THE CONNING TOWER by Keith Conning: Last Regular-Season DII Women’s National Poll Sets Up Exciting Postseason

Thursday, October 13, 2016

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

By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA

October 12, 2016

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-TimeRegional 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.

USTFCCCA NCAA Division II
Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll
2016 Week #5 — October 12
next poll: October 26

Rank	Institution (FPV)	Points	Region (CR)	Conference	*Head Coach (Yr)**	Last Week
1	Adams State (8)	200	South Central	RMAC	Damon Martin (29th)	1
2	Grand Valley State	192	Midwest	GLIAC	Jerry Baltes (18th)	2
3	U-Mary	182	Central	NSIC	Dennis Newell (11th)	3
4	Western State	175	South Central	RMAC	Jennifer Michel (10th)	4
5	Minnesota Duluth	167	Central	NSIC	Joanna Warmington (6th)	6
6	Cedarville	160	Midwest	G-MAC	Jeff Bolender (7th)	7
7	Southern Indiana	148	Midwest	GLVC	Mike Hillyard (20th)	8
8	Cal Baptist	145	West	PacWest	Ben Gall (5th)	9
9	Chico State	137	West	CCAA	Gary Towne (21st)	4
10	Northern Michigan	127	Midwest	GLIAC	Jenny Ryan (10th)	11
11	UC-Colorado Springs	116	South Central	RMAC	Corey Kubatzky (2nd)	12
12	Hillsdale	115	Midwest	GLIAC	Andrew Towne (6th)	10
13	Stonehill	105	East	Northeast-10	Karen Boen (19th)	13
14	Alaska Anchorage	96	West	GNAC	Michael Friess (27th)	RV
15	Dallas Baptist	84	South Central	Heartland Conference	Jacob Phillips (12th)	16
16	Point Loma Nazarene	64	West	PacWest	Jerry Arvin	NR
17	Fort Hays State	62	Central	MIAA	Jason McCullough (12th)	NR
18	Malone	58	Midwest	G-MAC	Jack Hazen (26th)	17
19	Montevallo	45	Southeast	Peach Belt	Julia Marquardt (4th)	19
19	Simon Fraser	45	West	GNAC	Brit Townsend (17th)	NR
21	CSU-Pueblo	36	South Central	RMAC	Matt Morris (4th)	21
22	Shippensburg	32	Atlantic	PSAC	Steve Spence (19th)	22
23	Southwest Baptist	31	Central	MIAA	Corey McElhaney (9th)	23
24	UC San Diego	27	West	CCAA	Nate Garcia (10th)	14
25	Seattle Pacific	13	West	GNAC	Karl Lerum (4th)	18
Also Receiving Votes: Lewis 11, Colorado Mines 8, Walsh 7, Saint Leo 7, Pittsburg State 4, Queens (N.C.) 1
Dropped Out: No. 15 Western Washington, No. 19 Pittsburg State, No. 24 Augustana (S.D.), No. 25 Saint Leo
(* year as head coach of that team in women’s cross country, officially NCAA-recognized coach listed)