With the conclusion of 2018 and the cross country season, head coach Brad Wick has a lot to be happy about.
For the first time all 300+ Division I schools have been ranked following the NCAA Cross Country Championships and the Spartans' are an elite program in the sport. Among the 350 teams that compete in women's cross country, the San Jose State finished the season ranked 52nd in the nation the men's team was 53rd out of 318 team.
"Our women's team is in the top-15 percent of programs in the nation and our men's team is in the top-16 percent," coach Wick said. "If a team is ranked in the top-30 it is an extremely elite program. So our spots, at 52 and 53, show that we are doing things right and are right on the precipice of breaking into the top-30.
"There are a lot of really good programs that are ranked between 31 and 60, and in a given year they can move into that top-30 when everything comes together. In the past, schools had no way to know the level of its success if they were not ranked in the top-30. Now our sport has instituted a new system which ranks every school that competes in cross country.
"I think (this new ranking system) is a good way to show us where we stack up among all Division I programs. It's also good way for fans and recruits to see the top tier competition we face and where the breaking point is for teams that are really competitive and those that are not. It show that we are a very good team and that we are among, and ahead of, a lot of Power-5 schools and that is a key indication of what we have been able to at San José State. Our goal is to continue to improve and consistently be in the top-30 in the nation."
The Spartans ranking is more impressive when you take into account that the region they compete in, the West Region, is the toughest in the nation. The West Region has nine teams ranked in the top-60. The Mountain Region has the next highest number of teams ranked in the top-60 with seven.
"Our region has more than 30 teams, so it is big," Wick said. "It is a good measuring stick of where a team stacks up and obviously the top-10 is so elite, it is challenging to move up. Potentially you might be a top-30 team in the nation and be seventh or eighth in the West. Our goal is to be top-10 every year as a baseline."
To look deeper, the Mountain West is among the elite conferences in the nation. The MW has seven teams ranked in the top-60. The only other conferences with more top-60 teams, eight in each, are the ACC and Big Ten. That means the Mountain West ranks ahead of the Pac-12 (six teams in the top-60), the SEC (four teams in the top-60) and the Big-12 (two teams in the top-60).
"In our conference, Boise State and New Mexico's top-five athletes are potentially top-50 in the country. This year, New Mexico's number five finisher was in fact 50th at nationals. Boise State on any given day can do the same thing. Our women being in the top half of the conference, fourth last season and fifth this season, means a lot. Not only do we have those superstar programs, which are among the most elite in the nation, but you also have Utah State, Air Force, Colorado State and Nevada who are all solid. Those schools put a lot into their programs. They train at altitude and have good track programs, which helps in recruiting. They all emphasize distance running to varying degrees. It's a daunting task to compete against those teams, but we continue to work hard and compete hard.
"When you are fifth in our conference, you're very close to third and those are the teams that go to nationals on a given year. So we are knocking on the door right now and I think we are very close to getting a team to nationals."
For the past two seasons the Spartans women's team has been led by Jennifer Sandoval, who has never finished behind another Spartan in 17 career races, has earned back-to-back second-team All-Mountain West honors at the Mountain West Conference Championships.
"Most athletes are all-state in high school and when they get to college and compete in their conference meet it's really tough for them to achieve all conference honors. Then you look at the Mountain West and to get all-conference honors is even harder because our conference is so elite. If you are first team in the Mountain West, you are definitely in a position to be All-American. In our conference meet, if you are a little bit off, you are not going to get all-conference honors. There are athletes, who are predicted to be All-Americans and if they make just a slight mistake at our conference meet, they could end up 15th or 16th.
"The fact that Jenny has been able to do it twice is a testament to her consistency and is also a fantastic honor that really means something because the level of competition."
Coach Wick goes even deeper in looking at the competition in California. "On the women's side we compete against 24 Division I California schools and in the last two years we have defeated all of them at the West Region meet with the exception of Stanford, who are consistently one of the top-5 programs in the country."
"On the men's side, the competition is equally as tough if not tougher at the Regional meet, especially at the eight, nine and ten spots, which is where we are," Wick said. This year we finished right behind Cal, Cal Poly and USF at Regionals. On a given day we can and have beaten those programs: like at the Pre-Nationals meet in Wisconsin. We were ranked ahead of those teams throughout the season and they are well-established programs, so we are in good company. Those programs have had track and field, a sport we are adding on the men's side this year. Moving forward we will be on even footing with them, which will show what a real testament to what our men have accomplished.
"The men side of the conference may be even tougher than the ladies," Wick said. "The fourth best team in the conference, Air Force, was 20th in the nation. Then you look at Utah State, which was a bubble team in the top-30, New Mexico and us. We have some of the best team's in the nation ahead of us in our own conference. When we put everything together we are looking at a top-4 finish at conference which will put us in the top-30 in the nation. That's the goal and we are knocking on the door and anticipate making that jump very soon."
