Big Changes in Latest NCAA DII Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

NEW ORLEANS – While not quite as eventful as the NCAA DII Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll also unveiled Wednesday, the women’s top-25 had its fair share of big-time shakeups.

More than two-thirds of the teams in the women’s poll announced Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) came in with a different rank than a week ago, including three teams that joined the top-25 for the first time this season.

National PDFs: Top 25 Summary | Week-by-Week 2016 | Week-by-Week All-Time
Regional Rankings PDFs: Regional Rankings Summary | Rankings Recap

Division II XC Polls/Rankings Central | MEN’S POLL

NCAA Division II National Coaches’ Poll Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) GVSU Adams State Chico State U-Mary Western State View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

The winds of change didn’t howl quite as swiftly into the top-five, however, as Grand Valley State continued to sit atop the poll. The Lakers earned five first-place votes, with the remaining three cast in favor of defending national champion No. 2 Adams State.

Grand Valley’s 2016 debut at the Michigan State Spartan Invitational – led by winner and National Athlete of the Week Kendra Foley – was strong as the Lakers finished runner-up only to the host Spartans – but not strong enough to prevent one of GVSU’s first place nods from defecting to the idle Grizzlies.

Also holding steady to round out the top five were No. 3 Chico State, No. 4 U-Mary and No. 5 Western State.

After that is where the fun began.

Last week’s No. 6 Alaska Anchorage dropped 18 spots to No. 24 after a disappointing sixth-place showing in the open section of the Sundodger Invitational, opening the door for all sorts of poll movement in between.

Southern Indiana took the most immediate advantage, sliding up two spots to No. 6 and bypassing stationary No. 7 Hillsdale after topping the Chargers head-to-head at Michigan State.

No. 8 Western Washington stepped up two spots despite having not yet debuted their full scoring lineup, No. 9 Minnesota Duluth improved one spot, and No. 10 Stonehill improved three positions to round out the top 40 percent of the poll.

This marks Stonehill’s first top-10 appearance since a No. 7 mark in the 2004 preseason. The Skyhawks were the runners-up at the UMass Dartmouth Corsair invitational without former National Athlete of the Week Nicole Borofski suiting up.

Cedarville continued its national ascent this weekend, rising to a program-best No. 11 with a win at its home Friendship Invitational.

Also moving up three was No. 14 Dallas Baptist, which improved to its best rank since the 2009 Pre-Championships rankings after winning the University section of the Missouri Southern Stampede.

Dallas Baptist was followed immediately in the poll by this week’s top new addition, No. 15 Malone. The Pioneers finished an impressive seventh-place at Michigan State. Also new to the poll were No. 19 Bloomsburg and No. 25 Queens (N.C.). The latter is making its first top-25 appearance since the 2011 season.

Making the biggest jump of any team ranked top-25 a week ago was No. 18 Seattle Pacific, which improved six spots from last time.

See the full National Coaches’ Poll below.

The USTFCCCA National Coaches’ Poll for DII ranks the top 25 teams in the country. Voting panel of eight consists of the eight regional representatives, per gender.