Edinboro Men and Shippensburg Women Tabbed Favorites on Cross Country Preseason Polls

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Lock Haven, Pa. – For the fifth straight season, Shippensburg has been picked the favorite to win the PSAC women’s cross country title, while Edinboro is the men’s favorite for the third consecutive season according to the PSAC cross country preseason polls conducted by the league’s head coaches.
 
The Fighting Scots were nearly unanimously given the top slot on the poll backed by 15 first-place nods. Edinboro’s All-American Bryan Deibel and 2012 PSAC Freshman of the Year Dominick Patrick return for the Scots as the team is in the hunt for its third-straight and 30th overall PSAC title. A year ago Edinboro clinched back-to-back NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Championship titles, and finished ninth in the national championship race, marking the highest finish for the program since finishing seventh in 2004.
 
The Lock Haven men’s squad clinched the final first-place vote. The Bald Eagles return 2011 and 2012 PSAC Athlete of the Year Alex Monroe. Monroe led Lock Haven to a second-place finish at the NCAA Atlantic Regional Championships in both 2011 and 2012.
 
The Shippensburg women earned 13 first-place votes, as the program is looking for its sixth-straight and eighth overall PSAC crown. A year ago, Shippensburg took the program’s fifth-straight NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Championship title and went on to place seventh at the NCAA D-II National Championship, marking its fourth top 10 national finish in the last five seasons.
 
Edinboro took second on the poll alongside three first-place votes. Edinboro’s second-place finish at the NCAA Atlantic Regional earned the Scots their first appearance in the NCAA National Championship since 2007. Sarah Krolick is a key returner for Edinboro, as the junior finished a team-best fourth overall at the PSAC Championship a year ago.
 
No. 3 IUP and No. 8 Mansfield earned the remaining two first-place votes. IUP finished third overall at the 2012 PSAC Championship and third at the Atlantic Regional. Mansfield returns Jess Scordino, who finished sixth at the 2012 Atlantic Regional to become the third Mansfield women’s runner to qualify for the NCAA National Championship.
 
Listed below are the PSAC men’s and women’s cross country preseason polls. First place votes are in parenthesis.
 
Men
1. Edinboro (15)
2. Lock Haven (1)
3. Slippery Rock
4. Shippensburg
5. East Stroudsburg
6. IUP
7. Kutztown
8. Seton Hill
9. California
10. West Chester
11. Mansfield
12. Mercyhurst
13. Bloomsburg
14. Gannon
15. Pitt-Johnstown
16. Cheyney
 
Women
1. Shippensburg (13)
2. Edinboro (3)
3. IUP (1)
4. Kutztown
5. Bloomsburg
6. Seton Hill
7. Slippery Rock
8. Mansfield (1)
9. California
10. East Stroudsburg
11. West Chester
12. Lock Haven
13. Clarion
14. Millersville
15. Gannon
16. Mercyhurst
17. Pitt-Johnstown
18. Cheyney