AROUND THE TRACK: Shuffling in USTFCCCA cross country rankings; Anderson moves to Phoenix...

There was some significant shuffling of the deck in the first regular season national collegiate cross country rankings that were released by the USTFCCCA on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In Division I, the University of Washington women's team dropped two spots to number 7 from its pre-season ranking of #5.  With the news that Megan Goethals (left/photo by Paul Merca) will miss the season with a season-ending stress fracture of her femur, the voters felt it necessary to drop the Dawgs.  Their drop was not significant, as the voters took Katie Flood's convincing win at Saturday's Sundodger Invitational into account.

In Division II, the Western Washington men's team took a hit from their pre-season #16 ranking, as they tumbled all the way out of the national top 25.

Western Washington and Central Washington will compete in Saturday's Erik Anderson Invitational in Spokane Valley, along with Washington State and Gonzaga.  The Erik Anderson meet serves as a preview of the course used for the NCAA Division II championships in November.

The Division I rankings are available here; Division II rankings are available here.

JESHUA ANDERSON MOVES TO ARIZONA

Lost in the shuffle between the end of the world championships and the start of the collegiate cross country season was a release by the World Athletics Center in Phoenix a few weeks ago announcing that Washington State alum Jeshua Anderson (left/photo by Paul Merca) will move there to train under coaches Dan Pfaff and Andreas Behm.

"With Dan Pfaff being there, Andreas Behm and John Godina, there is so much experience between all three of them. Dan Pfaff is like the guru. He was very excited for me to come out. After talking to the coaches I am excited to be out there training in the warm weather all year round."

Anderson, the 2011 USA and NCAA national champion in the 400 hurdles, trained in Pullman this past season, but felt that it was time to make a change.  He joins a training group that includes 110 high hurdles world record holder and Olympic champion Aries
Merritt in Phoenix.

You can read the release here.