Morningside’s women’s cross country team is ranked 17th in the nation in the NAIA Preseason Poll.

Morningside College’s women’s cross country team is ranked 17th in the nation in the NAIA Women’s Cross Country Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll.

The Mustangs return five of their top seven runners from a team that finished 18th at last year’s NAIA National Championships and won their first-ever Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) championship. The Mustangs are led by two-time All-GPAC performer Michelle Mumm, a senior from Neola, Iowa, who was last year’s GPAC individual runner-up. Mumm earned NAIA All-America honors during last year’s indoor track & field season when she finished fifth in the 1000-meters at the NAIA National Championships.

The Mustangs bring back four other runners who competed in last year’s NAIA National Championship meet, including Natalie Lambert, a sophomore from Paton, Iowa; Payton Boer, a junior from Sioux Center, Iowa; Cassie Warner, a junior from Council Bluffs, Iowa; and Alexandra George, a junior from Seward, Neb. The Mustangs will be bolstered by the return of Allison Higgins, a junior from Jefferson, Iowa, who was one of the Mustangs’ top runners during the 2105 campaign.

Morningside is one of three teams from the GPAC in the NAIA Women’s Cross Country Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll. Dordt College is ranked 10th and Hastings College is ranked 13th.

The Mustangs will open the season on Sept. 1 at the Augustana University Twilight Meet in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Click here for the complete NAIA Women’s Cross Country Preseason Top 25.