The Mustang women are ranked 23rd and the men are 24th in the NAIA preseason cross country polls.

Morningside’s men’s and women’s cross country teams are both nationally ranked in the NAIA Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Head Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Polls.

The Mustangs are ranked 23rd in the women’s preseason poll and 24th in the men’s preseason poll.

Morningside returns six of the seven runners, including the top five finishers, from a team that placed 25th at last year’s NAIA Women’s Cross Country National Championship. The Mustangs are led by two-time All-Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) performer Tiffany Shepherd, a senior from Corning, Iowa, while Morgan Applegarth, a sophomore from Lincoln, Neb., and Michelle Mumm, a junior from Neola, Iowa, were also All-GPAC runners last season.

The Mustang men return three of the seven runners who competed in last year’s NAIA Men’s Cross Country National Championship, where they finished 29th. Morningside lost its top runner in four-time All-GPAC performer Mark Abrams, but returns an all-conference runner in Alex Janssen, a junior from Crofton, Neb.

Morningside is one of three teams from the GPAC in the NAIA Women’s Cross Country Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll. Four-time defending GPAC champion Dordt College is ranked seventh and Hastings College is ranked 20th.

Northwestern College is ranked 18th and is the only other GPAC school in the NAIA Men’s Cross Country Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll.

Morningside’s cross country teams will open the 2016 season at the Augustana University Twilight Meet on Friday, Sept. 2, in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Click here for the complete NAIA Men’s Cross Country Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll.

Click here for the complete NAIA Women’s Cross Country Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll.