Women's Cross Country | 09/26/24 | 1:17 PM
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has released the first regular season NAIA Men's and Women's Cross Country Coaches' Top 25 . The Carroll College Men's Cross Country team checks in at No. 20, while the Women appear at No. 19 in the season's first rankings.
Both the Carroll Men and Women are off to great starts in their respective quests for their fourth and fifth consecutive Frontier Conference Cross Country Championships.
Each team has an individual champion through the handful of early season events already ran. Hailey Watkins (Dillon, Mont. / FR) won the twice-moved Tony Banovich Invitational, which was eventual run with a condensed field in Billings. Zack Gacnik (Conifer, Colo. / JR) won the Montana Invitational in Missoula last week, and both sides are performing well through three races.
Both Watkins and Gacnik have Frontier Runner of the Week honors under their belts.
The Carroll Men, dealing with some injuries, slid back five spots from their preseason ranking, now sitting at No. 20 in the first regular season poll.
The Carroll Women have vaulted into the Top-20, sitting at No. 19 in the poll after appearing in the receiving votes category of the preseason poll.
Both the Men and Women are the highest-ranked teams in the Frontier Conference, with only Rocky Mountain College as the other member-school appearing in the Top-25 (Men 25, Women 23).
Rating Methodology:
- The rating is rated by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and unaffiliated groupings.
- The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each rater rates the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place, 28 for third-place and so on through the list.
- The highest and lowest ratings for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) are removed. The team's rating will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the team appears on.
- Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered "receiving votes".
NAIA Men's Cross Country Coaches' Poll
| RANK |
LAST TIME |
INSTITUTION [FIRST-PLACE VOTES] |
FINAL POINTS |
| 1 |
1 |
Milligan (Tenn.) [19] |
569 |
| 2 |
6 |
The Master's (Calif.) [2] |
532 |
| 3 |
2 |
Saint Mary (Kan.) |
530 |
| 4 |
5 |
College of Idaho |
512 |
| 5 |
3 |
Cumberlands (Ky.) |
507 |
| 6 |
8 |
Taylor (Ind.) |
486 |
| 7 |
4 |
Indiana Wesleyan |
450 |
| 8 |
7 |
Eastern Oregon |
426 |
| 9 |
9 |
Dordt (Iowa) |
414 |
| 10 |
11 |
Oklahoma City |
373 |
| 11 |
25 |
Rio Grande (Ohio) |
372 |
| 12 |
10 |
Montreat (N.C.) |
366 |
| 13 |
13 |
Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) |
349 |
| 14 |
12 |
Doane (Neb.) |
336 |
| 15 |
14 |
Kansas Wesleyan |
303 |
| 16 |
16 |
Aquinas (Mich.) |
256 |
| 17 |
18 |
Spring Arbor (Mich.) |
242 |
| 18 |
17 |
St. Francis (Ill.) |
231 |
| 19 |
19 |
Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) |
216 |
| 20 |
15 |
Carroll (Mont.) |
207 |
| 21 |
RV |
Grace (Ind.) |
196 |
| 22 |
RV |
Campbellsville (Ky.) |
169 |
| 23 |
22 |
Corban (Ore.) |
154 |
| 24 |
20 |
Shawnee State (Ohio) |
140 |
| 25 |
RV |
Rocky Mountain (Mont.) |
99 |
Dropped from Top 25: Goshen (Ind.), Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), Marian (Ind.)
Receiving Votes: Goshen (Ind.) 76, Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) 71, Cornerstone (Mich.) 59, Concordia (Neb.) 49, UC Merced (Calif.) 43, Marian (Ind.) 28, IU East (Ind.) 22, Northwest (Wash.) 9, Southern Oregon 6, Saint Xavier (Ill.) 2, Cumberland (Tenn.) 2
NAIA Women's Cross Country Coaches' Poll
| RANK |
LAST TIME |
INSTITUTION [FIRST-PLACE VOTES] |
FINAL POINTS |
| 1 |
2 |
Milligan (Tenn.) [8] |
492 |
| 2 |
1 |
Saint Mary (Kan.) [4] |
487 |
| 3 |
3 |
The Master's (Calif.) [3] |
478 |
| 4 |
4 |
Taylor (Ind.) [4] |
477 |
| 5 |
5 |
Cumberlands (Ky.) |
444 |
| 6 |
6 |
College of Idaho |
422 |
| 7 |
8 |
Montreat (N.C.) |
400 |
| 8 |
7 |
Dordt (Iowa) |
393 |
| 9 |
11 |
Southern Oregon |
368 |
| 10 |
10 |
St. Francis (Ill.) |
350 |
| 11 |
16 |
Grace (Ind.) |
323 |
| 12 |
12 |
Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) |
322 |
| 13 |
15 |
SCAD Savanah (Ga.) |
294 |
| 14 |
14 |
Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) |
285 |
| 15 |
9 |
Indiana Wesleyan |
281 |
| 16 |
13 |
Huntington (Ind.) |
243 |
| 17 |
17 |
Cornerstone (Mich.) |
242 |
| 18 |
RV |
Kansas Wesleyan |
196 |
| 19 |
RV |
Carroll (Mont.) |
196 |
| 20 |
18 |
Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) |
194 |
| 21 |
24 |
Aquinas (Mich.) |
163 |
| 22 |
25 |
Mount Mercy (Iowa) |
130 |
| 23 |
22 |
Rocky Mountain (Mont.) |
122 |
| 24 |
NR |
SCAD Atlanta (Ga.) |
104 |
| 25 |
20 |
Concordia (Neb.) |
93 |
Dropped from Top 25: Montana Tech, Benedictine (Kan.), Missouri Baptist
Receiving Votes: Montana Tech 68, Marian (Ind.) 65, Oklahoma City 64, Eastern Oregon 37, Doane (Neb.) 36, Saint Mary (Neb.) 20, Benedictine (Kan.) 19, Campbellsville (Ky.) 13, Cumberland (Tenn.) 11, Missouri Baptist 10, William Woods (Mo.) 5, Dalton (Ga.) 4, Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) 3, UC Merced (Calif.) 3, St. Francis (Ind.) 2
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