ROCK HILL, S.C. --- The South Atlantic Conference has announced its annual preseason coaches’ poll for men's and women's cross country for the 2016 season.
    
Tusculum College has been picked to finish 11th in the men's rankings and 10th in the women's survey, mirroring their finishes at last year's SAC Championship meet in Pineville, Kentucky. However, both teams return four of their top five finishers from last year's event for head coach Cory Pratt.

The Pioneer men will look to juniors Caleb Cutshall and Jacob Cutshall to pace the squad this season. Jacob Cutshall is the top returning finisher from last year's SAC meet, having taken 32nd place, and he had a second-place finish at the Carson-Newman Invitational to his credit. Caleb Cutshall turned in a 37th-place performance at the conference meet, and had three top-10 finishes in five races during the season.

Sophomore J'Quen Johnson is also returning after finishing 20th or better in each of his first three races a year ago, while running a season-best time at the SAC championship meet. Another sophomore, Will Noel, was a top-15 runner for the Pioneers in two events and competed at the conference championship race.

Queens, which dethroned 18-time defending champion Mars Hill to win last year's SAC men's championship, took 11 of 12 first-place votes and received 131 points in the voting. Mars Hill had the other first-place vote and recorded 111 points, followed by Anderson (98), Wingate (87) and Lincoln Memorial (81) in the top five.

The Tusculum women are led by senior Pauline Muiruri, who had a team-best finish of 28th at the SAC Championship and was a top-five runner in a pair of regular-season events. Sophomore Mackenzie Newsome was the Pioneers' number-two runner last season, turning in three top-10 finishes.

Also returning for the Pioneers are sophomore Deondra Thomas and senior Ashley Andrukonis, each of whom placed at last year's SAC championship event. Thomas was the Pioneers' fourth finisher at the championship, while Andrukonis ran a season-best time at the SAC race.

Wingate is favored to win its fourth straight SAC women's championship, having received 11 first-place votes and 121 points in the balloting. Queens had the other first-place vote and 119 points, followed by Anderson (101), Carson-Newman (86) and Coker (76) in the top five.

The Pioneers will begin their season on Saturday morning with the Hyder-McMahill Invitational in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Tusculum will host a meet on Friday, Sept. 9 on the course at Holston Homes beginning at 5:30 p.m. The SAC championships will be run in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 22.

SAC Men's Cross Country Preseason Poll

 
SAC Women's Cross Country Preseason Poll