Willamette Women's Cross Country Advances to #15 in NCAA Poll

By Eric Spresser, Student Assistant Athletics Communications Director

SALEM, Ore. -- The Willamette University women's cross country team has advanced to #15 in the NCAA Division III National Coaches' Poll after starting the season off with an impressive second place finish in the Ash Creek Invitational at Western Oregon University this past weekend.

The women opened the season ranked #16 in the nation and were able to jump up a spot after beating NCAA Division I opponent University of Portland along with six NCAA Division II teams. Chico State from NCAA Division II won the meet.

Willamette is one of two Northwest Conference representatives rated in the top 35. Whitworth University's women fell three spots down to #35.

Johns Hopkins University (Md.), the defending national champion in women's cross country, is at #1 in the latest poll released by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) with 280 points after receiving all eight first place votes. Still ranked #2 this week is Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 272 points.

SUNY Geneseo (N.Y.) is third in the poll with 264 points while St. Lawrence University (N.Y.) sits at #4 with 252 points and Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) rounds out the top five with 249 points.

Also ranked in the top 10 of the women's national poll are Williams College (Mass.) at #6 with 242 points, Middlebury College (Vt.) at #7 with 231 points, Hope College (Mich.) at #8 with 224 points, Calvin College (Mich.) at #9 with 216 points, and University of Chicago (Ill.) at #10 with 207 points.

On the men's national poll, North Central College (Ill.), the defending men's champion, is ranked #1 with all eight first place votes and 280 points. St. Olaf College (Minn.) is listed at #2 with 268 points, while Amherst College (Mass.) is #3 with 266 points.

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire holds the #4 spot at 256 points and rounding out the top 5 is MIT, which jumped two spots to #5 from its preseason ranking of #7. MIT has 246 points in this week's poll.

The Willamette women's team did not change from its preseason ranking in the West Region and is still ranked #2. Willamette's men also held their position in the West Regin rankings at #3.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) heads up the West Region women's rankings. After Willamette at #2, the rankings include Whitworth at #3, Colorado College at #4 and University of California, Santa Cruz at #5. Joining the Bearcats from the NWC is Pacific Lutheran at #8, and Whitman College at #10.

In the West Region men's rankings, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps is #1, with Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.) at #2 and Willamette at #3. University of Puget Sound is ranked #4 and Occidental College (Calif.) is listed at #5. Other NWC teams ranked in the West Region are Whitman at #6, Whitworth at #7 and Lewis & Clark College at #9.

Willamette's next competition is the 41st Annual Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational hosted by the Bearcats here in Salem's Bush Pasture Park. Th meet is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. (PDT) on Saturday, Oct. 3.