Both WWU Vikings and SPU Falcons ranked in first national USTFCCCA D2 poll...

NEW ORLEANS--In the first regular season rankings for Division II that were released Wednesday, the Western Washington men's cross country team are ranked #10 in the USTFCCCA coaches' poll, despite a fourth place finish in last Saturday's Sundodger Invitational.

Adams State of Colorado is the country's #1 team according to the national coaches' poll. The Falcons of Seattle Pacific, thanks to a strong second place finish in the open section of the Sundodger Invitational last Saturday, make their first appearance in the national men's poll this season, as they come in at #29 after not being ranked in the pre-season poll.

In the women's national poll, Western Washington is ranked #15, dropping two spots from the pre season poll, while Seattle Pacific moves up 12 spots from their pre-season ranking of #30 to #18. Augustana of South Dakota is the country's #1 women's team in NCAA D2 according to the coaches' poll.

For winning the open section of the Sundodger, Western's Chip Jackson (above/photo courtesy Western Washington University) was named the GNAC athlete of the week.

Jackson joined Paul Kezes of Western Washington (2002), David Kiplagat of Alaska Anchorage (2006), John Riak of Saint Martin's (2007) and Kyle Van Santen of Saint Martin's (2010) as the only GNAC athletes to win the event. "Chip ran a great race, a very smart race," WWU coach Pee Wee Halsell said. "He was 15th or 20th around the mile mark, far enough back that nobody was worried about him, but he gradually picked them all off."

This week in the GNAC, Central Washington, Seattle Pacific and Western Washington will join the host Saints at the Saint Martin's Invitational. Central Washington will also compete among with Montana State Billings at the Erik Anderson Invitational in Spokane.

The USTFCCCA national rankings are available here. 

TOYOTA EXTENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH IAAF 

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is delighted to announce that, with the support of IAAF Marketing Partner Dentsu, the Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has signed an agreement to continue as an official partner of the IAAF World Championships until 2017. 

Toyota, which was already committed to provide support until the 14th edition of the IAAF World Championships, Moscow, Russia (10 - 18 August 2013), has agreed to extend its commitment to cover the 2015 and 2017 IAAF World Championships which take place respectively inBeijing, China (22-30 August 2015) and London, United Kingdom (5 - 13 August 2017).

Toyota’s support of the IAAF World Championships also ranges from presenting awards to World record setting athletes, providing environment-friendly vehicles - such as the "Prius" gasoline-electric hybrid - for use during the championships, in line with the "Green Earth" and "Green Management" ideals of the IAAF’s Green Project.

NOTE: USTFCCCA and the IAAF contributed to this report.

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