AMERICUS - The Georgia Southwestern women's cross country team enters its 2016 season picked to finish 12th of 13 teams in the Peach Belt Conference according to the recently released coaches' preseason poll.
GSW received one seventh-place vote, one eighth-place vote and three ninth-place votes en route to earning 32 points, three points behind 11th place Armstrong State University. The University of Montevallo holds the top spot in the 2016 poll, followed by North Georgia and UNC Pembroke.
The Lady Hurricanes return four of their top five runners from a year ago, including sophomore Savannah Ross, who posted GSW's fastest time at the conference championships last fall. Junior Ashleigh Owens led GSW in six of the team's seven races in 2015 and holds four of the top 10 fastest 5k times in school history. Sophomore Katherine McGarr was the Lady Hurricanes No. 3 runner in all six of the races she participated in. Youth prevails once again for GSW as the Lady Hurricanes do not have a senior on their roster.
GSW opens its 2016 campaign by hosting the Remembrance Run on Sept. 3, at the Sumter County Parks and Recreation Sports Complex in Americus. The women's race starts at 8:30 a.m.
The full coaches' poll is below. Teams were given 12 points for a first-place vote, 11 for a second and so on. Coaches were not permitted to rank their own teams.
Rank |
Team |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
5th |
6th |
7th |
8th |
9th |
10th |
11th |
12th |
Total |
| 1. | Montevallo | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 144 |
| 2. | North Georgia | 1 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 132 |
| 3. | UNC Pembroke | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| 4. | Flagler | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 98 |
| 5. | Augusta | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 97 |
| 6. | Columbus State | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 96 |
| 7. | Young Harris | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 91 |
| 8. | Georgia College | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 74 |
| 9. | Clayton State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 55 |
| 10. | USC Aiken | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 37 |
| 11. | Armstrong State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 35 |
| 12. | Georgia Southwestern | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 32 |
| 13. | Francis Marion | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 23 |