Southern Oregon's Ryan Sorenson (left) and Ryan Ghelfi have helped the Raiders achieve the highest cross country rating in SOU history -- No. 1.
SOU Overtakes Malone for No. 1 XC Ranking
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Southern Oregon University has moved to No. 1 in the
NAIA men's cross country coaches' Top 25 poll, the NAIA announced Wednesday. The Raiders, achieving the highest cross country ranking in school history, snapped Malone University's (Ohio) streak of 29 consecutive weeks in the top spot.
Behind Southern Oregon is No. 2 Malone and Aquinas College (Mich.) at No. 3. Concordia University (Neb.) and University of British Columbia held steady at No. 4 and 5, respectively.
Southern Oregon is coming off a team title at the NCAA Division I Oregon State Beaver Classic, the Raiders' fourth title in four competitions this season.
“I’m kind of shocked and surprised,” SOU second-year head coach Brent Ericksen said. “But it’s a great honor, you always want to be considered the best in your sport. Now we need to go out and earn the honor and the only way to do that is at nationals.”
This year's national championship meet will be held Nov. 21 at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, Wash.
Three other CCC programs are in the Top 25 or receiving votes -- College of Idaho moved up one spot to the No. 11 position, Eastern Oregon climbed one spot to the No. 21 position, and Concordia totaled 66 points in the balloting to rank 27th.
In the NAIA women's cross country Top 25, also released Wednesday, CCC member College of Idaho remained in the No. 6 position. Eastern Oregon jumped four spots to the No. 19 poll position. Concordia totaled 56 points for 28th place. Southern Oregon's women's team received nine points.
Malone's men's team earned 12 first-place votes and tallied 576 points, four behind Southern Oregon, to rank second. The Pioneers had previously been ranked No. 1 for 29 consecutive weeks dating back to Aug. 22, 2007.
Aquinas moves up to No. 3 after spending last week at No. 6. The jump follows a first-place finish out of 21 teams at the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge Cross Country Invitational on Oct. 24. The Saints were previously ranked as high as No. 2 in the first four polls of the 2009 season.
Not only was there a shakeup among the top-three spots, but 15 other teams changed position in the seventh edition of the national poll. Wayland Baptist (Texas) was the week's biggest mover, going from No. 25 to 15. The Pioneers finished second with 126 points, just one point shy of the team title, at the NAIA Mid-States Classic on Oct. 24. Also gaining ground in the poll was Bryan (Tenn.), improving eight spots to No. 8 and Simon Fraser (B.C.) climbing seven spots to No. 10.
All of this week's movement was not positive, with previously third-ranked Embry-Riddle (Fla.) falling back nine spots to No. 12 and McKendree (Ill.) slipping from No. 11 to 19. Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) and Westmont (Calif.) each fell back seven places, to No. 16 and 24, respectively.
No. 14 Shorter (Ga.), No. 17 Cedarville (Ohio) and No. 22 California Baptist replace Vanguard (Calif.), Doane (Neb.) and Cornerstone (Mich.), all of which dropped out of the ranks this week.
Four conferences, American Mideast Conference, Association of Independent Institutions, Cascade Collegiate Conference and Sooner Athletic Conference, are represented by three nationally ranked teams.