2022 NCAA DIII Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Week 4
NEW ORLEANS – Welcome to October!
Here is the newest NCAA DIII Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll for the 2022 season, as released on Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Remember that this poll is conducted by counting votes from ten member coaches – one from each of the division’s ten regions – who also do the weekly Regional Rankings.
NCAA Division III — Men's Cross Country
This Week's National Top Five
1
Pomona-Pitzer
Pomona-Pitzer
2
MIT
MIT
3
Wartburg
Wartburg
4
North Central (Ill.)
North Central (Ill.)
5
UW-La Crosse
UW-La Crosse
Cross Country Polls & Rankings
Only four teams remained in place between Week 3 and Week 4 in the National Coaches’ Poll: No. 1 Pomona-Pitzer, No. 2 MIT, No. 17 St. Olaf and No. 23 Bates. Otherwise, big changes dotted the national rankings after a massive weekend.
For starters, there would be no reason to move the Engineers from No. 2 behind the unanimous two-time defending champion Sagehens after what they did at the NCAA DIII National Preview Meet in East Lansing, Michigan. MIT crushed a stacked field that featured three other teams in the national top-10 from Week 3: North Central (Ill.), which finished runner-up to the Engineers, moved up one spot to No. 4; third-place UW-La Crosse, which dropped two spots to No. 5; and UW-Whitewater, which also dropped two spots down to No. 10.
Teams who stood out at the Paul Short Run saw their stock soar in Week 4: RPI went from No. 10 to No. 6 after finishing a game 25th in the ultra-competitive Men’s College Gold 8k ahead of Johns Hopkins and John Carroll; Carnegie Mellon went from No. 13 to No. 8 after winning the Men’s College Brown 8k with a 35-second spread between its top-5 athletes; Emory flew from No. 21 to No. 11 after a runner-up effort to the Tartans; and Haverford went from No. 19 to No. 13 with a third-place finish behind both RPI and Emory.
Over at the NCAA DIII National Preview Meet, George Fox, Loras and Wilmington (Ohio) ran above expectations and were rewarded justly: the Bruins took fifth in Michigan and ascended from No. 28 to No. 16; the Duhawks finished right behind GFU and improved four spots from No. 22 to No. 18; the Quakers ended up eighth ahead of several top-35 programs and joined the National Coaches’ Poll for the first time in program history.
Don’t forget about Case Western Reserve, either. The Spartans jumped 12 spots from No. 34 to No. 22 after beating former No. 18 SUNY Geneseo at the Mike Woods Invitational. It was a close race for the team title, but CWR put three in the top-10 and held off the Knights, 62-68.
Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 19, because that’s when the 2022 NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships will be held at the Forest Akers Golf Course in East Lansing, Michigan. Top athletes and teams from the 2022 season will take the course at noon ET.
