GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Atlantic Coast Conference cross country coaches foresee the Notre Dame men and NC State women repeating as league champions this fall.
The Fighting Irish and Wolfpack are clear favorites in the ACC Cross Country Coaches Preseason Polls released on Friday. Twelve of the conference’s 15 head coaches cast first-place votes for the Notre Dame men, while the NC State women were favored on 14 ballots.
Both teams return elite runners from last season, when each captured ACC titles before placing second in the NCAA National Cross Country Championships. The Irish men and Wolfpack women were each ranked second nationally in the 2021 USTFCCCA Preseason Coaches’ Polls released earlier this week.
Notre Dame will be bidding for its third ACC men’s championship in the last four seasons under head coach Sean Carlson, while Laurie Henes’ NC State women are in search of their sixth straight ACC crown.
Wake Forest placed second behind Notre Dame in the ACC men’s preseason poll, with NC State, Syracuse and Virginia rounding out the top five.
NC State is followed in the women’s poll by North Carolina, Florida State, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech.
Each first-place vote in this year’s polls was worth 15 points, each second-place vote 14 points, etc. The NC State women earned 223 of a possible 225 total points, and the Notre Dame men finished with 221.
Thirteen ACC schools are scheduled to see their first action this week and over Labor Day weekend.
Notre Dame is set to host the ACC Championships on Friday, Oct. 29.
The ACC will close the season in the spotlight on Nov. 20, when Florida State will host the 2021 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships. It will mark the fifth time that the NCAA Cross Country Championships have been hosted by a current ACC school and the first since Louisville welcomed the event in 2017.
A look at the 2021 ACC Cross Country Coaches’ Preseason Polls, with first-place votes in parenthesis, followed by total points:
ACC MEN
- Notre Dame (12) - 221
- Wake Forest (1) - 197
- NC State (1) - 186
- Syracuse (1) - 171
- Virginia - 168
- North Carolina - 143
- Duke - 141
- Florida State - 137
- Virginia Tech - 104
- Pitt - 90
- Georgia Tech - 74
- Louisville - 61
- Clemson - 51
- Boston College - 38
- Miami – 18
ACC WOMEN
- NC State (14) - 223
- North Carolina - 189
- Florida State - 185
- Notre Dame - 174
- Georgia Tech - 168
- Duke - 146
- Virginia (1) - 144
- Syracuse - 130
- Wake Forest - 101
- Boston College - 98
- Virginia Tech - 76
- Louisville - 61
- Piit -43
- Clemson - 42
- Miami - 20