HOME OF BULLDOG CROSS COUNTRY- 11 Combined SCIAC Championships

Women’s, Men’s Cross Country Teams Receive Regional Preseason Honors

The University of Redlands men’s and women’s cross country teams ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, in the West Region, according to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) preseason rankings released yesterday. Every Tuesday during the season, the USTFCCCA will rank the top 10 teams in each region, and every Wednesday, it will assign national rankings. Eight regional representatives vote on the regional list.

Redlands’ women’s cross country team held the sixth-place ranking spot, sitting behind two other Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) teams, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges and Occidental College. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Occidental received regional rankings of third and fourth, respectively. The Bulldog men represented the seventh-ranked team in the West and also sat behind Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Occidental. Shoring up the second-place spot, the Stags ranked the highest of any SCIAC school in either gender’s rankings. Occidental ranked fourth while Pomona-Pitzer Colleges snuck in at the 10th-place spot on the list.

Returning four all-conference student-athletes, the women will turn to the largest contingent in Head Coach Aaron Olswanger’s tenure to vie for a team berth at the NCAA Championships. Olswanger’s women finished third in the SCIAC last season.

Coming off of a season where Chris Smith ’08 (Fremont, CA) qualified for the NCAA Championships, the Bulldogs field a young but talented squad that will rely on a bevy of underclassmen. In 2007, the men finished third in the SCIAC.