Elite 50: Ranking the Nation’s Top Women's Cross Country Programs
In our women’s cross country rankings, we take you beyond wins and losses to reveal what truly makes a college cross country program great. To come up with our list of the top 10 women’s cross country programs, we consider a variety of factors—not just a team’s record, but also academic rankings from U.S. News & World Report and Academic Progress Rates. The result is a list of schools we’d recommend to any harrier seeking an elite athletic program and a strong education. Learn more about how we arrived at our rankings through the Elite 50 guide, and browse through STACK’s rankings for 20 other sports at the bottom of this page.
STACK’s Top 10 Women’s Cross Country Programs
| College | Score | ’12 U.S. News Rank | APR [Out of 1,000] | National Ranking ’10/’09/’08 | STACK Factor |
| 1. Stanford | 93.92 | 5 | 1000 | 13/16/8 | 192 |
| 2. Florida State | 90.47 | 101 | 982 | 2/2/3 | 132 |
| 3. Villanova | 88.04 | 65 | 989 | 1/1/6 | 48 |
| 4. Princeton | 83.88 | 1 | 1000 | 15/5/5 | 36 |
| 5. Washington | 82.97 | 42 | 980 | 16/3/1 | 96 |
| 6. Georgetown | 74.22 | 22 | 992 | 4/21/9 | 36 |
| 7. Duke | 73.27 | 10 | 983 | 17/8/NR | 156 |
| 8. Texas Tech | 70.30 | 160 | 995 | 3/4/7 | 36 |
| 9. Oregon | 68.10 | 101 | 983 | 12/9/2 | 72 |
| 10. Virginia | 63.49 | 25 | 994 | 21/15/26 | 132 |
Check out the rest of STACK’s college rankings:
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Elite 50: Ranking the Nation’s Top Women's Cross Country Programs
In our women’s cross country rankings, we take you beyond wins and losses to reveal what truly makes a college cross country program great. To come up with our list of the top 10 women’s cross country programs, we consider a variety of factors—not just a team’s record, but also academic rankings from U.S. News & World Report and Academic Progress Rates. The result is a list of schools we’d recommend to any harrier seeking an elite athletic program and a strong education. Learn more about how we arrived at our rankings through the Elite 50 guide, and browse through STACK’s rankings for 20 other sports at the bottom of this page.
STACK’s Top 10 Women’s Cross Country Programs
| College | Score | ’12 U.S. News Rank | APR [Out of 1,000] | National Ranking ’10/’09/’08 | STACK Factor |
| 1. Stanford | 93.92 | 5 | 1000 | 13/16/8 | 192 |
| 2. Florida State | 90.47 | 101 | 982 | 2/2/3 | 132 |
| 3. Villanova | 88.04 | 65 | 989 | 1/1/6 | 48 |
| 4. Princeton | 83.88 | 1 | 1000 | 15/5/5 | 36 |
| 5. Washington | 82.97 | 42 | 980 | 16/3/1 | 96 |
| 6. Georgetown | 74.22 | 22 | 992 | 4/21/9 | 36 |
| 7. Duke | 73.27 | 10 | 983 | 17/8/NR | 156 |
| 8. Texas Tech | 70.30 | 160 | 995 | 3/4/7 | 36 |
| 9. Oregon | 68.10 | 101 | 983 | 12/9/2 | 72 |
| 10. Virginia | 63.49 | 25 | 994 | 21/15/26 | 132 |
Check out the rest of STACK’s college rankings: