NEW ORLEANS – The Eastern Kentucky University men’s cross country team achieved its highest national ranking ever on Tuesday, as the Colonels came in at No. 13 in the most recent U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) NCAA Division I national poll.
The surging Colonels earned the new ranking after finishing ninth out of 45 teams at the loaded Wisconsin Adidas Invitational this weekend in Madison. EKU defeated 12 nationally-ranked teams at the event, including three of the top-10 teams in the country in Wisconsin (No. 1), Portland (No. 6) and Syracuse (No. 10).
Sophomore Ben Toroitich led EKU on Friday, finishing 10th out of 316 competitors and covering the 8K course in 23:36. Junior Soufiane Bouchikhi was not far behind in 13th-place with a time of 23:39. Junior Wade Meddles (97th / 24:16) and sophomores Thijs Nijhuis (121st / 24:24) and Ole Hesselbjerg (138th / 24:27) rounded out EKU’s scoring five at the meet.
“I’m pleased for the team and happy with the effort they’ve given this year,” head coach Rick Erdmann said of the ranking. “However, you strive and strive to reach a certain level, and once you reach it, you suddenly become the target. We’ll have some pretty high-level programs in our region and around the country aiming for us now.”
EKU, which remains the top-ranked team in the Southeast Region, is now positioned just ahead of the likes of Florida State (No. 14), UCLA (No. 15), Syracuse (No. 16) and Duke (No. 18) and just behind the likes of Texas (No. 7), Oregon (No. 8), Arkansas (No. 9), Michigan (No. 11) and New Mexico (No. 12). The Colonels are the fourth-highest ranked team east of the Mississippi River, trailing only Iona (No. 4), Columbia (No. 10) and Michigan.
Following a hectic weekend in college cross country, Oklahoma State usurped the top spot from Wisconsin, while Colorado and Stanford round out the new top-three teams in the country.
Historically, EKU’s ranking is significant because it is the highest ranking in program history and the highest USTFCCCA ranking ever by a current Ohio Valley Conference school.
The Colonels’ previous highest national ranking was No. 17, which they reached last October.
After qualifying for the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the first time in program history last season, EKU will be looking to make a return trip this November. The top two schools from each region, as well as 13 at-large schools, advance to the NCAA Championships, which will be held at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park in Louisville for the first time this fall.
The Southeast Region Championships, meanwhile, will be held on Friday, November 9 at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, N.C.
First, however, the EKU men will seek their seventh straight conference title at the OVC Cross Country Championships in Jacksonville, Ala. on Saturday, October 27.