The defending USA South conference champions, the Piedmont College men's cross country team, were selected to finish atop the league standings again in the preseason coaches poll released Wednesday. The Lions earned their first USA South title last season and the first men's championship for any Piedmont team since joining the league in 2012.
Piedmont received five of the eight first place votes topping the standings with 46 points overall, but finished just a single point above Covenant College who earned the final three first place votes and had 45 points in the poll. Head coaches do not vote for their own teams in the preseason poll.
Finishing third in the standings is Maryville College with 37 points while Methodist took fourth with 32 points and rounding out the top five was Averett University with 22 points. The remaining three spots belong to LaGrange in sixth place (20 points), William Peace in seventh place (12 points) and Ferrum in eighth (10 points).
The season begins for Piedmont on September 1 at the Berry College Watermelon Run in Mount Berry, Georgia with a pair of home meets on the schedule for the 2016 season. Included in that is the USA South Cross Country Championship that will be held at TFS Farms in Tallulah Falls on Oct. 29. The men's 8,000 meter race will begin at 11 a.m. while the women's 6,000 meter race will begin at noon.
