State – which moved five and three spots, respectively, into a tie at No. 14 – and No. 16 Saginaw Valley State.

Walsh rejoined the top-25 at No. 21.

Two teams that free-fell through the top-25 were No. 20 Shippensburg – down 12 spots – and No. 24 Lee (Tenn.) – down nine spots.

The USTFCCCA National Coaches’ Poll for DII ranks the top 25 teams in the country. Voting panel of eight consists of the eight regional representatives, per gender.

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