LCSC men are ninth, women 12th in preseason
cross country poll

8-22-07 

The Lewis-Clark State College men's cross country team is ranked No. 9, while the women’s team comes in at No. 12 in the 2007 NAIA preseason polls, which were released on Wednesday. 

Both Warrior teams finished No. 21 in the national meet a year ago. LCSC returns several key performers from a year ago, especially on the men’s side, and coach Mike Collins enjoyed a strong recruiting year to give both teams a boost. 

“Our men will definitely have a target on their backs this season,” Collins says. “We enter with the highest preseason rating we have ever had, the second highest overall rating ever. and based on the ratings, we are the favorite in the region.  Pretty high compliments by the raters to have put us in this position, and now we will have to back it up.” 

The Warriors are the top-ranked Region I team in the poll. Albertson comes in at No. 14, Eastern Oregon at No. 17, and Simon Fraser is No. 19. 

“I am always a little skeptical of the preseason ratings because nobody has raced yet and all of the processes that go into it are done on paper,” Collins says. “The season could easily unfold very differently that what the raters would predict with the preseason polls.  We are one of six teams from Region I that received votes and the defending champion is not there (Concordia University) and I don’t think you can count them out either. 

“I know we should be a good team this year and have the talent level on the team to be a Top 10 team and our workouts to this point have been the best I have ever seen, but we have to do it in the races.  We are very excited to see what happens when the Warrior singlets get pulled on and the shoes are laced up.” 

The Warrior women are the No. 3 team in Region I as four-time defending champion University of Simon Fraser is the No. 1 team in the poll and the University of British Columbia is No. 9.  

“I am a little surprised by our rating on the women’s side of being ranked No. 12,” Collins says.  “That’s a pretty generous rating if you asked me.  We finished 21^st last year, but return a large number of those runners along with some new gals that will definitely play a role, but I did not figure to get much higher than maybe 15 or 16 if we were lucky.  I think this says a lot for the history of our program and the confidence that the other raters have in the potential of our team to perform at a level that will take them back to nationals for the seventh consecutive time.” 

The Warriors kick off the season on Sept. 1 at the Whitman Invitational in Walla Walla. 

“Our work is cut out for us, but I have no doubt that both teams will be doing everything possible to qualify for nationals and represent the institution well,” Collins says.