NCAA DI Men’s Team Race Remains Wide Open As October Begins

NEW ORLEANS – With the first weekend of October – and all of the big NCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country meets that come with or before it – in the rearview mirror, the stage is set for some mid-October fireworks.

And yet with essentially only the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, the adidas Pre-National Invitational and the Penn State National left as major fixtures on the regular-season slate (not this coming weekend but the one after), the men’s National Coaches’ Poll has never been less clear.

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) Northern Arizona Syracuse BYU Oregon Arkansas View Complete Men’s National Coaches Poll

Northern Arizona, despite having not yet run its full scoring lineup, remained No. 1 with seven first-place votes, while four other teams ranked as low as No. 6 garnered first-place nods from the voters.

Defending national champion Syracuse held steady at No. 2 with a first-place vote.

Though BYU was idle after upsetting Cuse two weekends ago at Virginia, the Cougars moved up one spot to No. 3 with two first-place votes. The move came as Oregon slipped a spot to No. 4 after a less-than-convincing victory over Colorado State at the Washington Invitational, 26-39. Edward Cheserek got a dominant win in his 2016 debut, and could be a large reason the Ducks maintained a first-place vote of their own.

Tied at No. 5 last week, both Arkansas and Colorado were in action at home meets this past weekend. The Razorbacks, who won their home Chile Pepper Festival, got the better of the Buffaloes, who contested their Rocky Mountain Shootout, in this small rankings battle; Arkansas claimed the No.5 spot outright by just one point, though No. 6 Colorado claimed the final first-place nod.

Portland remained No. 7, while Iona made an eight-spot leap to No. 8 after a clear victory at the Paul Short Run.

Oklahoma State moved up one spot to No.9. Rounding out the top-10 was another big gainer in Mississippi. The Rebels moved up 10 spots to their highest rank in program history after a breakthrough win at the Notre Dame Invitational over a field loaded with nationally ranked teams.

Last year’s Notre Dame winner and this year’s runner-up, UTEP, also made big strides after a big weekend in South Bend. The Miners improved six spots to No. 12.

Colorado State bounced back from a disappointing Griak performance two weekends ago with a runner-up finish to Oregon at Washington, moving up eight spots to No. 21 as a result.

Returning to the poll was No. 24 Providence, while No. 28 Virginia Tech and both Illinois and Middle Tennessee in a tie at No. 29 joined the top-30 for the first time this season. In fact, Middle Tennessee’s appearance was not only the first of the year but the first in program history. The Blue Raiders have never qualified for the NCAA Championships as a team.

Not everyone was able to move up in the polls, though. No. 17 Georgetown finished a distance second to Iona at Paul Short and dropped nine spots as a result, while both No. 15 Eastern Kentucky and No. 19 Virginia both fell six spots each.

See the full men’s poll below.

The USTFCCCA National Coaches’ Poll for DI ranks the top 30 teams in the country. Voting panel of 12 consists of nine regional representatives, plus three other members of the DI Executive Committee.