2024 NCAA DI Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Preseason
NEW ORLEANS – Stillwater is home to the No. 1 team in the nation.
Oklahoma State tops the preseason edition of the NCAA DI Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll, which was released on Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). The Cowboys, who are the defending champions, are one of three programs in the top-5 that won national titles in the past five years: second-ranked BYU and fourth-ranked Northern Arizona are the others with that distinction.
The National Coaches’ Poll is presented by AthleticNET.
NCAA Division I — Men's Cross Country
This Week's National Top Five
1
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State
2
BYU
BYU
3
Arkansas
Arkansas
4
Northern Arizona
Northern Arizona
5
Iowa State
Iowa State
Cross Country Polls & Rankings
Oklahoma State isn’t just No. 1 – Dave Smith’s program is unanimously the favorite to capture consecutive national titles come November. The Cowboys welcome back six of the seven athletes that helped them with their first national title since 2012. That was the third time in four years that Oklahoma State topped the NCAA podium: the Cowboys also won in 2009 and 2010. Last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, Oklahoma State put four runners in the top-10 and romped to victory with 49 points, 22 fewer than three-time defending champion NAU.
Even though BYU doesn’t top the National Coaches’ Poll, it might like its spot knowing the history. The Cougars were last ranked this high in the preseason index back in 2019, the same year they won the national title in Terre Haute, Indiana. BYU returns six of the seven athletes that helped them finish among the top-4 teams for the second year in a row. With the addition of Casey Clinger, the Cougars have seven athletes who finished top-65 at one of the past two NCAA Championships (Clinger has two top-10 finishes since 2021 himself).
Arkansas comes in at No. 3 in the preseason following a podium finish in 2023. Want to know the last time the Razorbacks were ranked among the top-3 teams in the preseason? Try 2006. Expectations are high for Arkansas thanks to its returning athletes and a standout recruiting class. Patrick Kiprop and Kirami Yego are the top returners for the Razorbacks. Both Kiprop and Yego finished among the top-15 athletes at the NCAA Championships last year.
NAU checks in at No. 4, its lowest preseason rank since 2016 when it was No. 3. The Lumberjacks are in a bit of a rebuild, as they lost four star athletes that helped them win three consecutive national titles from 2020 to 2022. Paramount among those gone are Drew Bosley and Nico Young, who finished fifth and sixth at the NCAA Championships last year. Santiago Prosser is the top returning athlete for NAU, while the team will also look for the Sahlman brothers and Kang Nyoak to continue their steady progression.
Iowa State rounds out the top-5 at No. 5, its first time among the nation’s elite this early in the season since 2019. The Cyclones finished in that same spot at the NCAA Championships last year and return five athletes that helped them do so. Top among those returners is Gable Sieperda. The senior carried momentum from a near All-America finish at NCAAs last year to an outdoor season that saw him place third in the steeplechase at the NCAA Championships.
Here are the rest of the top-10 teams in the preseason: No.6 Notre Dame, No. 7 North Carolina, No. 8 New Mexico, No. 9 Alabama and No. 10 Stanford.
Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 23, because that’s when the 2024 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships will be held at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wisconsin.
