Last Regular-Season DII Women’s National Poll Sets Up Exciting Postseason

NEW ORLEANS – With conference championships in NCAA Division II Women’s Cross Country looming just two weekends away, the last National Coaches’ Poll of the regular season has been released.

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) Adams State GVSU U-Mary Western State Minnesota Duluth View Complete Women’s National Coaches’ Poll

Defending national champion Adams State remained the unanimous favorite in the poll announced Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), while Grand Valley State remained the consensus No. 2 team in the country.

No. 3 U-Mary and No. 4 Western State held steady.

Coming off a disappointing weekend at UC San Diego where they finished second behind Point Loma, the Wildcats of Chico State dropped five spots to No. 9 – opening the door for a number of teams to move up.

Minnesota Duluth rose one spot to No. 5, as did No. 6 Cedarville, No. 7 Southern Indiana and No. 8 Cal Baptist. The marks for Cedarville and Cal Baptist are the highest in program history.

Rounding out the top-10 was Northern Michigan, which improved one spot from last time.

Three conference championships will feature pairs of national top-10 teams. The RMAC Championships will pit No. 1 Adams State and No. 4 Western State against one another, the NSIC Championships will feature No. 3 U-Mary against No. 5 Minnesota Duluth, and the GLIAC Championships will see No. 2 GVSU and No. 10 Northern Michigan square off.

Rejuvenated by the 2016 debut of All-American Joyce Chelimo, No. 14 Alaska Anchorage returned to the top-25. The Seawolves won the women’s competition at Western Washington. No. 19 Simon Fraser also returned to the poll after a third-place finish in that same meet.

Two teams went from not even receiving votes to spots in the top-25 in No. 16 Point Loma Nazarene and No. 17 Fort Hays State.

This is the first-ever top-25 appearance for Point Loma, while Fort Hays State is also at an all-time program best and ranked for the first time since 2007.

See the full 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.