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N. Arizona and UTEP Make Big Gains in Men’s X-C Rankings

Posted October 16th, 2007 at 6:00 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Cross Country

The USTFCCCA Men’s Cross-Country Rankings for this week saw some big movements. Wisconsin dropped 4 places (from 2nd to 6th), Colorado dropped 2 places (from 3rd to 5th) and Northern Arizona moved all the way from 15th to 2nd on the strength of Lopez Lomong’s 1st place finish at the Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Oregon Ducks Top 10
1. Oregon
2. Northern Arizona
3. UTEP
4. Iona
5. Colorado
6. Wisconsin
7. North Carolina State
8. (tie) Arkansas
8. (tie) California
10. Michigan

Lomong, the 2007 winner of the NCAA men’s 1500m run, ran the 8k course in a blistering 23:02.3. Northern AZ won the blue race, beating Iona 124 to 136. That 2nd place finish allowed Iona to move up from 8th to 4th in the rankings.

UTEP relied on a team effort to catapult themselves from 20th to 3rd in the rankings, winning the team title in the White race and beating Colorado by 26 points, scoring 129 points to Colorado’s 155 points.

Josh McDougal of Liberty won the White Race, setting a course-record of 22:56.4. Liberty was not ranked.

California and Tulsa moved to 8th and 17 respectively with strong showings at Pre-Nationals. Neither team was ranked the previous week. Tulsa had not been previously ranked.

Oregon maintained their number one ranking from last week. They did so with a team victory and a near-perfect score of 16 (15 is perfect) at the Mike Hodges Invitational in Clackamas, OR.

The Big 12, Big East and Pac-10 were the best represented conferences, each with 4 teams in the top 30.

Biggest Gains:
8. California (Not Previously ranked)
17. Tulsa (Not Previously ranked)
26. BYU (Not Previously ranked)
30. Florida (Not Previously ranked)
11. Virginia +18
3. UTEP +17
2. Northern Arizona +13
10. Michigan +8

Biggest drops:
18. Oklahoma State -12
28. William & Mary -12
15. Stanford -10
23. Providence -9
21. Portland -8
13. Notre Dame -6
25. Arizona State -5
6. Wisconsin -4
12. Alabama -4
16. Georgetown -4