By USTFCCCA Communications, USTFCCCA
October 29, 2025  
NEW ORLEANS – A close rivalry no longer appears so in the Week 4 edition of the 2025 NJCAA Division II Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll, which was released Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
This is the final set of rankings before the 2025 NJCAA Division II Cross Country Championships, which will be held at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Saturday, November 8.
National Coaches’ Polls are presented by AthleticNET.
NJCAA Division II — Women’s Cross Country
This Week’s National Top Five
1
Mesa (Ariz.) CC
2
Paradise Valley (Ariz.) CC
3
Wallace State-Hanceville (Ala.) CC
4
Muskegon (Mich.) CC
5
Daytona State (Fla.)
Cross Country Polls & Rankings
The
top-2 teams in last year’s NJCAA DII Championships were Mesa (Ariz.) CC and Paradise
Valley (Ariz.) CC, and for the fourth-straight poll those same programs
occupy the top two positions. However, the season hasn’t been as simple as that
– they haven’t always been in that order and they were once even tied for No.
1.
Still,
Mesa at No. 1 is understandable – the Thunderbirds return four from last year’s
squad and their top runner this year is one of the nation’s best in freshman
Olivia Baker, who won the Region 1 title by nearly 20 seconds over the PVCC duo
of Audrey Encinas and Laynee Hollech. The Pumas will be looking for its DII
title since 2003 and its first of any kind since winning DI in 2004.
No.
3 Wallace State (Ala.) CC is the
only team to have broken up the Mesa-PVCC logjam, having been No. 2 in the
preseason poll. The Lions were dominant in winning the Region 22 Championships
with 21 points, 49 ahead of the nearest team. Freshman Brookelyn Morgan led the
way with a 17.9-second margin of victory. Wallace State has been in the top-8
in each year since the rebirth of DII in 2020, topped by a fourth-place finish
last year.
No.
4 Muskegon (Mich.) CC has been a
mainstay in this year’s top-5 and looks to make its first-ever top-10 finish in
the nationals – their previous high of 12th was in 2020, when the
meet was last held in Fort Dodge. Led by individual runner-up Tatum Dykstra, the
Jayhawks won the Region 12 Championships, which features seven other teams in
the rankings.
Daytona State (Fla.)
matches its season-high at No. 5, but some think that is still too low as the
Falcons ventured up north two weeks ago and finished ahead of Muskegon at their
own Jayhawk Invitational. Daytona State
was a clear winner in the Region 8 Championships as individual runner-up Emma
Turner led five Falcons in the top-8. Daytona’s best nationals finish is sixth
in 2023.
Completing
the top-10 are No. 6 Des Moines Area
(Iowa) CC, No. 7 Grand Rapids
(Mich.) CC, No. 8 St. Clair County
(Mich.) CC, No. 9 NorthWest Arkansas
CC and No. 10 Mott (Mich.) CC.
