The Southwestern men's cross country team is seated at number 24 in this week's edition of the NJCAA National Cross Country Coaches Poll, collected and released by the USTFCCCA. This marks the first time in program history that the Spartans have made the rankings.

This new ranking system was developed during the 2015 season. The bi-weekly poll is voted on by a collection of head coaches from around the country, each selected to represent their respective region.

"Being ranked is a big accomplishment for our program," exclaimed Spartan Head Coach Trey Bruton. "It has been a major goal for us this season and my kids have put in a lot of work to get to this point; the coolest part is we aren't done getting better!"

The Spartans are coming off of a second place finish at the Trent Smith Invite in Mason City where they compiled a team average of 27:32 with an astonishing 1-5 split of just 13 seconds.

The Spartan men and women are off this week before jumping back into action on October 29, 2017, at the Region XI Championships, hosted by Iowa Central CC in Fort Dodge, where the team has some high expectations for their performance.

Bruton remarked, "Our guys are obviously happy about finally being ranked but we aren't satisfied with that, we still have some things we want to accomplish before the year is over."

The next edition of the NJCAA National Cross Country Coaches Poll comes out on the USTFCCCA website on November 1.