TnfNorth CIS Cross Country Final Poll

(Information about voters: Andrew Maloney (Tulsa, Oklahoma), Chris Moulton (Guelph, Ontario), Stephen Gersten (Regina, Saskatchewan), Steve Weiler (London, Ontario), Adam Stacey (Moncton, New Brunswick), Mark Kitely (Toronto, Ontario), Robert Kitz (Halifax, Nova Scotia), John Lofranco (Montreal, Quebec), Adrian Lambert (Edmonton, Alberta))

CIS Cross Country Championships -- Saturday November 13, 2010 -- Universite de Sherbrooke -- Sherbrooke, Quebec

The University of Guelph swept the TnfNorth CIS Cross Country Final Poll coming off a dominating men's performance and a strong women's run at the OUA Championships with both teams gaining unanimous selection for the first time all season. If the Gryphons pull off the sweep, they will make history as the first men's team to win five consecutive CIS Cross Country Championships and the women will do the same by extending their streak to an unprecedented six years.

MEN'S NOTES: The Guelph men put on a clinic at the OUA meet, nearly posting a perfect score and putting four before Windsor's first runner. And the remarkable thing about the whole thing is that the Windsor team they humiliated is good -- very good in fact. Which takes a lot of the suspense out of the team championship but does perhaps shift the focus to the battle for third place between Victoria and Calgary. Victoria looked impressive at Oregon earlier in the season, while Calgary put 6 in the top-15 this past week at the Canada West Championship to capture the Stewart Cup. There is no sense in arguing about it -- the results will speak for themselves in three days time. Western Ontario could sneak onto the podium on a good day.

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WOMEN'S NOTES: Despite the unanimty of the TnfNorth voters picking Guelph to win the women's race, this race could still be won by McMaster on a good day although the deck seems stacked in the Gryphons favor. McMaster won early in the season when Guelph was holding key runners out and Guelph won at OUAs but not by a margin that would appear to be insurmountable two weeks later (unlike the men's race, which would appear to be a foregone conclusion unless a meteor strikes Sherbrooke Saturday morning). As in the men's race, Calgary and Victoria are battling for the third spot on the podium with rookie coach Steve Boyd's Queens team not far behind.