Kora Malecek
Sep 28, 20224 min
To call the University of Virginia women a program that is "on the rise" seems like a blatant oversimplification.
Over the last few years, the Cavaliers have slowly accrued a respectable list of accolades spanning from multiple all-ACC honors on the indoor and outdoor ovals to national meet qualifiers in the women’s DMR and the mile, enjoying a slow but steady uptick of success.
Legendary Head Coach Vin Lananna was known as a top-tier recruiter of young distance talents before he ever came to southern Virginia, building a reputation as one of the NCAA's most effective developers and recruiters at Oregon, Stanford and Dartmouth.
And as of late, Lananna's recruiting methods have helped him land all-star recruits such as Margot Appleton, Mia Barnett, Sophie Atkinson and numerous others, the former two making an immediate, high-level impacts as just rookies.
With a high-upside core of elite talent in the hands of one of the best coaches in the nation, it’s no wonder that in a few short years, the Cavaliers have become a team that is turning heads in individual events within the ACC, even if they aren’t challenging for titles...yet.
However, the biggest obstacle for the Cavalier women remains their performance on the grass. Following an unexciting 10th place finish at the 2021 ACC XC Championships, the Virginia women have been in need of a true distance ace to help secure a potential low-stick finish and bolster an otherwise respectable scoring squad.
Last week, those calls for greater scoring were answered.
Enter Virginia’s newest commit: Tatum David of Olney, Illinois.
David, our TSR #6 recruit, has enjoyed residence among the upper echelons of high school performance since her breakout 2019 freshman year where she raced to a time of 16:04 over three miles and a win at the Illinois 2A XC State Championships. She later capped off her fall season with dual All-American honors at both the NXN Championships (17th) and the Foot Locker National Championships (10th).
During a canceled 2020 track season, David made the move down to Florida and joined sports performance institution IMG Academy where she trained alongside the likes of fellow high school standout, Carly McNatt (TSR #48 recruit).
With IMG, the Illinois-turned-Florida native ran phenomenal personal bests of 16:33 over 5000 meters, 4:49 for the mile and she anchored the third-best all-time high school DMR squad.
After being sidelined with a seven-month injury, David would transfer back to Olney, Illinois in 2022 and go on a dazzling comeback campaign to claim two IHSA state titles with jaw-dropping times of 4:47 (1600) and 10:04 (3200). We would also see David drop an incredible 4:42 mile personal best en route to the win at the Hoka Festival of Miles.
To put it simply, David has not only emerged as an elite megastar at the prep level, but she has also been able to dominate the upper-tier of the high school realm for years on end, showing a level of experience and consistency that is unmatched by fellow Class of 2022 recruits.
For the Cavaliers, a recruit of David’s potential and stature is a reaffirmation that Lananna is continually attracting in the nation’s best talent to bolster this team -- and that their hopes for a competitive cross country team in one of the nation’s toughest conferences now looks increasingly more promising.
While David’s track accolades are nothing to dismiss, her value on the grass circuits is what makes her such a massive addition to this roster.
Against a variety of courses, such as the muddy, frigid NXN hills or the dry, rolling terrain of Balboa park, David's aerobic strength and championship know-how are from "works in progress". Even when she was a freshman, this newest UVA commit was putting forth high-quality races consistently -- something critical for post-season success in the NCAA.
Virginia’s current cross country team is comprised mostly of a young handful of women with only two runners from last year’s Southeast Regional XC Championship team being upperclassmen. Additionally, recent Cavalier success has relied heavily on the likes of runners who boast top-end 1500 meter and mile speed, with not as much of an emphasis on the true long distance events.
David represents a slight realignment of those core Virginia talents.
She gives this team a bona fide cross country star who has the potential to immediately work alongside likes of Margot Appleton and Camryn Menniger over 6000 meters. David could emerge as the perfect low-stick ace to complement the budding pack strength that the Cavaliers have seemingly developed with this year's cross country squad.
David's experience in high-level settings and her flexibility across a range of courses signals that this Illinois native could become for the Virginia women what Natalie Cook is for Oklahoma State or what Riley Stewart is for Stanford -- an immediate front-running challenger who raises the performance of the women around her.
Come track season, should David continue to trend toward the longer events in her college career, she could easily become a dangerous 5000 meter or 10,000 meter contender when championships season comes around.
Her ongoing improvements from this past spring suggest that she has not yet hit her ceiling and that her recent momentum could follow her into the collegiate realm.
While Tatum David still has a few high school races to complete before she ends her prep career, she has already begun to make waves on the collegiate scene with her commitment, and can no doubt look forward to her eventual debut for the blue and orange of Virginia.
And when she does don a UVA singlet, David could be the spark that this program needs to not only return to national contention, but to also act as the building block of being a potential powerhouse that Lananna was expected to assemble when he was hired in 2019.