Continuing the electoral tradition started by their forebearers, the women’s and men’s poll voters struggled through waist-high snow to once again caucus last night to cast their votes for the top D3 teams in the country. The Week 5 caucuses have always been seen as a crucial step in securing the nomination of the pollsters; exactly half of the teams ranked #1 in Week 5 have gone on to the regular season poll championship, with three of those 9 teams going on to win national championships.

This year, the men’s voters stuck with the front-runner, Rochester, while the women’s caucus showed its belief in “a school called Hope.”

Rochester had held a slight poll advantage on Brandeis in the weeks leading up to last night’s caucus, and they maintained their slight advantage, outpolling the Judges by 14 points. Finishing a strong third was UW-Stevens Point, a program which had won two of the last three Week 5 caucuses, each time parlaying that victory into a regular season poll championship in March (and, in 2005, winning the national election in Salem.)

On the women’s side, Mary Washington had held a lead in the polls since the beginning of the electoral cycle, but was widely seen to have been bested in Sunday’s debate with #2 UW-Whitewater, causing them to tumble to a fifth-place finish in the caucuses. Moving up to seize the victory was Hope, the 2006 champions and host for this year’s election. Howard Payne, which despite its masculine-sounding name is a candidate for the women’s nomination, was edged out of second-place by the hard-charging Warhawks from Whitewater.

Although unable to garner enough support to crack the Top 25 finishers, the women of Washington U. did receive some caucus support, becoming the only program to attract votes in each of the 130 women’s caucuses. I say “only” because, for the first time ever, nobody attending the women’s caucus was willing to cast a vote for Scranton. The Royals, winners of the Week 5 caucus in the 2004-05 season, have been ranked in all but seven of the polls taken in the 8+ year history of the women’s caucuses, and reached the #1 overall ranking three times in that span. Wash U. may not be far behind them, as one gaffe or misstep may cost them the scant seven votes they received last night.

Rochester and Hope each have tough debates in their immediate futures. Hope will travel to Grand Rapids next week to square off with arch-rival Calvin, while the Yellow Jackets will participate in the always-tough Chase Tournament against a field that includes #11 Brockport St. But for this week, to the victor belong the spoils, and it’s on to New Hampshire!

Debutantes:
Women: A debutante of sorts, the six first-place votes earned by UW-Whitewater were the first in that program’s history. Whitewater becomes the 35th program to receive votes for #1 in the 130 week history of the women’s poll.
Men: The unbeaten Coast Guard Bears received their first-ever poll vote this week. Congratulations!

Streakers:
Women: Although it can hardly compare to Scranton’s and Wash U.’s streaks, Calvin had an impressive 37-poll voting streak come to an end this week. #3 Howard Payne has now received votes in 25 straight polls, and in each of them they have been within the Top 25. Other programs extending votes-received streaks include #22 Rochester at 30 weeks, #21 Medaille at 25 weeks, and #10 Illinois Wesleyan and #19 Lake Forest, each at 20 weeks. #6 Messiah has now been in the Top 25 in 80 consecutive polls, with the team they beat in Cancun, #12 DePauw, a little over a year behind at 60 straight weeks. The teams ranked fourth and fifth, NYU and Mary Washington, each extended their Top 10 streaks to ten weeks.
Men: Worcester Polytech joins the list of programs with lengthy voting streaks snapped; the Engineers had been mentioned in the last 43 polls but received no votes this week. #2 Brandeis extended its voting streak to 20 weeks, while #3 UW-Stevens Point has been a Top 10 team in 20 straight polls.

Milestones:
Women: Top-ranked Hope celebrates its 100th week as a Top 25 team in style, ascending to the top of a regular-season poll for the first time ever. #11 UW-Stevens Point is ranked for the 70th time overall, while the No-Nicknames of #8 McMurry are a Top 10 team for the tenth time. Poll veterans #4 NYU and #15 Southern Maine each notched their 120th week of being among the vote-getters, while #22 Rochester received votes for the 80th time.
Men: Fifth-ranked Williams is a Top 25 team for the 70th time; other ranking milestones were reached by #14 Elmhurst (30 times), #25 Occidental (20 appearances), and #23 Mass.-Dartmouth (10 weeks.) Williams’ archrival, #4 Amherst, is listed among the vote-getters for the 110th time, joining #15 Wheaton (IL) (90 weeks), Rowan (40), Elizabethtown (30), and #2 Brandeis (20) in reaching votes-received milestones.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Second-ranked UW-Whitewater has reached a new poll high each week this season. #7 Thomas More, and #17 Tufts also set new high-water marks, while #8 McMurry and #10 Illinois Wesleyan tied their highest-ever rankings.
Men: #2 Brandeis and #13 Stevens have set or matched new high-water marks in every 2007-08 poll, and this week was no exception.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: The pattern all season has been that the major poll moves have been downward, and this week is no exception. Four teams experienced drops of over 100 points, led by #5 Mary Washington (-119 points and 4 slots) and #25 Oglethorpe (-118/-8), while no team gained more than 99 points (that being #2 UW-Whitewater, which moved up three places.)
Men: #14 Elmhurst beat then-#8 Hope in Orlando and was rewarded with a 140-point and 7-position gain in the poll. #20 Capital (-148 points and 8 poll placements) and #12 Guilford (-135/-6) suffered the largest drops for the week. Two programs bypassed the “Others Receiving Votes” category altogether: #25 Occidental heading up (going from 0 points last week to 80 this week), and then-#24 Calvin heading out (no votes this week, after receiving 70 in the last poll.)