Malone Holds Strong as NAIA's No. 1 Men's Team
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - For the 24th consecutive week, Malone University (Ohio) sits alone on top of NAIA Men’s Cross Country Coaches’ Top 25 poll with the NAIA’s announcement of the first regular season rating on Wednesday. The Pioneers received all 22 possible first-place votes and earned 622 points. Rounding out the top five is No. 2 Aquinas College (Mich.), No. 3 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Fla.), No. 4 Simon Fraser University (B.C.) and No. 5 Concordia University (Neb.).
Two conferences, the American Mideast Conference and the Cascade Collegiate Conference, boast three ranked teams. Representing the American Mideast is Malone, No. 11 Cedarville University (Ohio) and No. 12 Shawnee State University (Ohio). No. 6 Concordia (Ore), No. 9 Southern Oregon University and No. 25 College of Idaho make the poll for the Cascade.
New to the first regular season poll from the preseason is No. 18 Bryan College (Tenn.), No. 19 Vanguard University (Calif.), No. 21 Azusa Pacific University (Calif.), No. 23 Oklahoma Christian University and No. 25 College of Idaho.
Behind Malone, the top five remains unchanged since the preseason poll on Aug. 26. Aquinas ranked second with 594 points and just nine points back is Embry-Riddle with 585 points at No. 3. Simon Fraser earned 555 points to hold steady at No. 4 and Concordia follows with 542.
The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences. The next poll will be released on Sept. 23.