As expected the results of last weekend's Pre-National and other cross country meetings had a massive impact on the collegiate polls.

John McDonnell's Arkansas men's cross country team remain atop in the latest United States Cross Country Coaches Association's (USCCCA) MONDO NCAA Division I poll released on Tuesday, 18th October.

The Razorbacks wowed the crowd in Fayetteville, Arkansas winning the Chile Pepper Invitational placing their top 5 runners in the top 16 places. Arkansas captured the team title with 57 points with Arizona (93), University of Texas El Paso (94) and Alabama (98) garnering the next three spots. Arizona dropped from # 6 to # 7 while UTEP rose from #11 to # 10 and Alabama leaped from unranked to # 20 in the polls.

Iona College went into the weekend ranked #8 and took a big hit after placing 9th in the White race at the Pre-National meet in Terre Haute, Indiana. Mick Byrne's Gaels find themselves in the 21st spot. Northeast Region rival Dartmouth placed 5th in the Blue race and moved from 22nd to 14th in the poll. Dartmouth replaced Iona in top spot in the Northeast Regional poll.

Byrne can't be too concerned as held out one his top runners Harbert Okuti (Arua, Uganda) who debuted at a dual meet this Tuesday and Irishman Andrew Ledwith looked strong in Indiana running 25.01 on the 8-kilometre course.

Ray Treacy's women's team went to into the Penn State meet rank #20 in the Finish Lynx NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Poll. Treacy's goal for the meet was to finish second behind top ranked Duke which meant beating the #18 ranked University of Tennessee. The Friars achieved their goal scoring 103 points with Tennessee in third with 120 points.

Duke solidified their hold on the #1 spot winning the Penn State Open team title with an amazing 27 points finish their top runners in the top 10 overall. Providence went from 20th to #16 in the recent poll.

The PC men's didn't fare so well placing 5th in the team event despite a 1-2 finish by Martin Fagan from Mullingar and Ahmed Haji. Treacy may still be searching the mountains of central Pennsylvania for his fifth man?

The Villanova team coached by Marcus O'Sullivan placed 26th in the team competition with 640 points in the Blue race at Pre-Nationals. The Wildcats are unranked nationally and dropped to #8 in the Mid-Atlantic Region poll after being as high as #4 on 27th September.

There will be a lull in competition as most collegiate cross country teams have this weekend off resting for next week's conference championships.