LANCASTER, Pa. - The Ursinus College women's cross country team was slotted fifth in the Centennial Conference preseason poll, the league office announced on Tuesday.

13-time defending Centennial champion Johns Hopkins garnered the top spot in the coaches poll after garnering 81 points and nine of the 10 first-place votes. Dickinson was picked second with 71 points and was followed by Swarthmore in third with 61 points. Haverford placed just ahead of the Bears in fourth with 56 points and grabbed the last first place vote. Franklin & Marshall placed sixth in the poll with 43 points while Gettysburg (32 points), Muhlenberg (24), Bryn Mawr (20) and McDaniel (11) rounded out the 10-team poll.

The Bears set program records in 2021 by finishing 5th at the Centennial Championships which was the highest finish since joining the Centennial Conference. The team also finished a program best eighth place finish at the NCAA Mideast Regionals that bested the previous high finish of 12th in 2008. A pair of runners earned All-Region honors in the race as well.

Rising senior Rachel Conhoff became the first Bears runner since Christa Johnson in 2008 to qualify for the NCAA Championship meet and finished sixth at regionals. Conhoff led the Bears as well with an 18th-place finish at the Centennial meet. Classmate Holly Chambers also returns for the Bears after joining Conhoff on the All-Region team with her 28th-place finish at Rowan last season.

The Bears lose just two graduating seniors from last season and return a strong core that will look to build off a banner 2021 season for the program.

The Ursinus women's cross country team begins its season on Friday, September 2nd as they will compete in the Piper Alumni Open/XC Challenge at Shippensburg University.