2024 NCAA DI Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Week 5
NEW ORLEANS – What. A. Weekend.
A handful of big-time performances caused some chaos in the Week 5 edition of the 2024 NCAA DI Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll, which was released on Tuesday by the U.S Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
National Coaches’ Polls are presented by AthleticNET.
NCAA Division I — Women's Cross Country
This Week's National Top Five
1
BYU
BYU
2
Oregon
Oregon
3
Washington
Washington
4
Northern Arizona
Northern Arizona
5
West Virginia
West Virginia
Cross Country Polls & Rankings
Following their second-straight Big 12 title, the BYU women held their own at the top of the National Coaches’ Poll, coming in at No. 1 for the second consecutive week.
Just like they have all year, the Cougars used their lethal pack running to hold off three nationally-ranked challengers. Whether it was the fact that they put all seven runners in front of every team’s fifth runner, or their nine second spread between their first and fifth runner, the top-ranked Cougars were untouchable and earned seven first-place votes.
After dominating the new-look Big Ten en route to their first conference title, the mighty women of Oregon skyrocketed from No. 17 to No. 2, earning four first-place votes in the process. In her season debut, Silan Ayyildiz led Maddy Elmore to a 1-2 finish for the Ducks, followed by three more teammates inside the top-12, more than enough to take down Washington.
Despite the loss, the third-ranked Huskies had a very strong showing in their runner-up finish, highlighted by Chloe Foerster’s sixth place finish and a 1-6 split of 14 seconds.
Northern Arizona fell a single spot to No. 4 after notching a perfect score at the Big Sky Championships. It was a solid day for the Lumberjacks as they went 1-6 and packed eight runners into the top-9, but the best part of their day may have been the season debut of 2023 All-American Elise Stearns, who finished runner-up.
Rounding out the top-5 is red-hot West Virginia, who has been on a tear over the last few weeks. After their fourth-place finish at Pre-Nationals last month, Ceili McCabe and her Mountaineer teammates finished runner-up at the Big 12 Championships, a mere 19 points back of BYU. McCabe won the individual title in the race.
After finishing runner-up to Alabama at the SEC Championships, the Tennessee women went from receiving votes to No. 16, jumping back into the National Coaches’ Poll after a one-week hiatus. Both No. 26 Arkansas and No. 30 Utah Valley also moved into the national rankings after strong conference performances.
Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 23, because that’s when the 2024 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships will be held at Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wisconsin.
Maxx Bradley is a freelance writer with a deep passion for track and field and cross country. Over the past few years, he has dedicated himself to covering the sport he has loved since middle school, contributing to both FloTrack and MileSplit. Additionally, Maxx writes The Lead Pack, a newsletter focused on the sport throughout Kansas. He resides in the KC Metro area and works as a Communications Specialist at Baker University.
