First Regular-Season NCAA DI Men’s National Coaches’ Poll Announced
By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA
September 13, 2016
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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
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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 |
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