NEW ORLEANS – Are the mighty two-time defending NCAA Division I men’s cross country champion Colorado Buffaloes not as invulnerable as previously thought?
At least one voter in the National Coaches’ Poll believes so, as the Buffaloes – decisive winners at the Pre-National Invitational – went from unanimous No. 1 to simply No. 1 in an upheaved week-five edition of the poll announced Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
It was a poll in which 25 of the 30 slots were occupied by different teams from a week ago with seven new top-30 teams (and seven corresponding poll dropouts) and 17 total teams moving five or more spots. The women’s poll was even more eventful with all but No. 1 New Mexico moving around from the previous poll (read more here).
This is the final poll of the regular season, with the next edition set for the first week of November following conference championships.
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NCAA Division I National Coaches Poll Top 5 - Men


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Colorado
Syracuse
Oregon
BYU
Michigan


View Complete Men's National Coaches Poll




Colorado lost one of the 12 first-place to No. 2 Syracuse, which posted an equally impressive victory against a deeper field at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational the day prior to CU’s Pre-Nats win over No. 3 Oregon.
The loss of a single first-place vote is hardly a vote of no confidence in the Buffaloes, but Saturday’s Pre-Nationals victory over Oregon, 89-151, did expose some potential blemishes in CU’s armor. Despite some early-race jostling, Pierce Murphy came through in fifth-place overall, followed by Connor Winter in 9th and Ammar Moussa and Morgan Pearson in 14th and 15th.
That group of four All-Americans performed in line with expectations, but notable in his absence was two-time top-10 NCAA finisher Ben Saarel, who has not yet donned the black and gold jersey this season. Without Saarel, who did compete unattached earlier this year, CU had to wait until 46th place for frosh John Dressel to come through as the No. 5 Buffalo.
Against a deeper field at Wisconsin – 17 of last week’s top-30 teams toed the line in Madison – Syracuse runners crossed the finish line early and often with runner-up Justyn Knight, fourth-place Martin Hehir and sixth-place Colin Bennie, scoring a 101-186-218 victory over No. 4 BYU and No. 5 Michigan.
The Orange weren’t without their own depth issues to be sorted out as Dan Lennon, nearly an All-American a year ago, was 61st overall.
No. 4 BYU and No. 5 Michigan broke into the top five for the first time this season after strong runner-up and third-place finishes at Wisconsin, respectively. For the Wolverines, this is the highest rank for the program since 2004 but they will hope for a different end result; U of M was 26th at the NCAA Championships that season.
Those two were followed by the stationary duo of No. 6 Oklahoma State and No. 7 Virginia, but from there on each and every team was in a different spot that in the previous poll.
Arkansas moved up five spots to No. 8 with a third-place show at Pre-Nationals, while No. 9 Iona dropped four to No. 9 after finishing fifth in that deep Wisconsin field.
Making the biggest move of any team ranked inside the top-30 a week ago was Furman, up 14 positions to an all-time program-best No. 10 rank. The Paladins were sixth at Wisconsin, just one point ahead of No. 12 NC State (up five spots from the last poll).
Sandwiched in between those Southeast Region rivals was No. 11 UTEP, up two spots after a fourth-place finish at Pre-Nationals.
In at No.