Weekend Preview: DII Regular Season Reaches Its Peak This Weekend

NEW ORLEANS – While fans of NCAA DI and DIII Cross Country must wait another week for their de-facto regular-season finales, the NCAA DII regular season comes to a head this weekend.

While some teams have the chance this weekend to preview the NCAA Championships course in Florida at Saint Leo (pending the track of Hurricane Matthew), the biggest entry on the schedule is set for Saturday at the Lewis Conference Crossover.

FULL WEEKEND SCHEDULE

Some of the nation’s top teams from the GLIAC, GLVC, GMAC, and NSIC get together two weeks before many of them once again square off at their respective conference meets.

Headlining the field are the No. 2 men and women of Grand Valley State, and the ladies in particular will have some formidable competition. The Lakers will take on No. 6 Minnesota Duluth, No. 7 Cedarville, No. 8 Southern Indiana and No. 11 Northern Michigan.

Notably, this will be Cedarville’s first major test against top-flight NCAA DII squads after rising to an all-time program-best No. 7 rank in the poll this week.

GVSU’s men will square off with No. 10 Southern Indiana.

Meanwhile, the Fort Hays Tiger Open will feature some of the South Central and Central regions’ best, topped by the new No. 1 men and women of Adams State.

The defending national champion women Grizzlies will see rival No. 4 Western State, No. 12 UC-Colorado Springs and No. 19 Pittsburg State in their race, while the ASU men will take on No. 8 Western State and No. 25 West Texas A&M.

Check out the full schedule of nationally ranked teams below.