USTFCCCA National Coaches' Poll
HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's cross country team moved up one spot to No. 4 in the week six United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches (USTFCCCA) National Coaches Poll, the organization announced in a release on Wednesday afternoon.
The Fords have been in the top five all season long and picked up a spot after a fourth-place showing at the UW-Oshkosh Kollegetown Sports Invitational, the designated pre-national meet for the 2018 season. Haverford scored 144 total points, more than 100 points clear of fifth-place Pomona-Pitzer. Haverford picked up a total of 253 voting points, narrowly edging fifth-ranked Wisconsin-La Crosse, which picked up 252 voting points.
The top four teams in the poll represented the top four finishers at the pre-national meet, as North Central (Ill.), Washington-St. Louis, and Calvin are first through third in the ranking. One of the biggest movers in the poll is Centennial Conference foe Johns Hopkins. The Blue Jays won the Rowan Inter-Region Border Battle last weekend and are now ranked sixth in the nation, up four slots from a 10th place slot a week ago. SUNY Geneseo, Amherst, RPI, and Pomona-Pitzer round out the top ten.
In the regional rankings, the Fords again top the Mideast Regional, with No. 6 Johns Hopkins, No. 12 Carnegie Mellon, No. 24 Dickinson, and Stevenson rounding out the top five.
The Fords are now ramping up preparations for the Centennial Conference Championship on Saturday, October 27 at the Alumni Cross Country Course. Haverford will look to defend home turf for a fifth straight conference title. The women's championship race is slated to begin at 11 a.m. with the men's race to follow at noon. A combined open race is slated to begin at 12:45 p.m.
More information about the conference meet can be found at the Championship Central page here.