ROCKHILL, S.C.—The Carson-Newman women's cross country team were slated ninth in the South Atlantic Conference preseason standings when the league office released the polls earlier Thursday morning.

Carson-Newman, who also finished ninth in the 2014 SAC Championship Meet last fall, garnered 40 overall votes.

"I just want us to focus on us and to be the best that we can be," coach Tony Parrilla said. "We have brought in a great group of girls. It is going to be a lot of fun."

Junior Sara Honaker (Mason, Ohio), who finished a Carson-Newman best 31^st in the 2014 SAC Championship Meet last October, will look to a number of newcomers this season to help improve the preseason standing.

"We are doing the right things," Parrilla said. "The girls are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were last year."

Parrilla added four transfers and two freshmen to join Honaker and the rest of his seven returners for the start of the 2015 season.

Two time reigning SAC champions Wingate are looking to make it three years in a row as they pickied up eight of the 12 first-place votes while coming in on top of the preseason poll.

Queens, N.C. is right behind the Bulldogs in the second position, as they gathered the remaining four first-place votes.  

Anderson and Lenoir-Rhyne were slotted next at third and fourth place. Lincoln Memorial and Mars Hill followed, picked to start the season at fifth and sixth place.

Brevard and Coker took the seventh and eighth place slots while gaining 48 and 47 points respectively, right in front of Carson-Newman at ninth.

Tusculum, Catawba, and Newberry round out the bottom three of the SAC preseason standings.

2015 SAC Women's Cross Country Preseason Poll