Husky women's team begin 2012 season ranked #2 in USTFCCCA poll; Cougar men #26...

NEW ORLEANS--The University of Washington women's cross country team (left/photo by Paul Merca), which finished in the runner-up position at last year's NCAA national championship meet, begin the 2012 season in the number two position in the USTFCCCA national pre-season Division I coaches' poll released Tuesday.

Though the Huskies garnered the most first place votes from the coaches' panel, the University of Oregon will begin the season ranked #1 with 345 points to the Huskies' 343 points.

Defending national champion Georgetown, which this week lost coach Chris Miltenberg to Stanford, where he took the director of track & field position, begins the season at number three.

The Cardinal will begin the season ranked #8 in the country.

On the men's side, Wisconsin was voted the #1 team in the country, winning ten of twelve first place votes, with Oklahoma State voted #2, and BYU ranked #3 in the pre-season poll.  The Portland Pilots are ranked #7 by the panel of coaches.

Colorado at #5 and Stanford at #9 are the only Pac-12 schools ranked in the top ten.

Oregon is ranked #22, while Washington State, which returns most of their squad from last year's team that went to nationals, but lost coach Pete Julian Monday when he took a position as Alberto Salazar's assistant at the Nike Oregon Project, will begin the season ranked #26.

The Huskies begin their 2012 campaign Friday with the SeattleU/UW Open meet at Magnuson Park in Seattle at 4 pm, while the Cougars will face Idaho, Gonzaga, Eastern Washington, and Whitworth Saturday at Mead, just outside of Spokane, starting at 10 am.

The USTFCCCA release and complete rankings are available here.

NOTE:  The USTFCCCA contributed to this report.