Viking squads remain in USTFCCCA D2 national top 30 in advance of Pre-Nationals...

NEW ORLEANS--The Western Washington men's (Paul Merca photo) and women's cross country teams dropped slightly from the previous week's USTFCCCA Division II national coaches' poll, but remain in the national top 30, according to the poll released Wednesday.

The Vikings remain in the top 20 at number 20 despite dropping three spots from last week's poll.

The top five men's teams in the national coaches' poll are in order: Colorado School of Mines, Adams State, Grand Valley State, Wingate, and Chico State.

Simon Fraser is the only other team from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference that is nationally ranked, as the Red Leafs are at number 22.

On the women's side, Western Washington dropped one spot to number 29 in the poll, as the only nationally ranked team from the GNAC.

Adams State, Grand Valley State, Colorado School of Mines, UC-Colorado Springs, and Augustana (South Dakota) are the nation's top five women's teams in Division II.

Expect some movement in the rankings after this Saturday's NCAA Pre-Nationals meet at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place, hosted by Seattle Pacific.

Among the nationally ranked men's teams entered Saturday include number 1 Colorado School of Mines, Chico State (No. 5), Western Colorado (No. 10), Western Washington (No. 20), Simon Fraser (No. 22) and Cal Poly Pomona (No. 25).

Joining number 3 Colorado School of Mines on the women's side with national rankings are Western Colorado (No. 11), Chico State (No. 12), Biola (No. 20) and Western Washington (No. 29).

All ten Great Northwest Athletic Conference schools will enter teams at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, which will also be a preview of the GNAC championship meet in two weeks in Monmouth, Oregon.

We will preview the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet later this week.

The USTFCCCA release is available here.

NOTE: The USTFCCCA and the sports information office of Seattle Pacific contributed to this report.

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