Division II XC National Polls Significantly Altered by Conference Championships

NEW ORLEANS – Two-time defending men’s NCAA Division II cross country champion Adams State survived an upset bid by Colorado Mines at the RMAC Championships this past weekend by just five points.

The Grizzlies hung on to the country’s top spot in Wednesday’s National Coaches’ Polls released by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) by an even narrower margin – just three points.

In a pair of men’s and women’s polls turned topsy-turvy by conference championships, the Adams State men were nearly dethroned, half of the top-five teams are different or in different spots from two weeks ago, and nearly 20 teams moved four spots or more (in either direction).

National Coaches Poll PDFs: Top 25 Summary | Week-by-Week 2014 | Week-by-Week All-Time
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Division II XC Polls/Rankings Central

Turnover in the Top-Five

NCAA Division II National Coaches’ Poll Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) t5) Adams St. GVSU Colorado Mines Chico St. Southern Indiana View Complete Men’s National Coaches’ Poll NCAA Division II National Coaches’ Poll Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) GVSU Adams St. Augustana (S.D.) Chico St. Minnesota Duluth View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

For the men, Adams State remained on top, but lost its unanimous status with five of eight first-place votes. Picking up the remaining three were the 13-time reigning GLIAC champion No. 2 Grand Valley State men – consequently coming within three points of its first-ever No. 1 rank.

Would-be RMAC usurper Colorado Mines came within five points of taking down Adams State and winning its first-ever RMAC title, but the Orediggers were able to move up to No. 3. That is their highest rank since week seven of the 2012 season, a season they concluded with a national runner-up finish. Of interest from a recent-history perspective: Adams State lost the RMAC title last year and went on to win the NCAA title.

Displaced to No. 4 were the Chico State Wildcats, despite winning their 13th CCAA title in a row.

GLVC champ Southern Indiana remained at No. 5.

Unlike their top-ranked male counterparts, the two-time defending women’s national champion No. 1 Grand Valley State women left no doubt of their No. 1 status en route to winning their 14th GLIAC title in a row in dominant fashion over four other teams currently ranked in the national top-25 and another receiving votes.

The No. 2 Adams State women also won the RMAC title, but in much different fashion than their men’s teammates. The Grizzlies cruised to an easy victory to quell many doubts raised by their sub-par Paul Short Run performance earlier this year, defeating now-rival No. 6 Western State along the way.

For the fifth week in a row, an NSIC team occupied the third spot in the poll, though this time it was the Augustana (S.D.) women, up four positions after barely edging former No. 3 Minnesota Duluth – now ranked No. 5 – in a tiebreak victory this past weekend.

Not only did the two teams tie, but they ran nearly identical races with their respective first-through-seventh runners separated by no more than three positions. The two teams will square off again at regionals in a week-and-a-half.

Somehow moving up a spot to No. 4 in between the two nearly-identical teams from the NSIC was CCAA champion Chico State.

Second Half of the Top-10 Just as Active

The Alaska Anchorage men stepped up a spot to No. 6 after winning the GNAC a week ago, while Augustana (S.D.) was boosted by the return of frontrunner Harald Karbo to a dominant NSIC title and a two-spot improvement to No. 7. Lock Haven remained steady at No. 8 with its PSAC title.

Dropping four spots into uncharted territory following a third-place RMAC showing were the No. 9 Western State men, well back of Adams State and Colorado Mines. Not since the turn of the new millennium have the Mountaineers been ranked so low.

Conversely, the Cal Poly Pomona men soared 11 spots to No. 10 with a runner-up finish to Chico State at the CCAA Championships. Having flown under the radar all year long – the Broncos did finish eighth at NCAAs a year ago, after all – Cal Poly Pomona is up to its highest rank of the 21st century, having been ranked as high as No. 11 in 2006.

Western State‘s women also took a tumble following its drubbing at the hands of rival Adams State, dropping two spots to No. 6 – its lowest rank since week 7 of the 2010 season. The good news? Despite that rank, the Mountaineers were national runners-up that year.

GLIAC runner-up Hillsdale was displaced a spot to No. 7 as Augustana moved up. Conference rival Wayne State (Mich.) made an 11-spot jump in a triumphant return to the top 10 following its close third-place finish behind the Chargers at GLIACs. The Warriors had been ranked No. 10 earlier this season before dropping into the 20s.

GNAC champ Simon Fraser dropped a spot to No. 9 to make room for Wayne State, while MIAA champ Missouri Southern climbed two spots to No. 10 for its first top-10 appearance since the 2010 preseason.

Why Move One or Two When You Can Move Four or More?

With so many top teams around the country going head-to-head with conference glory on the line, there were bound to be teams who stepped up to the occasion and had season-defining moments. And those that let the moment pass by.

Either way, it resulted in some significant moves. In addition to the four aforementioned top-10 teams, a total of 19 squads moved up (or down) four or more spots this week.

Most of those moves came from the women’s rankings.

Running without redshirted Joyce Kipchumba and cast aside in the rankings for much of the season, the Alaska Anchorage women have battled back. The Seawolves were runners-up in the GNAC to move up six spots to No. 13 this week.

Checking in just behind AA were the No. 14 Northern Michigan women, who fell four spots from last week with a fourth-place GLIAC finish. Despite being the 14th-best team in the country, the Wildcats improbably are in very real of danger of having their season end Nov. 22 at the Midwest Regional: NMU is the fifth-ranked team in a region that sends only four to NCAAs on December 6 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Likewise, No. 19 Saginaw Valley, No. 25 Lewis and vote-receiving Malone find themselves in similarly precarious situations.

No. 15 Winona State moved up eight spots with a third-place showing at NSICs, No. 16 Edinboro won the PSAC to slide up five spots, No. 18 Western Washington joined the poll with its third-place GNAC finish, and West Texas A&M went from outside the top 25 to No. 21.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cal Baptist dropped 11 spots into a three-way tie with Stonehill and Bloomsburg (new to the poll) at No. 25 following a disappointing PacWest performance, while former No. 9 UC San Diego, former No. 13 Malone and former No. 17 Metro State all dropped out of the top 25 altogether.

The men’s poll had its share of moves, too.

American International crushed the Northeast-10 field for its first conference title and a five-spot jump to No. 13, while UW-Parkside moved up six positions to No. 19 with a runner-up GLVC effort. Dropping out of the poll were former No. 13 UC San Diego, former No. 14 Hillsdale and former No. 22 Franklin Pierce.

Returning to the polls were the No. 23 Western Washington men in a tie with newcomer Neb.-Kearney (ranked nationally for just the second time in the past two season), and the No. 25 Stonehill men.

The No. 23 Cal Poly Pomona women joined the top 25 for the first time since the second week of the 2012 season, while No. 25 Bloomsburg is in for the first time since week six of that season.

The Division II National Championships will be held Saturday, December 6, in Louisville, Kentucky.