By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA    November 2, 2015  

NEW ORLEANS – No region was left unaltered in the final set of 2015 NCAA Division I Cross Country Regional Rankings announced Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

With conference championships weekend in the rearview mirror, a number of teams are picking up steam as the all-important November 13 regionals approach, while others are picking up the pieces following disappointing conference showings.

These changes will all manifest themselves in the penultimate edition of the National Coaches’ Polls, which will be announced via live podcast on USTFCCCA.org Tuesday at noon ET.

Regional Rankings Summary PDF | Division I XC Rankings Central | All-Time (2010-)
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The Stanford men, NC State men and Oklahoma State women headline the first category as these rankings’ two new regional No. 1 squads, along with several other teams who boosted themselves into potential automatic NCAA Championships qualification territory as one of their regions’ top-two-ranked teams.

The NCAA Championships will be held in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 21.

Stanford, debuting its full “A” squad for the first time this season in a runner-up finish in the Pac-12, lived up to the potential it was ascribed with preseason West No. 1 and national No. 2 rankings. Behind Sean McGorty, Joe Rosa, Grant Fisher, Garrett Sweatt and Jim Rosa, the Cardinal finished runner-up to two-time defending national champion and national No. 1 Colorado, and beat former West leader Oregon, 46-57-83.

Consequently, Stanford rose six spots from No. 7 in the West, while Oregon dropped to No. 2 in the region.

NC State moved atop the men’s Southeast Region with a head-to-head win at the ACC Championships over formerly top-ranked Virginia, 95-115 (though both fell to Northeast No. 1 Syracuse). Led by seventh-placeGeorge Parsons and ninth-place Meron Simon, the Pack put four runners in the top-20.

Consequently, NC State moved up two spots to No. 1, pushing Virginia to No. 2 and Furman to No. 3 – outside of automatic qualifying territory.

Oklahoma State’s women also overcame their region’s top-ranked team in head-to-head competition this weekend, toppling Iowa State at the Big 12 Championships, 34-52, to seize control of the Midwest. Led by third-place Ingeborg Loevnes and fourth-place Kaela Edwards, the Cowgirls put five runners in the top-12 to win their first-ever Big 12 team crown.

Iowa State fell to No. 2 in the region.

Meanwhile, as those three teams did enough to move atop their respective regions, the Wisconsin men continue to free fall farther and farther down the Great Lakes rankings. With a disastrous eighth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships after two-time individual champ Malachy Schrobilgen dropped out of the race, the Badgers fell two spots to No. 6 in the region.

If this trajectory holds true and the Badgers fail to qualify for the NCAA Championships, it would be the first time a national meet has not included Wisconsin since 1972. That 43-year streak is the longest in the country; only Arkansas, Colorado and Notre Dame have overall appearance totals that surpass Wisconsin’s current consecutive-NCAAs streak. The Badgers have 54 team appearances overall.

In that same Great Lakes Region, Indiana was the only other team to move into automatic qualifying territory. The Hoosiers finished fourth at the Big Ten Championships to move past Michigan State into the region’s No. 2 spot behind Big Ten champ Michigan.

The lone new women’s No. 2 was American Athletic Conference runner-up SMU, which moved behind SEC champ Arkansas.

Moving up three spots to No. 3 in the South Central was Conference USA champ Rice – one of five new women’s and two more men’s No. 3s this week.

Rice was joined as a new women’s No. 3 by Villanova in the Mid-Atlantic, Utah in the Mountain, Yale in the Northeast, and Stanford in the West.

Both Georgia in the South and Washington in the West moved up to No. 3 for the men.

Making the biggest impressions of any men’s teams were No. 7 Saint Joseph’s in the Mid-Atlantic – up seven spots to No. 7 with an Atlantic-10 title – and No. 8 Rice in the South Central – joining the rankings after a fourth-place showing at the Conference  USA meet.

The No. 9 Richmond women were the biggest gainers of their gender’s rankings, moving up six spots in the Southeast after a one-point win over Duquesne for the Atlantic-10 title, 87-88.

New to the men’s rankings this week: Idaho State and Montana (Mountain); Stony Brook and Marist(Northeast); ETSU (South); Rice and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (South Central); Davidson (Southeast); andSt. Mary’s (Calif) and UC Davis (West).

Joining the women’s rankings this week were: Butler and Marquette (Great Lakes); La Salle (Mid-Atlantic);South Dakota (Midwest); Nevada (Mountain); South Alabama, Middle Tennessee and Jacksonville(South); Houston and Incarnate Word (South Central); Elon and Appalachian State (Southeast); and UC Santa Barbara and UCLA (West).

NCAA Division I Regional Championships will be held around the country on Friday, November 13 with the national meet occurring eight days later in Louisville, Kentucky.

USTFCCCA Regional Cross Country Rankings are determined subjectively by a single member coach in each respective region. The regional representative is tasked with weighing returning teams’ strength with current season results (if applicable) in determining predicted team finishes at the NCAA Regional Championships.