Idle W&M Women's Cross Country Remains No. 22 In Latest FinishLynx Poll

Tribe Looks to Key Meet This Weekend

10/11/04 1:30PM

WILLIAMSBURG, VA - Defending CAA Champion William and Mary women’s cross country, idle this past week, remains ranked 22nd in this week's FinishLynx / NCAA Division I Women’s Cross Country National Poll. The Tribe had a week off after an impressive sixth in the Blue Race at the Notre Dame Invitational (beating two higher-ranked teams) but now prepares for another key meet as the Green and Gold will contest Penn State's National Invitational this Saturday, October 16. The field for the 6,000m race will include No. 2 Providence, No. 5 Duke, No. 24 West Virginia and No. 29 Boston College and offers the College another chance to showcase its strengths against top-ranked competition. The Tribe was the only program in the CAA or state of Virginia ranked.

Reigning CAA Coach of the Year Pat Van Rossum welcomed the ranking and anticipated another great opportunity this weekend to solidify the Tribe in the polls. "I'm pleased we're getting some recognition in the national poll," Van Rossum said, "and I do believe it's starting to be an accurate representation, since we've beaten UCLA (No. 25), Butler (No. 26), Georgetown (No. 28), Florida State (receiving votes) and Oklahoma (receiving votes) head-to-head this year. We're running against four top-30 teams at Penn State so we have another great opportunity to solidify our strength of schedule with our performance this weekend."

In addition to sending runners to Penn State, W&M will also host the Tribe Open in Williamsburg on October 16, with the women's race starting at 11:00 a.m.

Ranking Team (first place votes) Points
1. Stanford (12) 389
2. Providence (1) 378
3. Michigan 362
4. Colorado 341
5. Duke 331
6. Notre Dame 328
7. Arizona State 316
8. North Carolina 295
9. Tennessee 272
10. Missouri 256
11. Southern Methodist 247
12. Villanova 230
13. Brigham Young 226
14. Wake Forest 220
15. UC Santa Barbara 216
16. Baylor 189
17. Michigan State 183
18. Columbia 179
19. Georgia 168
20. North Carolina State 150.5
21. Arkansas 147
22. William & Mary 118.5
23. Idaho 109
24. West Virginia 97
25. UCLA 71
26. Butler 66
27. Texas Tech 49
28. Georgetown 42
29. Boston College 21
30. Marquette 17
Other Teams Also Receiving Votes: Virginia 8, Penn State 7, Colorado State 4, Florida State 4, Illinois 4, Oklahoma 3, Princeton 1.