Sept. 21, 2004

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Providence College women's cross country team maintained its No. 2 ranking in the FinishLynx Division I Women's Cross Country National Poll, which was released on Tuesday, September 21. Providence received 376 points and three first-place votes.

Stanford also kept its No. 1 position in the poll with 386 points and 10 first-place votes. Brigham Young (365 points, one first-place vote), Notre Dame (354 points) and North Carolina State (332 points) round out the top five.

In its last competition, Providence placed first out of 18 teams at the Fordham Invitational on September 11 at Van Cortlandt Park in New York, N.Y. Senior Mary Cullen (Sligo, Ireland) paced the way for the Friars as she captured the race in a time of 17:26, while classmate Deirdre Byrne (Wicklow, Ireland) was second in a time of 18:19. Also scoring for the Friars were senior Katie Twarog of Albany, N.Y. (seventh, 19:01), junior Jane Nalder of Wellington, New Zealand (eighth, 19:07) and freshman Ashley Hughes of Phoenix, N.Y. (17th, 19:20).

Providence, which also won its season opening meet (Providence College Invitational on September 3), will travel to Minneapolis, Minn., to compete at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday, September 25 at 1:10 PM EST.

FinishLynx NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN'S NCAA CROSS COUNTRY POLL
September 21, 2004
Rank	Team (First place votes)        Points
1	Stanford (10)                   386
2	PROVIDENCE (3)                  376
3	Brigham Young (1)               365
4	Notre Dame                      354
5	North Carolina State            332
6	Colorado                        318
7	Michigan                        309
8	Princeton                       296
9.	UCLA                            287
10	Villanova                       267
11.	North Carolina                  249
12.	Wake Forest                     235
13.	Columbia                        230
14.	Missouri                        227
15.	Georgetown                      200
16.	Arkansas                        194
17.	Duke                            188
18.	Marquette                       155
19.	Idaho                           135
	Tennessee                       135
21.	Penn State                      120
22.	Arizona State                   116
23.	Michigan State                  107
24.	Texas Tech                      84
25.	Washington                      81
26.	Colorado State                  62
27.	Yale                            59
28.	Southern Methodist              38
29.	Oklahoma                        30
30	West Virginia                   25

Other Teams Also Receiving Votes: Virginia 16, Baylor 11, Purdue 10, William and Mary 8, Georgia 6, Indiana 5, Nevada 5, California 4, Northern Arizona 2, UC-Santa Barbara 1.