Behind an outstanding showing at the Great Lakes Challenge where the Shawnee State men's cross country program finished third of 26 units in the field -- and obtained a invitational victory from Seth Farmer along with 10 top-100 showings overall -- the Bears, as a result, were able to make a significant jump inside the NAIA Cross Country Coaches Top 25 Poll as SSU moved from their previous ranking of No. 11, where the male harriers had been at all season long, to No. 8.

Shawnee State, who posted 410 points in the previous edition of the poll on Oct. 17, bumped itself all the way up to 457 points in Thursday's latest edition of the rankings. In the process of making such a jump, SSU also passed The Master's (Calif.), Olivet Nazarene, and St. Francis (Ill.) in the poll, with the Bears besting the Tigers and the Saints in the Great Lakes Challenge en route to jumping the duo. Shawnee State also sits just eight points behind Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) for the seventh place spot in the rankings. Only No. 4 Taylor (Ind.) and No. 6 Indiana Wesleyan, who posted 71 and 73 points, respectively, bested the Bears from a team perspective.