2017 NCAA DIII Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Week 6
NEW ORLEANS – The biggest weekend of the regular season shook up the most recent NCAA Division III Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll, which was released Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
A number of ranked teams competed across the nation, which allowed the pollsters to dissect performances and know which teams are rounding into shape with the postseason weeks away.
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North Central (Ill.) is the unanimous No. 1 once again and there was very little doubt that would be the case after the de facto Pre-National Invitational this past weekend. The Cardinals steamrolled the loaded field on their way to a 103-point win over then-No. 2 SUNY Geneseo. North Central (Ill.) put its entire scoring lineup in the top-15, led by Dhruvil Patel.
UW-La Crosse is the new No. 2 following a stellar effort at its own Jim Drews Invitational. The Eagles finished runner-up to Iowa Central CC, but beat the closest NCAA DIII team – which was then-No. 33 St. Olaf – by 134 points (35-169). Five of UW-La Crosse’s runners finished in the top-10 and all seven of them were in the top-20.
The aforementioned Knights fell into a third-place tie with Haverford, while Pomona-Pitzer rounded out the top-5 for the third week in a row.
Amherst and Loras are locked in a tie for sixth place. The Mammoths moved up one spot after beating then-No. 14 Williams at the Little 3 Championships. The Duhakws soared five spots from Week 5 to Week 6 thanks to a fourth-place finish at the Pre-National Invitational.
Speaking of the Pre-National Invitational, the rankings seem to follow how teams placed on the Principia Cross Country Course. No. 9 Washington (Mo.) finished right ahead of No. 10 MIT in fifth, which edged No. 11 Christopher Newport, which beat No. 14 Johns Hopkins and so on and so forth.
There were four teams that went from being unranked to the top-35: No. 22 York (Pa.), No. 23 Chicago, No. 26 Connecticut College and No. 32 DePauw. This is the first time in program history that York (Pa.) has been ranked, the second time in program history for Connecticut College and the first time since 2006 for DePauw.
There will only be two more National Coaches’ Polls released this season: November 1 and November 14. The former will be after the conclusion of conference championships and the latter right before the 2017 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships.
