KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Cumberlands (Ky.) ranks No. 3 in the latest NAIA Men’s Cross Country Coaches’ Top 25 Ratings, NAIA officials announced on Monday. UC earns a team qualification to the NAIA National Championships while four other MSC athletes qualified with their performance at the MSC Championships a week ago.
 
The Patriots remained in the third spot after securing their third consecutive Mid-South Conference Championship last weekend, posting a perfect team score of 15 points after sweeping the top six individual spots in the Men's 8K. With this conference title, the Patriots secure an automatic bid into the NAIA National Championship. 
 
Cumberlands received 465 points to remain third in the latest poll.
 
Also making the trip to Tallahassee, FL will be Martin Batel and Aaron Smith from Campbellsville, Bethel’s Cedrion Cook, and Dashawn Overly from Lindsey Wilson.
 
Ratings Methodology

• The rating is rated by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and unaffiliated groupings.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each rater rates the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place, 28 for third-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ratings for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) are removed. The team’s rating will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the team appears on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes”.