KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Backed by a strong returning class and a third-place finish at the 2025 NAIA Men’s Cross Country National Championship in Tallahassee, Florida, Cumberlands (Ky.) is the No. 1 team in the 2026 NAIA Men’s Cross Country Preseason Top 25.
Noah Loeser and Ryan Ehrler both return after finishing inside the NAIA Top 100 at last season’s championship, and with 10 first-place votes, the Patriots unseated defending national champion and No. 2 Indiana Wesleyan. Led by Trenton Sweet, the Wildcats picked up seven first-place votes, just two points shy of UC. The remaining first-place votes went to No. 4 Milligan (Tenn.), with one, and No. 5 The Master’s (Calif.), with two. Southern Oregon is also in the top five team, at No. 3, bringing back last year’s second-, fourth, and 70th-place finishers from the NAIA national championship.
The Preseason Top 25 is the first of six ratings on the schedule in 2026, including four regular-season ratings – Sept. 24, Oct. 8, Oct. 15, and Oct. 29 – and the final rating, Nov. 10, to determine at-large qualifiers for the 2026 NAIA National Championship, Nov. 20 in Vancouver, Washington.
| RANK | INSTITUTION [FIRST-PLACE VOTES] | POINTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cumberlands (Ky.) [10] | 542 |
| 2 | Indiana Wesleyan [7] | 540 |
| 3 | Southern Oregon | 522 |
| 4 | Milligan (Tenn.) [1] | 499 |
| 5 | The Master’s (Calif.) [2] | 486 |
| 6 | Corban (Ore.) | 436 |
| 7 | College of Idaho | 434 |
| 8 | Marian (Ind.) | 405 |
| 9 | Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) | 404 |
| 10 | Trinity Western (B.C.) | 395 |
| 11 | Taylor (Ind.) | 357 |
| 12 | Madonna (Mich.) | 355 |
| 13 | Eastern Oregon | 353 |
| 14 | Rocky Mountain (Mont.) | 345 |
| 15 | Saint Mary (Kan.) | 334 |
| 16 | Goshen (Ind.) | 323 |
| 17 | Park (Mo.) | 280 |
| 18 | Rio Grande (Ohio) | 225 |
| T-19 | Carroll (Mont.) | 200 |
| T-19 | Doane (Neb.) | 200 |
| 21 | Mid-America Christian (Okla.) | 164 |
| 22 | Cornerstone (Mich.) | 153 |
| 23 | Montreat (N.C.) | 135 |
| 24 | St. Francis (Ill.) | 123 |
| 25 | Spring Arbor (Mich.) | 117 |
Receiving Votes: IU East (Ind.), Tennessee Southern, Aquinas (Mich.), Northwest (Wash.), Dordt (Iowa), Columbia (Mo.), Oklahoma City, Ave Maria (Fla.), Haskell Indian Nations (Kan.), Oregon Tech, Kansas Wesleyan, Benedictine (Kan.), Concordia (Neb.), John Brown (Ark.), Mount Mercy (Iowa).
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