Middlebury Women Shake Up Division III National Coaches Polls’ Top 10

NEW ORLEANS – Behind an upset of two top-five squads over the weekend, the Middlebury women jumped to No. 3 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division III National Coaches Polls released Wednesday to cause something of a top-10 shuffle.

NATIONAL PDFs: National Summary | Week-by-Week | All-Time Week-by-Week
REGIONAL PDFs: Regional Summary | Week-by-Week | Division III XC Rankings Central

Six of the top ten spots in the women’s poll are occupied by different teams from a week ago after Middlebury’s jump from No. 8 to No. 3, while only one spot changed in the men’s poll as No. 2 UW-La Crosse pulled out of a tie with Haverford, which dropped to No. 3.

WOMEN

NCAA DIVISION III NATIONAL COACHES POLL TOP 5 – WOMEN
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Johns Hopkins	Wartburg	Middlebury (+5)	MIT (-1)	Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
View Complete Women’s National Coaches Poll

With four runners among the first eight finishers, Middlebury edged out a strong field featuring then-top-five MIT and Williams for the team crown at the Purple Valley Classic at Williams this past weekend. MIT was displaced one spot to No. 4, while Williams fell two spots from No. 4 to No. 6.

The Panthers now only trail unanimous No. 1 Johns Hopkins and No. 2 Wartburg on the national list. Johns Hopkins finished eighth as a team at the mostly Division I Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown at Boston College, while Wartburg earned a dominant team victory at the Roy Griak Invitational Suzy Wilson Women’s Maroon III race behind five runners in the top 21 places.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps remained stationary at No. 5.

No. 7 Chicago and No. 8 Calvin were each knocked down one spot by Williams’ slide to No. 6, while No. 9 Trinity (Texas) stood pat from a week ago. St. Lawrence swapped spots with Oberlin to No. 10 and No. 11, respectively.

A runner-up finish in the Griak Maroon III race boosted Bates 10 spots to No. 14 — the highest mark in program history.

New to the poll this week were National Athlete of the Week Chelsea Johnson and No. 22 St. Scholastica, No. 23 Aurora and No. 30 Colby. Both St. Scholastica and Aurora are ranked for the first time in their respective program histories.

MEN

NCAA DIVISION III NATIONAL COACHES POLL TOP 5 – MEN
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
North Central (Ill.).	UW-La Crosse	Haverford (-1)	Washington (Mo)	MIT
View Complete Men’s National Coaches Poll

All is quiet at the top of the men’s poll, where only Haverford moved after dropping out of a tie at No. 2 with UW-La Crosse — though the two remain separated by only two votes.

UW-La Crosse and National Athlete of the Week David Stilin turned in a strong runner-up showing against a mainly Division II field in the Griak’s Maroon II men’s race. Stilin led the way with a 10th-place overall finish while the rest of the Eagles’ top five came through within the top 32 places.

Haverford put two finishers among the top 14 at its home Main Line Invitational against No. 27 Villanova and Penn of Division I.

North Central (Ill.) remained the unanimous No. 1, while Washington (Mo.) and MIT stayed put at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. MIT took care of business at the Williams Purple Valley Classic over No. 9 Williams, which also remained in the same spot as a week ago.

Rounding out the top 10 were No. 6 Bowdoin; No. 7 UW-Eau Claire, champions of the Griak Maroon III race; No. 8 Dickinson; No. 9 Williams and No. 10 St. Olaf.

Lurking right outside the top 10 is NYU, which turned in a strong showing at the Dickinson Long and Short Invitational to jump seven spots to No. 11.

Other big gainers included No. 16 Chicago up nine spots and No. 21 Carleton up eight spots.

New to the poll are No. 27 Wartburg and No. 33 St. Thomas. Wartburg joins the polls for the first time since the middle of last season, while St. Thomas has waited since the 2011 preseason to make its return trip.

The 2013 NCAA Division III National Championships will be contested November 23 in Hanover, Ind.

USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION III
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY NATIONAL COACHES’ POLL
2013 Week #3 — October 2
next poll: October 9
Rank	Institution (FPV)	Points	Region	Conference	Head Coach (Yr*)	Last Week
1	North Central (Ill.) (8)	280	Midwest	CCIW	Al Carius (48th)	1
2	UW-La Crosse	269	Midwest	WIAC	Derek Stanley (2nd)	2
3	Haverford	267	Mideast	Centennial	Tom Donnelly (39th)	2
4	Washington (Mo.)	254	Midwest	UAA	Jeff Stiles (13th)	4
5	MIT	249	New England	NEWMAC	Halston Taylor (32nd)	5
6	Bowdoin	234	New England	NESCAC	Peter Slovenski (28th)	6
7	UW-Eau Claire	232	Midwest	WIAC	Dan Schwamberger (7th)	7
8	Dickinson	219	Mideast	Centennial	Don Nichter (24th)	8
9	Williams	215	New England	NESCAC	Peter Farwell (35th)	9
10	St. Olaf	212	Central	MIAC	Phil Lundin (6th)	10
11	NYU	201	Atlantic	UAA	Nick McDonough (16th)	18
12	Wabash	187	Great Lakes	NCAC	Roger Busch (8th)	12
13	UW-Oshkosh	181	Midwest	WIAC	Eamon McKenna (2nd)	16
14	Bates	174	New England	NESCAC	Al Fereshetian (19th)	11
15	SUNY Cortland	161	Atlantic	SUNYAC	Steve Patrick (6th)	15
16	Chicago	153	Midwest	UAA	Chris Hall (13th)	25
17	Carnegie Mellon	151	Mideast	UAA	Dario Donatelli (21st)	16
18	Claremont-Mudd-Scripps	134	West	SCIAC	John Goldhammer (30th)	22
19	Johns Hopkins	121	Mideast	Centennial	Bobby Van Allen (15th)	20
20	Pomona-Pitzer	114	West	SCIAC	Tony Boston (6th)	19
21	Carleton	111	Central	MIAC	Dave Ricks (7th)	29
22	Calvin	106	Great Lakes	Michigan Intercollegiate	Brian Diemer (28th)	13
23	Middlebury	102	New England	NESCAC	Nicole Wilkerson (3rd)	23
24	UW-Platteville	101	Midwest	WIAC	Tom Antczak (21st)	20
25	Tufts	93	New England	NESCAC	Ethan Barron (9th)	14
26	Rochester	87	Atlantic	UAA	John Izzo (14th)	27
27	Wartburg	77	Central	IIAC	Steve Johnson (25th)	RV
28	Allegheny (Pa.)	75	Mideast	NCAC	Brent Wilkerson (4th)	24
29	Augustana (Ill.)	57	Midwest	CCIW	Paul Olsen (48th)	28
30	St. Lawrence	40	Atlantic	Liberty League	John Newman (13th)	30
31	Central (Iowa)	38	Central	IIAC	Joe Dunham (6th)	32
32	Manchester	36	Great Lakes	HCAC	Brian Cashdollar (16th)	26
33	St. Thomas (Minn.)	24	Central	MIAC	Pete Wareham (21st)	NR
34	UW-Stevens Point	18	Midwest	WIAC	Rick Witt (35th)	31
35	SUNY Geneseo	15	Atlantic	SUNYAC	Mike Woods (22nd)	34
Others Receiving Votes: Amherst 11, Loras 7, Case Western Reserve 5, Occidental 5, Susquehanna 5, Keene State 4, Centre 3, Wheaton (Ill.) 2, Grinnell 1, Rowan 1
Dropped Out: No. 33 Wheaton (Ill.), No. 35 Case Western Reserve
(* 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
2013 Week #3 — October 2
next poll: October 9
Rank	Institution (FPV)	Points	Region	Conference	Head Coach (Yr*)	Last Week
1	Johns Hopkins (8)	280	Mideast	Centennial	Bobby Van Allen (15th)	1
2	Wartburg	269	Central	IIAC	Steve Johnson (25th)	2
3	Middlebury	266	New England	NESCAC	Nicole Wilkerson (3rd)	8
4	MIT	255	New England	NEWMAC	Halston Taylor (7th)	3
5	Claremont-Mudd-Scripps	242	West	SCIAC	John Goldhammer (30th)	5
6	Williams	238	New England	NESCAC	Peter Farwell (14th)	4
7	Chicago	236	Midwest	UAA	Chris Hall (13th)	6
8	Calvin	224	Great Lakes	Michigan Intercollegiate	Brian Diemer (8th)	7
9	Trinity (Texas)	217	South/Southeast	SCAC	Derick Lawrence (2nd)	9
10	St. Lawrence	204	Atlantic	Liberty League	Mike Howard (15th)	11
11	Oberlin	203	Great Lakes	NCAC	Ray Appenheimer (8th)	10
12	Tufts	191	New England	NESCAC	Kristen Morwick (14th)	18
13	SUNY Geneseo	184	Atlantic	SUNYAC	Mike Woods (22nd)	13
14	Bates	170	New England	NESCAC	Jay Hartshorn (9th)	24
15	Carleton	169	Central	MIAC	Donna Ricks (21st)	12
16	NYU	165	Atlantic	UAA	Nick McDonough (7th)	17
17	UW-La Crosse	156	Midwest	WIAC	Derek Stanley (2nd)	14
18	Dickinson	142	Mideast	Centennial	Don Nichter (24th)	15
19	St. Olaf	133	Central	MIAC	Chris Daymont (33rd)	16
20	Hope	124	Great Lakes	Michigan Intercollegiate	Mark Northuis (26th)	19
21	Ithaca	121	Atlantic	Empire 8	Erin Dinan (2nd)	21
22	St. Scholastica	115	Central	UMAC	Steve Pfingsten (22nd)	RV
23	Aurora	94	Midwest	NACC	Ryan Chapman (6th)	NR
24	Elizabethtown	92	Mideast	Middle Atlantic	Brian Falk (6th)	23
25	Haverford	82	Mideast	Centennial	Fran Rizzo (23rd)	27
26	Washington (Mo.)	77	Midwest	UAA	Jeff Stiles (13th)	25
27	Willamette	75	West	Northwest Conference	Matt McGuirk (10th)	26
28	Luther	56	Central	IIAC	Yarrow Pasche (9th)	22
28	Vassar	56	Atlantic	Liberty League	James McCowan (9th)	29
30	Colby	50	New England	NESCAC	Deb Aitken (29th)	NR
31	Case Western Reserve	43	Great Lakes	UAA	Kathy Lanese (16th)	30
32	Amherst	31	New England	NESCAC	Cassie Funke-Harris (2nd)	28
33	Marywood	21	Mideast	Colonial States	Kevin Borrelli (6th)	31
33	UW-Stevens Point	21	Midwest	WIAC	Megan Craig (5th)	20
35	Whitworth	17	West	Northwest Conference	Toby Schwarz (18th)	33
Others Receiving Votes: Kenyon 9, Emory 8, SUNY New Paltz 2, Centre 1, St. Benedict 1
Dropped Out: No. 32 Emory, No. 33 St. Benedict, No. 35 Kenyon
(* year as head coach of that team in women’s cross country, officially NCAA-recognized coach listed)