New No. 1 Team In NCAA DIII Women’s XC Coaches’ Poll

NEW ORLEANS — The Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle had a chance to rock the NCAA Division III Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll to its foundation this past weekend.

NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Johns Hopkins MIT SUNY Geneseo Washington (Mo.) Williams View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

With three top-5 teams in action — No. 1 SUNY Geneseo, No. 2 MIT and No. 4 Johns Hopkins — it was evident that the winner of the women’s championship race would either remain top dog or replace it all together. In this case, the biggest and baddest bird in the history of the poll returned to its familiar nest.

Johns Hopkins dominated the Border Battle to the tune of 70 points (MIT was runner-up with 134) and vaulted from No. 4 back to the unanimous No. 1. This is the 29th time in program history that the Blue Jays have been ranked No. 1 in the nation.

MIT remained second, while formerly top-ranked Knights fell to third in front of No. 4 Washington (Mo.) and No. 5 Williams.

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Regional Rankings: Week 6 Summary | Week 6 Recap

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Want to know how strong Johns Hopkins was in New Jersey this past weekend? The Blue Jays put its entire lineup — not just its top-5 runners — inside the top-25 (No other team had more than two). Felicia Koerner led the way in 4th place (20:56.5), while Natalia LaSpada (13th) and Rebecca Grusby (14th) finished right behind each other. Tess Meehan and Caroline Smith rounded out JHU’s top-5 in 18th and 21st, respectively.

Another team that impressed this past weekend was Tufts. The Jumbos, who were previously ranked No. 13 in the nation, jumped to No. 6 after handing closes losses to former No. 6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (63-78) and former No. 9 Middlebury (63-70) at the Connecticut College Invitational. Tufts’ Natalie Bettez all but assured her team the meet title when she crossed the line in 11th place to give the Jumbos a 20-26-31 lead through three runners.

Meets with multiple ranked teams weren’t just in Connecticut or New Jersey this past weekend. We saw some major movement in the National Coaches’ Poll out of what transpired in Wisconsin at the Kollege Town Sports Invitational.

Washington (Mo.) won the meet and Calvin took runner-up honors, but it was the University of Chicago and St. Norbert that stole the show.

The Phoenix finished third in the team standings and had its top-5 runners inside the top-35, led by Khia Kurtenbach in 11th. Chicago went from No. 20 in last week’s poll to No. 13 this week.

The Green Knights, led once again by former National Athlete of the Week Erin Artz, took fourth place. Artz was third overall and St. Norbert went from not even receiving votes last week to No. 15. This is the highest ranking for the Green Knights in program history, which topped their old mark of 35th in Week 2 of this year.

Three other teams went from not being ranked last week to the top-35, just like St. Norbert. Those squads were Nebraska Wesleyan (26th), TCNJ (32nd) and Wartburg (t-34th).

There won’t be a National Coaches’ Poll next week due to it being a light week, but it will return November 2 with the penultimate version. The final version will be released November 14, right before the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships are held in Louisville, Kentucky at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Park.