New No. 1 Team Takes Over NCAA DII Women’s Poll

NEW ORLEANS – For the first time this NCAA DII Women’s Cross Country season, the defending 2015 national champions are also the 2016 national title favorites.

After a strong seventh-place showing in the largely NCAA DI Gold Race at the Paul Short Run, Adams State has emerged as the unanimous No. 1 team in the newest National Coaches’ Poll from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Wednesday.

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) 4) Adams State GVSU U-Mary Chico State Western State View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

The Grizzlies garnered all eight first-place votes this week, displacing previous favorite Grand Valley State to No. 2. Upstart U-Mary continued its national ascent to No. 3 despite an idle weekend, as Chico State fell one spot to No. 4 after its performance at the CXC West Region Preview.

Chico State shared the No. 4 spot with Western State to complete the top five.

Grace Tinkey led the way for ASU at Paul Short, finishing 22nd overall, followed closely by Jenna Thurman in 30th. An x-factor for the Grizzlies could be Maura O’Brien. An All-American a year ago, O’Brien was Adams State’s No. 8 runner this week in 144th.

Last week’s top-ranked GVSU Lakers took sixth overall and second among non-DI teams at the Greater Louisville Classic. Former national champion Kendra Foley paced the Lakers with a ninth-place effort. GVSU has its own wild card, though, in Amy Cruetz – a former All-American who was only its No. 8 runner this weekend.

Rounding out the top-10 were No. 6 Minnesota Duluth, No. 7 Cedarville, No. 8 Southern Indiana, No. 9 Cal Baptist and No. 10 Hillsdale. The marks for both Cedarville and Cal Baptist are all-time program-bests.

Much of the second half of the top-25 moved up at least one spot this week, largely because of an 11-spot drop by No. 24 Augustana (S.D.).

Two new teams joined the top-25 for the first time this season in No. 21 CSU-Pueblo and No. 25 Saint Leo. For the latter, it is the first top-25 appearance in program history.

Returning to the top-25 was No. 23 Southwest Baptist.

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.