KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Montana Tech's women's cross country got a treat for Halloween: a ranking in the NAIA's latest top 25 poll. The Orediggers checked in at No. 24, the NAIA office announced Thursday.
The Oredigger women raced to a ninth-place team finish out of 20 teams in the stacked NAIA Great Lakes Challenge field in Grand Rapids, Mich., over the weekend to bolster their résumé.
Alyssa Plant led the way for Tech, finishing 20th overall on her way to Frontier Conference runner of the week honors.
It's Montana Tech's first appearance in the national rankings since the preseason poll in August, when the Diggers checked in at No. 19.
Tech is one of just two Frontier teams ranked in the poll, joining No. 23 Rocky Mountain, which also leapt into the rankings this week.
Those two squads, along with the rest of the league, will race for the Frontier Conference championship Wednesday, Nov. 6 at Amend Park in Billings. The women's race begins at 1 p.m. with the men following at 1:45.
Rating Methodology:
- The rating is rated by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and unaffiliated groupings.
- The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each rater rates the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second place, 28 for third place and so on through the list.
- The highest and lowest ratings for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) are removed. The team's rating will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the team appears on.
- Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered "receiving votes".
NAIA Women's Cross Country Top 25 -- October 31, 2024
| RANK |
INSTITUTION [FIRST-PLACE VOTES] |
POINTS |
| 1 |
Taylor (Ind.) [14] |
555 |
| 2 |
Milligan (Tenn.) [3] |
536 |
| 3 |
Saint Mary (Kan.) [3] |
532 |
| 4 |
The Master's (Calif.) |
508 |
| 5 |
Montreat (N.C.) |
479 |
| 6 |
College of Idaho |
475 |
| 7 |
Cumberlands (Ky.) |
449 |
| 8 |
Dordt (Iowa) |
431 |
| 9 |
Grace (Ind.) |
414 |
| 10 |
Southern Oregon |
403 |
| 11 |
Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) |
369 |
| 12 |
SCAD Savannah (Ga.) |
352 |
| 13 |
Indiana Wesleyan |
351 |
| 14 |
Marian (Ind.) |
326 |
| 15 |
Kansas Wesleyan |
309 |
| 16 |
Cornerstone (Mich.) |
304 |
| 17 |
St. Francis (Ill.) |
261 |
| 18 |
Lewis-Clark State (Idaho.) |
247 |
| 19 |
Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) |
239 |
| 20 |
Benedictine (Kan.) |
202 |
| 21 |
SCAD Atlanta (Ga.) |
187 |
| 22 |
Mount Mercy (Iowa) |
157 |
| 23 |
Rocky Mountain (Mont.) |
154 |
| 24 |
Montana Tech |
141 |
| 25 |
Oklahoma City |
116 |
Dropped from the Top 25: Marian (Ind.), SCAD Atlanta (Ga.), Oklahoma City
Receiving Votes: Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) 94, Evangel (Mo.) 75, Goshen (Ind.) 75, Eastern Oregon 68, Ave Maria (Fla.) 34, Doane (Neb.) 32, Carroll (Mont.) 31, Aquinas (Mich.) 17, St. Mary (Neb.) 7, St. Francis (Ind.) 4, Dakota State (N.D.) 4
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