First Regular-Season NCAA DI Men’s National Coaches’ Poll Announced

By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA

September 13, 2016

NEW ORLEANS – The first two weekends of the NCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country season are in the books. And while they didn’t produce any seismic shifts in the first regular-season National Coaches’ Poll, there were plenty of changes down the poll.
Preseason favorite and defending national champion Syracuse not only reprised its No. 1 position in the poll announced Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), but the Orange also captured all 12 first-place votes for the first time this season.
No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Northern Arizona, No. 4 Stanford and No. 5 Colorado rounded out the top five, all in the same positions as the preseason. In fact, each of the top-nine teams held steady from last time.
National PDFs: Summary | Week-by-Week 2016 | Week-by-Week All Time
Regional Rankings: Summary | Recap
WOMEN’S NATIONAL POLL

NCAA Division I National Coaches Poll Top 5 – Men
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Syracuse	Oregon	Northern Arizona	Stanford	Colorado
View Complete Men’s National Coaches Poll

Syracuse had claimed 11 of the 12 first-place nods in the preseason, with the lone remaining vote cast in favor of Oregon. The Ducks didn’t earn an FPV this week, but they did remain No. 2.
Cuse ran without its frontrunning duo of Justyn Knight and Colin Bennie, but still looked deep en route to a convincing win at the Penn State Harry Groves Spiked Shoe behind transfer Iliass Aouani, Philo Germano and Joel Hubbard.
Oregon will mark the start of its 2016 campaign this weekend at its home Bill Dellinger Invitational, which could likely see the 2016 debut of three-time reigning champ Edward Cheserek. The senior would be beginning his quest to become the first man in DI history to win four cross country titles..
No. 3 Northern Arizona, like Syracuse, ran without its top runners but still looked strong this weekend at Indiana State – the site of the 2016 NCAA Championships on November 19. Without Futsum Zienasellassie or Tyler Day, the Lumberjacks still managed a decisive win over a short-handed No. 18 Michigan squad behind a 1-2 finish from Matthew Baxter and Corey Glines.
No. 4 Stanford debuted two weekends ago at San Francisco with a conservative early-season tempo run. Top returners Sean McGorty and Grant Fisher did not compete for the Cardinal.
No. 5 Colorado made a similarly conservative debut at the Colorado State Invitational.
Remaining steady from last week were No. 6 Arkansas, No. 7 Georgetown, No. 8 Washington, and No. 9 Eastern Kentucky. Oklahoma State replaced now-No. 11 Wisconsin at No. 10.
Of the back half of the top-10, EKU posted the strongest performance of this early season with a big win at the Kentucky Bluegrass Invitational behind National Athlete of the Week Erick Rotich. The Colonels were also running without projected scorers All-American Jaime Escriche and Jakob Abrahamsen.
While only one team in the top-10 swapped spots from the preseason, the bottom two-thirds of the poll saw only three teams hold their spots from two weeks ago.
Making the biggest upward move was No. 27 NC State, which jumped up three spots from last time. No. 13 Virginia and No. 20 Mississippi both moved up two spots.
Heading in the opposite direction were No. 28 Louisville, No. 23 Furman and No. 15 UTEP. That trio fell four, three and two spots, respectively.

USTFCCCA NCAA Division I
Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll
2016 Week #1 — September 13
next poll: September 20

Rank	Institution (FPV)	Points	Region (CR)	Conference	*Cross Country Coach (Yr)**	Last Week
1	Syracuse (12)	360	Northeast (1)	ACC	Chris Fox (12th)	1
2	Oregon	338	West (1)	Pac-12	Robert Johnson (5th)	2
3	Northern Arizona	327	Mountain (1)	Big Sky	Eric Heins (10th)	3
4	Stanford	322	West (2)	Pac-12	Chris Miltenberg (5th)	4
5	Colorado	311	Mountain (2)	Pac-12	Mark Wetmore (22nd)	5
6	Arkansas	304	South Central (1)	SEC	Chris Bucknam (9th)	6
7	Georgetown	261	Mid-Atlantic (1)	Big East	Brandon Bonsey (!st)	7
8	Washington	248	West (3)	Pac-12	Greg Metcalf (15th)	8
9	Eastern Kentucky	242	Southeast (1)	Ohio Valley	Rick Erdmann (38th)	9
10	Oklahoma State	234	Midwest (1)	Big 12	Dave Smith (11th)	11
11	Wisconsin	221	Great Lakes (2)	Big Ten	Mick Byrne (9th)	10
12	Iona	200	Northeast (3)	Metro Atlantic	Ricardo Santos (9th)	12
13	Virginia	196	Southeast (2)	ACC	Peter Watson (5th)	15
14	BYU	191	Mountain (4)	West Coast	Ed Eyestone (17th)	13
15	UTEP	180	Mountain (3)	Conference USA	Paul Ereng (14th)	13
16	Indiana	177	Great Lakes (1)	Big Ten	Ron Helmer (10th)	17
17	Boise State	172	West (4)	Mountain West	Corey Ihmels (4th)	16
18	Michigan	147	Great Lakes (3)	Big Ten	Kevin Sullivan (3rd)	18
19	Oklahoma	140	Midwest (2)	Big 12	Jim VanHootegem (1st)	19
20	Providence	131	Northeast (2)	Big East	Ray Treacy (33rd)	21
20	Mississippi	131	South (1)	SEC	Ryan Vanhoy (4th)	22
22	Portland	111	West (5)	West Coast	Rob Conner (27th)	23
23	Furman	101	Southeast (4)	Southern	Robert Gary (5th)	20
24	Colorado State	70	Mountain (6)	Mountain West	Art Siemers (5th)	25
25	Southern Utah	66	Mountain (5)	Big Sky	Eric Houle (25th)	26
26	Tulsa	65	Midwest (3)	American	Steve Gulley (15th)	27
27	NC State	57	Southeast (3)	ACC	Rollie Geiger (39th)	30
28	Louisville	55	Southeast (5)	ACC	Dale Cowper (4th)	24
29	Penn	53	Mid-Atlantic (2)	Ivy	Steve Dolan (5th)	28
30	Michigan State	44	Great Lakes (4)	Big Ten	Walt Drenth (13th)	29
Others Receiving Votes: Washington State 32, Illinois 26, Florida State 21, Texas 13, Iowa State 11, Columbia 10, UCLA 5, Princeton 4, Villanova 3, Minnesota 1
Dropped out: (none)
Win-loss record reflective of results in varsity competition versus DI opponents starting September 25; records in () are results against ranked teams.
( year as effective coach of that team in men’s cross country), CR – Coaches’ Regional Ranking*