KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Goshen College men's cross country team started its 2021 season off on a positive note Thursday when the NAIA coaches poll tabbed the Maple Leafs 20th in the national preseason ranking. That figure is two spots shy of GC's highest preseason ranking set last fall and two spots better than Goshen's finish at last year's national meet.

The 2020-21 Maple Leafs, who were ranked as high as 14th in the nation, fell out of the top 25 in November but rebounded with a strong spring showing to qualify for the national meet as an at-large team and took 22nd at the national meet held in April in Iowa.

Six of Goshen's seven runners from the national meet appear on the fall 2021 roster, paced by junior Nelson Kemboi, whose 25:17.49 clocking in Cedar Rapids represented the 11th-fastest time in GC program history and the second-fastest by a sophomore.

The Crossroads League showed out strongly in the poll, taking three of the top seven spots and putting four teams in the top 25. National champion Taylor led the way, followed by Huntington in second place and Indiana Wesleyan in seventh. The Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference and Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference, two neighboring leagues against whose teams the Maple Leafs often compete, had two representatives apiece. Additionally, the Crossroads League had two teams in the "others receiving votes" section.

This is the 13th known ranking in the NAIA top 25 for the Maple Leaf men, all of which have come within the past seven years, and the third time the team has been ranked in a preseason poll: Goshen was 22nd in the 2015 preseason ranking and 18th last year. Only the women's basketball team, which has 14 national rankings, has showed up more among GC programs.

(For many sports, the rankings archive is only complete going back to the mid-1990s; for example, the GC men's soccer team was something of a national powerhouse in the early 1970s, going to the eight-team national tournament three times in seven years, but we do not have ranking information from that time period.)

Goshen opens its regular season on Labor Day weekend at the Calvin Knight Invitational in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That meet is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 4, at 10:45 a.m., and is Goshen's only scheduled competition before the next ratings release on Sept. 23.

Goshen College's Known NAIA National Rankings

Men's basketball
Nov. 28, 2012 — #19
Dec. 5, 2012 — #12
Dec. 12, 2012 — #12
Jan. 23, 2013 — #21

Women's basketball
Jan. 20, 2004 — #22
Feb. 10, 2004 — #25
Feb. 17, 2004 — #19
Feb. 24, 2004 — #25
2004 preseason — #18
Dec. 8, 2015 — #24
Jan. 12, 2016 — #21
Jan. 19, 2016 — #21
Jan. 26, 2016 — #20
Feb. 2, 2016 — #18
Feb. 9, 2016 — #19
Feb. 16, 2016 — #18
2016 postseason — #15
2017 preseason — #11

Men's cross country
Oct. 15, 2014 — #17
Oct. 22, 2014 — #20
Oct. 29, 2014 — #21
Nov. 9, 2014 — #20
2015 preseason — #22
Sept. 19, 2019 — #17
Oct. 3, 2019 — #17
Oct. 17, 2019 — #17
2019 postseason — #20
2020 preseason — #18
Oct. 29, 2020 — #14
2020-21 postseason — #22
2021 preseason — #20

Women's cross country
Oct. 25, 2002 — #23
Nov. 1, 2002 — #16
Nov. 8, 2002 — #16
2003 preseason — #25
Sept. 19, 2003 — #25
Sept. 20, 2006 — #19
Sept. 27, 2006 — #19

Men's soccer
2007 preseason — #16

Women's tennis
2002 preseason — #23
Feb. 19, 2002 — #24
Mar. 13, 2002 — #24

Men's volleyball
Jan. 27, 2021 — #13
Feb. 10, 2021 — #14
Feb. 24, 2021 — #15
March 10, 2021 — #15