KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Montana Tech women's cross country team held serve at No. 17 in the final NAIA coaches' top 25 poll of the regular season, the national office announced Thursday afternoon. 

The Orediggers ran well Saturday at the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge, besting three other ranked squads to finish seventh in the largest NAIA-only meet of the season. 

The highest-ranked Frontier Conference team in the poll, No. 20 Carroll joined the Orediggers in the rankings while Rocky Mountain and Dakota State both received votes. 

Montana Tech, the defending Frontier champions, will head to Billings to defend that title on Friday, November 7. If they do so, the Orediggers will earn the Frontier's automatic bid to the NAIA national meet later in November in Tallahassee, Fla. 

A panel of 18 coaches representing each of the NAIA's conferences votes in the periodic ballot. Teams' highest and lowest ratings are removed from their rankings calculations.  

The next set of the NAIA cross country coaches' polls will be announced November 11 ahead of the championship meet.

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