DALLAS -- After sweeping the CUSA Cross Country Championships, Middle Tennessee was picked to repeat as conference champions, as voted on by the league’s 10 head coaches. The Blue Raiders received six first-place votes in each poll after collecting their fourth men’s title and fifth women’s title in 2023.
Following a score of 69 points at the 2022 CUSA XC Championships, the MTSU men scored 37 points at the 2023 Conference Championship, finishing 3-4-5-6. Middle Tennessee returns senior
Vincent Yegon, who earned a fourth-place finish at Conference, and junior
Brian Kiptoo, who finished in fifth place behind Yegon.
Last season, the MTSU women scored 52 points at CUSA Championships. The Blue Raider women bring back sophomore
Eleanor Towe, 2023 CUSA Freshman of the Meet, and senior
Faith Nyathi, who came in third in last year’s race.
Liberty came in second in the polls after earning the runner-up team titles last season. The Flames earned six first place votes behind MTSU. The Flames earned the remaining four first-place votes in the men’s preseason poll and a pair of first-place nods in the women’s preseason poll. This season, the Flames return two star seniors:
Nicholas Kiprotich, CUSA’s seventh-place conference finisher, and
Adelyn Fairley, CUSA’s second-place conference finisher.
Entering its first year in the conference, Kennesaw State was picked third in the women’s preseason poll, including a first-place vote, and sixth in the men’s preseason poll.
The 2024 cross country season is set to start Aug. 30, for five CUSA institutions. All gearing up for the CUSA Cross Country Championship, hosted by Jax State in Jacksonville, Ala., on Nov. 2.
CUSA XC Preseason Polls
Men’s XC Preseason Poll
1. MTSU (6) 78
2. Liberty (4) 76
3. UTEP 59
4. NM State 50
5. Sam Houston 49
6. Jax State 37
Kennesaw State 37
8. WKU 25
9. FIU 24
10. LA Tech 15
Women’s XC Preseason Poll
1. MTSU (6) 77
2. Liberty (2) 73
3. Kennesaw State (1) 55
4. UTEP (1) 54
5. FIU 52
6. NM State 44
7. Jax State 37
8. Sam Houston 28
9. WKU 21
10. LA Tech 9