GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The Fighting Sioux women's cross country team was picked to finish third in the 2011 Great West Conference preseason poll in a vote of the league's head coaches.
UND received one first-place vote and 37 total points. Preseason favorite Utah Valley, the three-time defending GWC champion, received the other six first-place votes and topped the poll with 46 points. Texas-Pan American was picked second with 40 points.
The Sioux, under head coach Dick Clay, finished third at last year's conference championship behind individual medalist and GWC Athlete of the Year Lindsay Anderson (Sr., Leeds, N.D.). Although Anderson is redshirting this season, UND also returns fellow senior and All-GWC first-team performer Emily Emerson (Lino Lakes, Minn.).
UND has already competed in a pair of events this season, splitting duals with South Dakota State and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville at the UND Ron Pynn Invitational, and going 1-2 in duals with Eastern Illinois, Southern Illinois, and Evansville at the EIU Walt Crawford Invitational.
The Sioux are back in action tomorrow at the University of Nebraska's Woody Greeno Invitational.
2011 GWC Preseason Poll
1. Utah Valley (6), 46 pts.
2. Texas-Pan American, 40 pts.
3. North Dakota, 37 pts.
4. Seattle, 31 pts.
5. Houston Baptist, 21 pts.
6. NJIT, 14 pts.
7. Chicago State, 7 pts.
~ Go Sioux ~
