SSC Champs Move Up Two Spots in National Rankings
NEW ORLEANS - With the 2012 regular season complete, the University of Tampa women's cross country team is now No. 11 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national poll.
The Spartans opened the season at No. 15, and then spent two weeks at No. 12 before occupying the 13th-spot for the past four weeks.
UT is coming off its sixth-straight Sunshine State Conference championship and also has victories at the UT Early Bird Classic, USF Open and Jim Ryun Invitational. Tampa also finished fourth in a highly competitive UF Mountain Dew Invitational that featured predominantly NCAA Division I opponents.
Head coach Jarrett Slaven's squad closed the regular season with second-place finishes at both the Saint Leo and Florida State Invites, finishing behind Florida and Florida State respectively. At SLU and FSU, the Spartans outran a total of six NCAA Division I opponents.
Tampa's women have now been nationally-ranked for 65 consecutive weeks, a span dating back to the 2006 season.
Slaven's team also appears at No. 1 in the NCAA South Region, with his men coming in at No. 6. The men are coming off a third-place showing at the SSC Championships.
USTFCCCA Regional Cross Country Rankings are determined subjectively by a single member coach in each respective region. The regional representative is tasked with weighing returning team strength with current-season results in determining predicted team finishes at the NCAA Regional Championships.
UT now turns its focus to the 2012 NCAA Division II South Regional, which is scheduled for Nov. 3 in Huntsville, Ala.