By Tyler Mayforth, USTFCCCA                    October 19, 2015

NEW ORLEANS – After an exciting, hectic and intense weekend in Division I Women’s Cross Country, there are three new top-ranked teams in the Regional Team Rankings as released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

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Mississippi State, Penn State and Virginia all jumped into the driver’s seat of their respective regions following a strong performance at either last Friday’s Wisconsin adidas Invitational or last Saturday’s Pre-National Invitational.

With eight top-30 teams in women’s championship race at Pre-Nats, it would have been easy to overlook the Bulldogs just because they weren’t among that octet. Well, Mississippi State put four of those ranked teams on notice, including No. 7 Georgetown. The Bulldogs finished fifth in the team standings – four points behind No. 9 Stanford – thanks to the talented duo of Marta Freitas (12th) and Rhianwedd Price (14th). Mississippi State jumped from No. 4 in the South Region to No. 1.

The Cavaliers had one of the best days out of anybody not named New Mexico or Arkansas at the adidas Invitational. Virginia packed three runners inside the top-30 and finished a comfortable third in the team standings. The Cavaliers went from No. 2 to No. 1 in the Southeast Region, supplanting previous No. 1 North Carolina State.

Like Virginia, the Nittany Lions were rewarded for their efforts this past weekend in Madison, Wisconsin. Penn State (formerly No. 2 in the Mid-Atlantic Region) swapped spots with the Hoyas (formerly No. 1) following a 10th-place finish. Penn State, led by Tori Gerlach (32nd), put three of its runners in the top-75.

Outside of those new No. 1s, six teams remained firmly atop its respective regions – Arkansas (South Central), Iowa State (Midwest), Michigan (Great Lakes), New Mexico (Mountain), Oregon (West) andProvidence (Northeast).

Now don’t think for a second there wasn’t movement elsewhere in the top-15 of each region. In fact, 89 other teams – including 11 new additions to the rankings – had their standing affected by this past weekend’s action.

To break it down further, 10 teams moved four or more spots in either direction.

• Great Lakes Region: Wisconsin fell from No. 2 to No. 6 following a disappointing effort at its home meet;Ohio went from No. 15 to No. 11.
• Mid-Atlantic Region: Duquesne surged from No. 13 to No. 9.
• Midwest Region: Kansas, led by Sharon Lokedi’s breakout performance at Pre-Nats (fourth overall) jumped from No. 10 to No. 4.
• Mountain Region: Air Force went from No. 11 to No. 7.
• Northeast Region: Yale climbed from No. 11 to No. 6; Cornell tumbled from No. 3 to No. 9.
• South Region: Southern Miss went from No. 13 to No. 9; Georgia slid from No. 9 to No. 14.
• South Central Region: Second-ranked Texas fell to No. 8.
• West Region: Arizona State went from No. 6 to No. 10.

Here are those 11 new additions by region.

• Great Lakes: No. 13 Western Michigan, No. 14 Miami (Ohio), No. 15 Oakland.
• Midwest Region: No. 11 Illinois State.
• Mountain Region: No. 13 Texas Tech, No. 14 Utah Valley.
• Northeast Region: No. 15 Quinnipiac.
• South Region: No. 10 North Florida.
• South Central Region: No. 12 UTSA.
• Southeast Region: No. 15 Richmond.
• West Region: No. 12 Loyola-Marymount.

Many of these teams will take the weekend off in preparation for the upcoming conference championships happening in two weeks.

Following that, however, all of these teams will be in action at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Regional Championships held across the country on Nov. 13.

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.