KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After taking a third place finish at last season's national championships, the Texas Wesleyan University Men's Golf program enters the 2018-19 season in the same spot in the NAIA Men's Golf Coaches' Preseason Top 25 Poll.
 
The Rams took home six wins and nine top 5 finishes last year, and return three of their four NAIA All-Americans led by All-Nicklaus team award winner Rowan Lester. Lester joins Victor Miron and Futa Yamagishi and the rest of the Rams in their quest to bring the program its seventh national championship
 
Oklahoma City University maintained the top spot in the preseason edition of the poll. The Stars grabbed all 19 first-place votes as the fall season gets set to kick-off. Each of the top six spots remained the same from the postseason poll in the spring.
 
Texas Wesleyan will host the Texas Intercollegiate at Hawks Creek GC in the first tournament of the season. The two day, 54-hole tournament is set to get underway on Monday September 10.
 
 
Top 25 Highlights (historical information dates back to 2000)

• This is the third-consecutive season that the Stars begin the season in the top spot.
• Oklahoma City leads the All-Time list for NAIA titles with 11.
• Eight teams are new to the poll as Southeastern (Fla.), Our Lady of the Lake (Texas), Park (Mo.), Cumberland (Tenn.), William Penn (Iowa). Arizona Christian, Thomas (Ga.) and Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) cracked the list in the first poll of the season. Cumberland (Tenn.) is the lone team that was not ranked a season ago. This is the first time the Phoenix have made their way in the Top 25 since April 11, 2014.
• Oklahoma City leads the NAIA Active Polls Streak with 116 consecutive appearances.

Poll Methodology

• The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences.
• Each conference is given one rater for every four schools in the league.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 25 points for each first-place vote, 24 for second-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) is removed and the team's ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the teams appear on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered "receiving votes.
• For the complete Top 25 calendar, click here.

2018 NAIA Men's Golf Coaches' Top 25 Poll – Preseason (August 24, 2018)

RANK	WEEK	SCHOOL (1st Place Votes	FINAL POINTS
1	1	Oklahoma City [19]	529
2	2	Dalton State (Ga.)	502
3	3	Texas Wesleyan	500
4	4	Coastal Georgia	482
5	5	Keiser (Fla.)	459
6	6	University of Northwestern Ohio	440
7	8	Wayland Baptist (Texas)	412
8	7	Taylor (Ind.)	388
9	11	USC Beaufort (S.C.)	382
10	9	William Woods (Mo.)	371
11	10	Victoria (B.C.)	367
12	12	British Columbia	352
13	12	Johnson & Wales (Fla.)	331
14	14	Rocky Mountain (Mont.)	324
15	15	Point (Ga.)	289
16	16	Cardinal Stritch (Wis.)	275
17	NR	Southeastern (Fla.)	237
18	NR	Our Lady of the Lake (Texas)	221
19	NR	Park (Mo.)	177
20	NR	Cumberland (Tenn.)	168
21	NR	William Penn (Iowa)	161
22	NR	Arizona Christian	147
23	NR	Thomas (Ga.)	138
24	NR	Lindsey Wilson (Ky.)	110
25	17	Holy Cross (Ind.)	109

Dropped from the Top 25: N/A
Others Receiving Votes: Morningside (Iowa) 90, Marymount California 70, Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) 65, Reinhardt (Ga.) 55, Bethany (Kan.) 53, Columbia (Mo.) 38, Corban (Ore.) 28, Bellevue (Neb.) 27, The Master's (Calif.) 24, Indiana Wesleyan 22, William Carey (Miss.) 21, SCAD Savannah (Ga.) 15, Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) 14, Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) 9, Culver-Stockton (Mo.) 5, St. Ambrose (Iowa) 4