The 2010 LetsRun.com NCAA Cross-Country pre-season polls are out and the Stanford men and Villanova women are the top-ranked teams in the nation. The #1 spots should not be huge surprises to anyone, as Stanford was #1 heading into the NCAA meet last year and Villanova won the crown.
Men: Stanford Starts Out On Top
The Stanford men dominated much of the 2009 cross-country season and sat atop the men's rankings heading into nationals when disaster struck. Jason Dunn's squad basically did not show up and the Cardinal finished a shocking 10th. This year they have all of the top 7 back from our look at NCAA XC results (but 6 of 7 according to this article in the Stanford paper), including third-place finisher Chris Derrick. The one thing they have to get over is what Wisconsin used to face, the mental block of choking at nationals.
#2 on the men's side is defending national champ Oklahoma State. Dave Smith's squad should be led by German Fernandez. Fernandez won finished third at the Foot Locker high school XC national championships two years ago and won the NCAA 1,500m crown as a freshman but has struggled in XC in the collegiate ranks (despite finishing 11th at World Jr XC). Fernandez was only 97th at nationals last year, but was the key fifth man on OSU's national championship team. OSU has 4 of its top 7 back but loses 2 of its top 3 (Ryan Vail, 7th in team scoring last year, and John Kosgei, 11th). Colby Lowe and Fernandez no doubt will be strong up front.
Oregon has 6 of its top 7 back (we think AJ Acosta is back. How does this top 3 sound: Luke Puskedra, Matt Centrowitz and AJ Acosta?) and clocks in at #3. Northern Arizona got more first place votes than Oregon in the LRC poll, but the brand name of Oregon has them ahead of NAU.
The LetsRun.com fans poll has the same top 10 teams as the coaches' poll, but in different order, except for #10 Arkansas (Chris Fox's Syracuse team is #9 in the coaches' poll).
Stanford is a strong #1 in the LRC poll. While they are also #1 in the coaches' poll, in the coaches' poll, Oklahoma State actually got more first place votes than Stanford. The Cardinal should relish their #1 ranking in the LRC poll as last year, Oklahoma State was #1 in the first LRC poll of the year and they won it all (meanwhile, the coaches had Stanford #1 at the same time).
Villanova Primed To Repeat
It used to be when you thought of women's cross-country you thought of Villanova. Villanova won 6 national titles in a row from 1989 to 1994. Gina Procaccio's Villanova women got the school's first national title in 11 years last year and they are the heavy favorites to repeat this year. The Wildcats return 5 of their top 7 and four of their five scorers. That could be a curse, however, as the Washington women were heavy favorites last year and did not come out on top.
The Washington women got the second-most 1st place votes in the women's poll, but conference rival Oregon is the #2 team (yet the myth exists that Oregon is hated on LRC). Washington returns 6 5 of its top 7 from last year's team which was favored heading into nationals. (They lose NCAA runner up Kendra Schaaf who transferred to UNC). Oregon has 5 of its top 7 back from its 9th-place team. Florida State is a strong #4 in the LRC polls, and then there is a big drop off to #5 Colorado. Mark Wetmore's Buffaloes are only #13 in the national polls, but the LRC faithful love tradition and Mark Wetmore. Texas Tech is the biggest loser in the LRC poll, coming in at only #10 while they are #4 in the coaches' poll.
On both the men's and women's side, it should be an exciting year in the collegiate ranks, with a lot of teams with a lot of people back. See you in Terre Haute!
National and Conference Polls below.
LetsRun.com Men's Super Poll Results
1.
Stanford (69)
1402
2.
Oklahoma State (38)
1304
3.
Oregon (14)
1222
4.
Northern Arizona (24)
1041
5.
Colorado (1)
629
6.
Wisconsin (1)
624
7.
Alabama
397
8.
Portland
322
9.
Iona (3)
287
10.
Arkansas (4)
269
Others
receiving votes: 11. Syracuse 203 12. BYU 90 13. Virginia 90 14.
Villanova 87 15. Georgetown 72 16. Oklahoma 70 17. New Mexico 68 18.
Indiana 65 19. NC State 59 20. Arizona State 53 21. Duke 42 22. Texas 33
23. Minnesota 32 24. Notre Dame 32 25. Ohio State 30 26. Princeton 28
27. Arizona 28 28. Providence 27 29. Penn State 26 30. Florida State 24
31. Louisville 24 32. Butler 24 33. Michigan 24 34. Auburn 24 35. Iowa
State 23 36. Air Force 23 37. Washington State 19 38. Liberty 14 39.
American 13 40. Washington 13 41. Michigan State 13 42. Texas A&M 12
43. LaSalle 11 44. California 11 45. Cornell 11 46. Dartmouth 10 47.
Iowa 9 48. Duquesne 8 49. Tulsa 8 50. UTEP 7 51. Colorado State 6 52.
Kansas 6 53. Penn 5 54. Columbia 5 55. Missouri 5 56. UCLA 4 57. Lamar 3
58. Baylor 2 59. Southern Illinois 2 60. Florida 1 61. Virginia Tech 1
62. Wake Forest 1
LetsRun.com Women's Super Poll Results
1.
Villanova (63)
793
2.
Oregon (8)
693
3.
Washington (16)
673
4.
Florida State
526
5.
Colorado (2)
286
6.
Duke (1)
273
7.
Florida (1)
259
8.
Stanford
257
9.
Princeton
212
10.
Texas Tech (2)
197
Others
receiving votes: 11. Virginia 98 12. Georgetown 96 13. BYU 96 14. North
Carolina 72 15. West Virginia 61 16. Wisconsin 46 17. Minnesota 45 18.
Arkansas 37 19. Syracuse 37 20. Providence 35 21. Notre Dame 35 22. Iowa
State 32 23. Cornell 32 24. Brown 31 25. Michigan 28 26. Baylor 28 27.
Iona 28 28. Tennessee 27 29. Arizona State 27 30. Northern Arizona 27
31. Akron 24 32. Boston College 24 33. Iowa 24 34. Penn State 23 35.
Butler 22 36. Michigan State 21 37. New Mexico 20 38. Oregon State 19
39. Columbia 18 40. Texas A&M 18 41. SMU 17 42. UCLA 16 43. Indiana
15 44. Rice 15 45. Stony Brook 13 46. Alabama 13 47. Lamar 12 48.
Portland 12 49. Oklahoma State 11 50. Ohio 11 51. Georgia Tech 10 52.
Illinois 10 53. Boston University 9 54. Bucknell 9 55. UC Santa Barbara 8
56. Yale 7 57. LaSalle 7 58. NC State 7 59. Georgia 6 60. Missouri 6
61. Marquette 5 62. Wake Forest 4 63. Tulsa 3 64. Nebraska 2 65.
Vanderbilt 1 66. Colorado State 1
