NEW YORK – The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association released its preseason rankings on both the regional and national level, and Columbia cross country is on both.

The women have earned a top five ranking in the Northeast region, coming in at No. 5. The Lions are ranked higher than every other Ivy League school in the region, including Cornell, Harvard, Brown and Yale. Princeton and Penn, the other two Ivies receiving regional votes, are third and sixth in the Mid-Atlantic region respectively.

On the men's side, Columbia has the highest regional ranking of any Ivy school, and received votes as a part of the national poll. The Lions are ranked No. 3 in the Northeast Region, behind Iona and Providence. Behind Columbia in the Northeast is Syracuse, as well as Ivy rivals Dartmouth, Harvard, Cornell, Brown and Yale. Princeton, the defending men's league champions, earned a No. 4 spot in the Mid-Atlantic region, while Penn comes in eighth in the region.

Nationally, the Lions received seven votes on the men's side to be included in the top 25 teams in the country. Columbia was the Ivy League team with the most national votes, as Princeton garnered only three.

The next USTFCCCA ranking comes out on September 28th. The men's and women's cross country teams will not be in action until after the second poll, on October 3rd, when they travel south to take part in the George Mason Invitational.