Earlier this week, the NAIA head coaches for cross country gathered together and casted their votes for this week's edition of the NAIA Top 25 poll.  After a week of receiving votes in the poll, the Patriot ladies have found their way into the NAIA's elite teams.  

The Patriot ladies are one of the five teams that found a spot in this week's NAIA Top 25 teams in the nation.  These included the schools of Concordia (Calif.) at No. 10, St. Francis (Ill.) at No. 18, Taylor (Ind.) at No. 22, Illinois Tech at No. 23 and Cumberlands (Ky.) at No. 24.

As five teams that weren't previously ranked joined the polls, there were five teams that fell out of the polls this week. One of those five teams included the Patriots Mid-South Conference rivals, the Bears of Shawnee State. Along with Shawnee the other schools included Spring Arbor (Mich.), Trinity Christian (Ill.), Saint Xavier (Ill.) and Northwest (Wash.)

The Patriots' ranking at No. 24 came with the 113 points they earned in the voting process. UC hopes to continue to lead their conference for the remainder of the season, and are on the verge of capturing a trip to the NAIA National Championships in November in Vancouver, Washington.

Both the men and women's teams are traveling to Cedarville, OH this Saturday September 15^th to compete in the Cedarville Invitational.

For more information on the Patriots cross country teams along with other Patriot athletics, please visit www.cumberlandspatriots.com.

_{Article Provided by Danielle Hoop, University of the Cumberlands Multimedia and Athletic Services Student Assistant}