Big Changes Shake Up The Division III National Coaches’ Poll

By Tyler Mayforth, USTFCCCA

October 21, 2015

NEW ORLEANS – Did everyone catch their breath after this past weekend in NCAA Division III Cross Country? Good.
It was a whirlwind of action across the nation.
Want to know how intense it was? When the latest National Coaches’ Poll was released Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA), only 12 of the 70 teams that make up the men’s and women’s rankings remained in place from last week.
National PDFs: Week 6 Top 35 Summary | Week-by-Week 2015 | Week-by-Week All Time
Regional Rankings: Week 6 Summary | Week 6 RecapDivision III Rankings/Polls Homepage: Link

NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Men
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
UW-Eau Claire	Williams	North Central (Ill.)	St. Olaf	Amherst
View Complete Men’s National Coaches Poll

NCAA Division III National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Women
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Johns Hopkins	Williams	MIT	Tufts	Washington (Mo.)
View Complete Women’s National Coaches Poll

Two of those teams that stayed put were the top-ranked Johns Hopkins women and the top-ranked UW-Eau Claire men. While the Blue Jays rested their top runners this past weekend, the Blugolds dazzled with a 1-3-4 finish at the UW-Oshkosh AAE Invitational, which served as the Division III Pre-National Invitational.
Behind UW-Eau Claire, however, there is a new No. 2 team. Gone is Amherst College and in its place is Williams College, the team that beat the Lord Jeffs at the Little Three Championships last Saturday. Amherst tumbled behind No. 3 North Central (Ill.) and No. 4 St. Olaf College to No. 5 in this week’s poll.
The Williams College women are still No. 2 in the women’s poll and justifiably so after a dominant effort at the Little Three Championship (1-2-3-4-5-6). MIT (previous No. 4, now No. 3) and Tufts (previous No. 3, now No. 4) swapped spots behind the Ephs.
There are four total new additions to the top-10 of each poll as the St. Lawrence men moved up six spots from No. 13 to No. 10, the MIT men went from No. 12 to No. 10, the Willamette women went from No. 14 to No. 9 and the University of Chicago women jumped three spots (No. 13 to No. 10).
The UW-Stevens Point men had the biggest jump of the week, going from unranked – and not even receiving votes last week – into a tie for 11th. What led to the jump? Try a fourth-place team finish at the AAE Invitational. This is the Pointers’ highest ranking since they were seventh in Week 9 of 2010.
Not to be outdone, the TCNJ men rocketed from the Land of Receiving Votes to 18th and earned its best ranking since 2007.
There were three teams in total that jumped more than 10 spots – the Emory women (No. 27 to No. 14), the Keene State women (No. 31 to No. 15) and the Central (Iowa) men (No. 32 to No. 17).
Other than UW-Stevens Point and TCNJ, there are eight teams either new to the poll or returning to the poll after a brief absence. They are the NYU men (No. 21), the Elizabethtown men (No. 27), the Ramapo men (No. 30), the Oberlin men (No. 35), the Rochester (N.Y.) women (No. 25), the UW-Oshkosh women (No. 29), the TCNJ women (No. 34) and the Carnegie Mellon women (No. 35).
All of these teams have hopes of earning the right to compete at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships held Nov. 21 at the Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, Wisconsin.

USTFCCCA NCAA Division III
Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll
2015 Week #6 — October 21 (pre-conference)
next poll: November 4

Rank	Institution (FPV)	Points	Region	Conference	*Head Coach (Yr)**	Last Week
1	UW-Eau Claire (8)	280	Midwest	WIAC	Dan Schwamberger (9th)	1
2	Williams	265	New England	NESCAC	Pete Farwell (37th)	7
3	North Central (Ill.)	264	Midwest	CCIW	Al Carius (50th)	3
4	St. Olaf	260	Central	MIAC	Phil Lundin (8th)	4
5	Amherst	250	New England	NESCAC	Ned Nedeau (19th)	2
6	SUNY Geneseo	241	Atlantic	SUNYAC	Dan Moore (1st)	6
7	St. Lawrence	230	Atlantic	Liberty League	John Newman (15th)	13
8	UW-La Crosse	220	Midwest	WIAC	Derek Stanley (4th)	8
8	Haverford	220	Mideast	Centennial	Tom Donnelly (41st)	9
10	MIT	205	New England	NEWMAC	Halston Taylor (34th)	12
11	Claremont-Mudd-Scripps	190	West	SCIAC	John Goldhammer (32nd)	10
11	UW-Stevens Point	190	Midwest	WIAC	Rick Witt (37th)	NR
13	Wabash	181	Great Lakes	NCAC	Colin Young (1st)	11
14	Pomona-Pitzer	169	West	SCIAC	Tony Boston (8th)	16
15	Allegheny (Pa.)	168	Great Lakes	NCAC	Brent Wilkerson (6th)	17
16	Washington (Mo.)	157	Midwest	UAA	Jeff Stiles (15th)	5
17	Central (Iowa)	149	Central	IIAC	Joe Dunham (8th)	32
18	TCNJ	144	Atlantic	NJAC	Justin Lindsey (3rd)	RV
19	Bates	138	New England	NESCAC	Al Fereshetian (21st)	19
20	UW-Oshkosh	128	Midwest	WIAC	Eamon McKenna (4th)	14
21	NYU	126	Atlantic	UAA	Will Boylan-Pett (2nd)	NR
22	Carnegie Mellon	118	Mideast	UAA	Tim Connelly (1st)	15
23	Johns Hopkins	107	Mideast	Centennial	Bobby Van Allen (17th)	18
24	Augustana (Ill.)	99	Midwest	CCIW	Paul Olsen (50th)	23
25	Loras	86	Central	IIAC	Bob Schultz (11th)	26
26	Calvin	82	Great Lakes	MIAA	Brian Diemer (30th)	34
27	Elizabethtown	73	Mideast	Landmark	Brian Falk (5th)	RV
28	Wartburg	63	Central	IIAC	Steve Johnson (27th)	21
29	Wesleyan (Conn.)	56	New England	NESCAC	John Crooke (16th)	22
30	Ramapo	46	Atlantic	NJAC	Justina Cassavell (1st)	NR
31	Tufts	36	New England	NESCAC	Michael Schmidt (1st)	24
32	Willamette	26	West	Northwest	Matt McGuirk (12th)	33
33	St. Thomas (Minn.)	24	Central	MIAC	Pete Wareham (23rd)	30
34	RPI	18	Atlantic	Liberty League	John Lynch (5th)	28
35	Oberlin	16	Great Lakes	NCAC	Ray Appenheimer (10th)	NR
Also Receiving Votes: Hamilton 7, Ohio Northern 4, Colby 4
Dropped Out: No. 20 Ohio Northern, No. 25 UW-Platteville, No. 27 John Carroll, No. 29 Colby, No. 31 Hamilton, No. 35 Rowan
(* year as head coach of that team in men’s cross country, officially NCAA-recognized coach listed)

USTFCCCA NCAA Division III
Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll
2015 Week #6 — October 21 (pre-conference)
next poll: November 4

Rank	Institution (FPV)	Points	Region	Conference	*Head Coach (Yr)**	Last Week
1	Johns Hopkins (8)	280	Mideast	Centennial	Bobby Van Allen (17th)	1
2	Williams	272	New England	NESCAC	Pete Farwell (16th)	2
3	MIT	264	New England	NEWMAC	Halston Taylor (9th)	4
4	Tufts	253	New England	NESCAC	Kristen Morwick (16th)	3
5	Washington (Mo.)	251	Midwest	UAA	Jeff Stiles (15th)	5
6	SUNY Geneseo	239	Atlantic	SUNYAC	Dan Moore (1st)	6
7	Middlebury	229	New England	NESCAC	Nicole Wilkerson (5th)	7
8	Claremont-Mudd-Scripps	226	West	SCIAC	John Goldhammer (32nd)	8
9	Willamette	217	West	Northwest Conference	Matt McGuirk (12th)	14
10	Chicago	207	Midwest	UAA	Chris Hall (15th)	13
11	Hope	193	Great Lakes	Michigan Intercollegiate	Mark Northuis (28th)	10
12	Whitworth	184	West	Northwest Conference	Toby Schwarz (20th)	18
13	UW-La Crosse	177	Midwest	WIAC	Derek Stanley (4th)	17
14	Emory	175	South/Southeast	UAA	John Curtin (31st)	27
15	Keene State	168	New England	Little East	Tom Pickering (1st)	31
16	Carleton	165	Central	MIAC	Donna Ricks (23rd)	11
17	RIT	156	Atlantic	Liberty League	David Stevens (8th)	16
18	St. Lawrence	146	Atlantic	Liberty League	Mike Howard (17th)	9
19	SUNY Oneonta	134	Atlantic	SUNYAC	Angelo Posillico (6th)	12
20	Dickinson	121	Mideast	Centennial	Don Nichter (26th)	25
21	Brandeis	109	New England	UAA	Sinead Evans (2nd)	19
22	RPI	106	Atlantic	Liberty League	John Lynch (5th)	21
23	UW-Eau Claire	103	Midwest	WIAC	Dan Schwamberger (9th)	26
23	St. Thomas (Minn.)	103	Central	MIAC	Joe Sweeney (36th)	30
25	Rochester (N.Y.)	78	Atlantic	UAA	Eddie Novara (1st)	NR
26	Wellesley	75	New England	NEWMAC	Phil Jennings (3rd)	23
27	Haverford	70	Mideast	Centennial	Fran Rizzo (25th)	29
28	Calvin	65	Great Lakes	Michigan Intercollegiate	Brian Diemer (10th)	24
29	UW-Oshkosh	62	Midwest	WIAC	Eamon McKenna (1st)	NR
30	SUNY Cortland	50	Atlantic	SUNYAC	Steve Patrick (8th)	32
31	Cornell College	46	Central	Midwest Conference	Dan Schofer (10th)	35
32	Colby	37	New England	NESCAC	Deb Aitken (31st)	33
33	Swarthmore	26	Mideast	Centennial	Peter Carroll (16th)	20
34	TCNJ	14	Atlantic	NJAC	Justin Lindsey (3rd)	NR
35	North Central (Ill.)	12	Midwest	CCIW	Mahesh Narayanan (15th)	RV
35	Carnegie Mellon	12	Mideast	UAA	Tim Connelly (1st)	NR
Also Receiving Votes: St. Olaf 7, Case Western Reserve 7, Trinity (Texas) 1
Dropped Out: No. 15 Otterbein, No. 22 St. Olaf, No. 28 Amherst, No. 34 Allegheny (Pa.)
(* year as head coach of that team in women’s cross country, officially NCAA-recognized coach listed)