The Midwest Conference released its 2018 Women's Track and Field Preseason Coaches Poll on Wednesday and Lake Forest College, which only competes in running events of at least 400m, was ninth in the rankings.
Voting is done by the MWC head track and field coaches. Each coach votes for the other nine schools in the league in order of predicted finish at the 2018 MWC Indoor and Outdoor Championship Meets. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (nine points for first, eight for second, etc.). Coaches may not vote for their own teams.
Lake Forest will be sponsoring a women's track team for the first time in school history in 2018 and will focus entirely on the middle distance and distance events (400m-10,000m). Freshman Yaneli Guajardo and senior Cassie Lira are expected to be among the team's top performers after erning all-MWC honors in cross country in the fall.
Head coach Dan Simpson, who also leads the Forester cross country program, will take his team to Olivet Nazarene University on January 20 for their first meet. The MWC Indoor Championships will be hosted by Ripon College February 23-24 and the MWC Outdoor Championships will be held May 11-12 at Monmouth College.
Preseason Coaches Poll
PLACE | TEAM (First Place Votes) | POINTS |
1 | St. Norbert College (9) | 81 |
2 | Monmouth College | 71 |
3 | Cornell College (1) | 67 |
4 | Illinois College | 57 |
5 | Grinnell College | 46 |
6 | Ripon College | 38 |
7 | Beloit College | 37 |
8 | Knox College | 20 |
9 | Lake Forest College | 17 |
10 | Lawrence University | 16 |