TSR's 2021 D1 Winter XC Top 50 Individuals (Women): Update #1

The below rankings take performances from this past fall into consideration, but they do not aim to penalize runners who did not compete last fall. The same can be said for athletes who ran last fall, but are not racing in cross country this winter (until the NCAA Championships).

Was not ranked in our last update.

First number indicates how much the individual has moved in the rankings.

The second number indicates where they were ranked in our last update.

From 67th place in 2017 to 46th place in 2018 to 23rd place in 2019 to 6th place in 2021, Freyhof of Nebraska has shown outstanding improvements at the B1G 10 XC Championships throughout her years with the Huskers. Her recent finish propels her into our Top 50 rankings and makes her one to watch as we inch closer to the NCAA Championships.

Freyhof stuck her nose into the lead pack at the BIG 10 meet and raced alongside some of the NCAA’s biggest and best names. She never fell out of the top-six the entire race and at one point, she was leading the field.

The Nebraska senior could find herself on the starting line at NCAA's come March and could put together a solid run after her stellar performance in one of the deepest conferences in the country.

Ohio State’s Guagenti made a huge jump at the BIG 10 XC Championships, going from 48th place as a freshman to 5th place as a sophomore. Guagenti gained valuable experience during the 2019 cross country season, especially when she competed at the national meet. With Abby Nichols gone and Lainey Studebaker graduated, Guagenti has taken over as the much-needed front-runner for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State is a young team and will most likely miss out on qualifying for NCAA’s given their 5th place finish at the B1G 10 XC Championships. Still, Guagenti could find herself on the starting line in Stillwater, Oklahoma in March.

The Oklahoma State sophomores continues to impress. Her 11th place finish at the FSU Winter XC Classic was very solid and it puts her solid showings from this past fall into perspective.

The Cowgirl low-stick has consistently posted top finishes and despite sometimes being overshadowed by her teammates and fellow BIG 12 competitors, Hentemann continues to show up and produce strong results.

The Stanford veteran returns to our rankings after a brief hiatus when our winter preseason rankings were released. We knew the Cardinal standout was a strong middle distance runner on the track during the 2020 indoor season and we expected that newfound fitness to partially translate over to the grass.

Sure enough, Heymach's 10th place finish at the FSU Winter XC Classic is right in line with our TSR #48 ranking that we gave her in the summer. She seems to have maintained her momentum from last year and if she can continue to build on that, then Heymach may be a name who climbs to a better spot in our rankings.

Yet another strong race from Seymour. She had a breakout cross country season this past fall, placing 2nd at the Louisville Classic and then 3rd at the Blazer Classic. The Volunteers couldn't attend the SEC XC Championships due to COVID-19, but they came back to race at the FSU Winter XC Classic where Seymour finished 9th overall, validating her success from a strong 2020 cross country season in the fall.

The Tennessee junior has yet to have a bad race and hasn't given us a reason to leave her out of rankings. As a result, we're giving her our TSR #46 spot.

Mountaineer standout Ceili McCabe enters our rankings this week after her top-10 finish at the loaded FSU Winter XC Classic. McCabe was a strong runner during her freshman season in 2019, recording a solid 13th place finish at the BIG 12 XC Championships and emerging as a reliable scorer for West Virginia.

Flash forward to the 2020-2021 academic year, and McCabe has entered a new tier.

Back in October, the young runner placed a very encouraging 4th place at the BIG 12 XC Championships in just her first race of the season. McCabe led the West Virginia women to 3rd place team finish, only four points behind 2nd place Texas despite teammate Hayley Jackson not running.

After some time off, McCabe somehow got even stronger and proved that her 4th place finish at the BIG 12 conference meet shouldn’t go unnoticed. After placing 8th at Florida State and beating many top competitors from both the BIG 12 and ACC, McCabe has now shown us on more than one occasion that she is someone who is of Top 50 caliber.

It wasn't anything crazy, but Frentheway's 4th place finish at the Silver State XC Challenge in Las Vegas was a solid result. She beat out a talented distance runner in Haley Herberg and didn't do a whole lot to leave us questioning her talent.

She may have dropped back in our rankings, but when you pair this result with her 3rd place finish at the Oklahoma State Invitational this past fall, Frentheway's position in our Top 50 is actually more stable than a few other women ranked ahead of her.

Boise State brought out some strong firepower at the Silver State XC Challenge in Beling, a graduate student addition from South Africa. In Las Vegas, the newest Bronco star earned a stellar 3rd place finish in a deep field full of Washington, BYU and Northern Arizona ladies.

Beling was only four seconds behind winner Taryn O’Neill, proving that she has the potential to compete for a win even without the experience of racing at the NCAA level. Her 3rd place finish at the Silver State XC Challenge also led the Boise State Broncos to a runner-up team performance, only losing to BYU.

Beling is the low-stick spark that this Boise State team needed. The Broncos had plenty of depth, but their newest weapon gives them firepower that they didn't previously have.

A 20th place finish at the FSU Winter XC Classic wasn't exactly ideal from an individual perspective, but it wasn't like Reinhart had a bad performance either. She ran too well in the fall for her drop out of our rankings after just one race like this.

We don't know if the Blue Devils will be racing at any additional cross country meets in the future (their schedule isn't updated to reflect the winter XC season), but Reinhart will stick inside our Top 50 (for now) unless a crazy flurry of strong performances somehow kicks her out.

A strong middle distance runner, Camp-Bennett showed us that a 2:03 half-miler can compete with the big dogs on the grass as she almost took home a win at the Silver State XC Challenge. The BYU standout placed 2nd overall to winner Taryn O’Neill by only one second and led her team to a dominating win, even without front-runner Whittni Orton (as well as a few others).

Camp-Bennett surely has the capability of competing for an All-American honor on the cross country course as she was 60th in 2019 at the NCAA Championships. She may be better on the track, but it's not like she hasn't been a key contributor on the grass before. The BYU veteran has plenty of experience and has been competitive with top names in previous seasons.

With the hopeful return of Orton into this BYU lineup, and a strong group of underclassmen behind her, Camp-Bennett has a strong support system which could keep her vying for an All-American finish later this year.

It’s hard to gauge where Chmiel could finish at the NCAA Championships in March. She had a respectable 2020 cross country season, but didn’t put up any stellar finishes like she did in 2019.

In 2019, Chmiel was 4th at the ACC XC Championships, but in 2020, she dropped down to 16th place. The sophomore was an All-American in 2019, placing 22nd. She will be instrumental in the Wolfpack vying for the national cross country team title, but we're not sure which version of Chmiel we'll see in March.

Williams didn’t race at the Silver State XC Challenge with her teammates last week, but the Utah senior could be making her debut at the Battle Born Collegiate XC Challenge next week prior to the PAC-12 Championships.

Coggins was solid during the abbreviated fall 2020 season for Florida State. The Seminoles didn’t compete at the FSU Winter XC Classic, but the team will host the FSU XC Last Chance in early March, so hopefully Coggins will race once more prior to a potential team bid to the national meet.

Neglia hasn’t raced since the ACC XC Championships in October. The Tar Heels have not released if they are going to take part in a winter cross country race, but based on her fall campaign, Neglia could earn an individual qualifying bid to the NCAA Championships.

Yes, Tank is dropping in our rankings, but an 8th place finish at the Silver State XC Challenge isn't terrible. This was Tank's first race back since the pandemic halted competition. She was also coming back from an injury she sustained earlier in the year. All things considered, the Utah veteran actually held her own fairly well the other week. We think she still has more upside this winter and could improve as the season unfolds.

We finally got to see Oklahoma State’s Molly Born compete for the first time since the 2019 NCAA XC Championships. She didn't have a jaw-dropping performance, but she wasn't bad either. The 2019 All-American was the third Cowgirl across the line in 15th place at the FSU Winter XC Classic, but some of the ladies who outperformed her proved their dominance in their respective conferences or in prior meets.

The OSU Cowgirls have been a questionable team all year due to the absence of Born during the abbreviated fall 2020 season and Taylor Somers not matching her 2019 performances.

Born is definitely capable of racing alongside teammates Taylor Roe and Gabby Hentemann when she is at full strength and considering that this was a rust-buster for her after a very long absence, we should actually be encouraged by this result.

If she can rally and continue to build off of her most recent result, then Born is worthy of another All-American honor on the grass.

Tuohy has yet to make her NC State debut, but there is still the possibility that she will don an NC State uniform at the national meet. It’s hard to take Tuohy out of the rankings just because we know she has the potential to vie for an All-American honor based on her prep talent. Still, it's getting increasingly more difficult to keep her in our Top 50 despite not racing at all.

Joining the rankings this week is the winner of the Silver State XC Challenge, Northern Arizona's Taryn O’Neill. The Lumberjack front-runner held off BYU’s Anna Camp-Bennett for the win and proved that she is on a new level after a respectable 2019 where she was a front-runner for most of the regular season.

O’Neill is coming off of a big 15:49 (5k) PR from the Sound Running Track Meet back in December, so we knew that she was on the cusp of something big on the cross country course. In 2019, O’Neill had an "off" day at the NCAA Championships, finishing 123rd overall, but her Nuttycombe performance (where she finished 20th) suggested that she could be much better than that.

Sure enough, we're seeing her talent on full display and she is continuing to rise as a top talent.

Chapman had a breakout fall 2020 cross country season, never failing to finish outside of the top-three in any race she toed the line for. Her season ended with a very strong 3rd place finish at the SEC XC Championship which was a 15-place improvement from her 2019 performance.

Mizzou doesn’t have a cross country race on the schedule for this winter season, but Chapman has the potential to earn an individual qualifying bid to NCAA’s in March.

Rice hasn’t raced since winning the 5k at the 2020 MPSF Indoor Championships. The Bruin didn’t compete with her team at the Arizona Invitational, but her next opportunity to race will be at Arizona’s Dave Murray Invitational in mid-February. If she doesn’t race there, the PAC-12 XC Championships will be the first weekend in March, but we'll have to reevaluate her ranking before then.

Even though the Huskies competed at the Silver State XC Challenge, Schadler was absent from the results due to competing at the UW Preview two days before. She opened up her season with a solid 4:38 mile and was a member of their DMR.

Washington didn’t race all their top runners in Las Vegas as they appear to be balancing a combination of indoor track and cross country races this winter. We would expect Schadler to race at the Battle Born Collegiate Challenge and after her stellar 5k at the Sound Running Track Meet in December, she could be a favorite for the individual win.

Wichita State’s Winny Koskei jumps up one spot this week after winning her third-straight American Athletic Conference XC Championship title. At the AAC XC Championships, Koskei broke away late from the field to win by four seconds.

Koskei is a very consistent runner, always finishing where she is expected to. She has been an All-American before, placing 35th at the 2018 national cross country meet and was very close to doing the same thing in 2019 when she finished 47th. She knows what it takes to compete alongside the nation’s best and you can always count on her to earn a top finish.

Gearing concluded her fall 2020 cross country season with a 2nd place finish at the SEC XC Championships and we would expect her to receive a bid to the NCAA Championships. This will probably be Gearing’s first national meet and after taking down some of the nation’s best women last fall. An All-American honor is certainly in the cards for her if she is able to maintain her success from last fall.

We assumed that the Lady Lobos were going to compete at the Silver State XC Challenge, but that didn’t happen. Cohen will either be making her debut at the USATF Nevada Desert Classic or at the Mountain West XC Championships.

We had seen glimpses of greatness from Johnson throughout her career. She was 14th at the 2019 BIG 10 XC Championships and 33rd at Nuttycombe in that same season. She struggled at the NCAA Championships, but the talent has always been there.

Even so, I don't think we expected her to post a huge 4th place finish at the BIG 10 meet the other week. That's huge from a scoring potency perspective and it helps the Spartans emerge as a team capable of being on the podium.

Her past experience and past success, paired with the best race of her career, was enough to give Johnson a comfortable boost into our rankings.

Rather than racing on the track with her teammates, Alabama’s Esther Gitahi travelled to the FSU Winter XC Classic and left with a very solid 6th place finish. Gitahi had a solid 2020 cross country season this past fall which ended a 5th place showing at the SEC XC Championships, a 17-place improvement from her 2018 finish.

She had a little bit of a slow start to her 2020 cross country this past fall, but she has since picked up some steam and has really stepped up in a major way where she is racing like the low-stick talent that we thought she could be.

Gitahi has been an All-American before on the track, finishing 3rd in the 5000 meters at the outdoor national meet in 2019, and has been consistently posting top times and finishes. That gives us no reason to doubt her heading into the next month of competition.

Norris competed with her teammates at the Silver State XC Challenge, but the Falcons didn’t toe the line for the premier race. That, however, didn’t stop Norris from winning the race by nine seconds.

If one were to take Norris’s finishing time and compared it to the premier race’s results, she would’ve finished roughly 15th overall, but the Air Force was largely unchallenged, so it's not exactly fair to make that comparison. We've seen what she has done in the past and should be an All-American candidate yet again in March.

Noe hasn’t raced since winning the Idaho vs. Montana State Clash by a large margin. The Bobcat has competed just once indoors, recording a new PR of 4:49 (altitude adjusted).

The BIG Sky Conference has announced that the cross country conference meet will take place on February 27th. However, Montana State has not released if they are going to compete. If they do, Noe will be able to validate her All-American prowess with a potential battle against conference rival Taryn O'Neill. That could end up being a very exciting matchup.

Much like teammate India Johnson, we knew that Magness was talented coming into this season. She was someone in our "Just Missed" category after posting a very strong 46th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships back in 2019.

However, her overall resume, while certainly strong, didn't exactly jump off the page. That, of course, all changed after the Michigan State veteran posted a 3rd place finish at the BIG 10 XC Championships.

She was well behind Hertenstein and Hasz, but this was clearly one of her better races and it solidified the idea that Magness could be a true low-stick (as well as an All-American) during this winter cross country season.

Forbes of Rice only raced once during the abbreviated fall 2020 cross country season, recording a big win at the Conference USA XC Championship. Since that finish, Forbes has thrown down a solo 15:50 (5k) effort at Texas A&M.

Rice doesn’t need to compete in a cross country race before NCAA's as she has already earned herself a spot on the line. The young distance standout qualified for the 2019 national cross country meet and recorded a respectable 87th place finish, but she is clearly a much more different (and better) runner at this point in her career.

The Villanova junior just ran a modest 4:47.99 mile time on the indoor oval. We're not expecting to see her or the Wildcats until the BIG East XC Championships in March.

Morenaite and her teammates at Iona only have one race on their schedule as of right now, the MAAC XC Championships which are during the first weekend in March.

Mettler didn’t compete with the Falcons at the Silver State XC Challenge last week. Air Force has the Mountain West XC Championship next on their schedule in early March.

Vestri moves up one spot following her very strong 7th place finish at the FSU Winter XC Classic. The runner-up at the ACC XC Championships put together yet another solid showing in Florida, proving that her performances from this past fall were plenty legitimate.

After not qualifying for NCAA’s in 2019 due to a weird scenario where the Northeast Region XC Championships were being run on the roads, Vestri has since been on a roll during the and she even has strong track times to boast.

The Syracuse senior is coming off of a respectable 5k time, only 15 seconds off of her PR from 2019 when she was competing for Iowa State. She also has plenty of experience of racing in national meet settings both on the grass and the track.

Although it doesn’t look like her team will be joining her at NCAA’s in March, Vestri's recent consistency and top finishes -- en route to taking down multiple highly-ranked names -- has been impressive.

Making a big jump in the rankings this week is Colorado’s McArthur after her exciting 5th place finish at the FSU Winter XC Classic. This was by far McArthur’s best collegiate cross country performance since transferring from Villanova in 2019.

McArthur was a strong contributor through 2019, posting respectable finishes and placing 85th at the national meet. Now, with well over a year of altitude training under her belt, McArthur is rounding into the runner that we knew she was capable of being ever since she won the 2018 Mid-Atlantic regional title as a sophomore.

McArthur and the Buffaloes should have a lot of momentum heading into the High Roller Invitational in mid-February and the PAC-12 XC Championships where they will once again face top talent on both the individual and team levels. Another big-time performance could bolster McArthur's stock in our rankings as we haven't seen her race at this level before.

Gregory and her Razorback teammates don’t have to compete during the winter cross country season prior to the national cross country meet thanks to their multiple wins during the abbreviated fall 2020 cross country season.

Gregory has truthfully never had a stellar performance at the NCAA XC Championships before. Her highest finish at the cross country national meet was a 72nd place result in 2019. However, since the fall, Gregory has been on fire and has recorded numerous times that place her amongst the top of the NCAA on the indoor track.

We don't often look at track times when it comes to cross country rankings, but with the way she is running right now, Gregory is clearly showing that she's at full strength and capable of being a star on the grass (if Arkansas opts to pursue the XC national meet).

It’s hard to drop VanderLende in the rankings this week given her resume, but with the Michigan Athletic Department postponing athletics for two weeks, we had to start making some minor moves in these rankings thanks to others who have actually raced.

Luckily, the B1G 10 has granted an additional cross country opportunity for Michigan later this winter. We will likely get to VanderLende who should see some competition at the FSU Last Chance Invitational later this season.

The NC State women don’t need to worry about competing during the winter cross country season as they proved themselves during the abbreviated fall 2020 season, winning each meet they toed the line for.

Clairmonte had a strong fall campaign which resulted in her winning the ACC individual title by 11 seconds. The Wolfpack senior has three years of experience from the national meet under her belt, consistently placing within the top-62. Everything that we've seen from her suggests that she'll be a high finishing All-American come March.

Like her fellow NC State teammates, Steelman hasn’t raced on the grass since finishing 3rd at the ACC XC Championships. The senior also just ran a 5k personal best of 15:47, indicating that she is at least maintaining her fitness and trending in the right direction.

Steelman was an All-American in 2019 at the national cross country meet, finishing 23rd in a deep field. Based on her new improvement, a higher finish seems to be plenty realistic for the newest member of the Wolfpack.

Not much to say with Chalengat. She continues to hold her own on the track after running a new personal best of 9:02 for 3000 meters this past weekend.

Lawson drops this week in our rankings after a tough performance at the FSU Winter XC Classic. The Stanford ace finished 32nd overall, much further back than we expected her to be.

Even so, Lawson hasn't raced since the winter of last year, so we're not going to let a rust-busting performance drop her too far in our rankings. However, her next race will be a big one as we attempt to get a better gauge of where her current fitness is at.

Lawson has the potential (and talent) to bounce back from this performance before the cross country national meet. Stanford will race at the Battle Born Collegiate Challenge and the PAC-12 XC Championships before awaiting a bid to the NCAA Championships.

She doesn't need to be as strong as Donaghu (or even Dudek), but Stanford was relying on the firepower that Lawson brought to the table back in 2019 in an effort to fight for the national title.

Taylor Roe just keeps improving her stock with each and every race. The Oklahoma State sophomore was the only runner who (briefly) challenged Whittni Orton this past fall at the OSU Invitational and has continued to find success this winter.

Roe just earned a big 4th place finish at the FSU Winter XC Classic, taking down numerous All-American-caliber talents such as Rachel McArthur, Esther Gitahi, Amanda Vestri and many more.

Of course, it's been more than just this one race that has allowed her to rapidly ascend up our rankings. Roe has yet to falter in a race this year and her recent performance shows us that she can be competitive outside of just the BIG 12.

Plus, given how well Cailie Logue just ran, it becomes a little more understandable why Roe was consistently settling for runner-up finishes when they were in the same race this past fall.

One race was all it took for Stanford freshman Zofia Dudek to jump into our top-10 rankings. We already knew she was going to be good given her prep career, which was highlighted by a Foot Locker national title, but we didn’t expect her to be this good right off the bat.

In just her first NCAA competition, Dudek impressed with a clutch 3rd place finish, only two seconds behind teammate Ella Donaghu and nearly edging runner-up Cailie Logue.
 

It's only one race, but if Dudek was this good in her season opener, what can she do in her next race with collegiate racing experience now under her belt? Relying on younger scorers in championship settings isn't always ideal, but Dudek has shown us that her upside and potential far outweighs her collegiate inexperience.

Smart has yet to race in a cross country meet, but Washington is expected to race at the Battle Born Collegiate Challenge at UNLV in mid-February prior to PAC-12’s.

A thrilling BIG 10 battle between Hasz and Hertenstein gave us every indication that these two women were just flat-out better than the competition they faced. They comfortably sat within the lead pack throughout the race and made strong, convincing moves which shook off their competition with ease.

It might have been a close ending, but their tactics at the BIG 10 XC Championships were very impressive and ultimately give them the boost that puts them in our top-10.

Auburn’s Joyce Kimeli didn’t compete during the abbreviated fall 2020 cross country season, but she has since taken to the track and has raced a 3k since then. Her recent 3k time of 9:14 is very solid, but not exactly spectacular. Still, it matches her personal best from late in the 2020 indoor season.

We'll wait until our next rankings update to make decision on her, but with Auburn already racing this past fall and not having any additional cross country meets on their schedule, it's possible that Kimeli may not be focusing on this year's winter cross country season.

Truthfully, it was difficult to get a gauge on just how good Logue was this past fall. We knew she was one of the better distance talents in the nation coming into this academic year, but her competition largely came from Taylor Roe, and even that didn't give us a great indicator of Logue's overall cross country talent.

However, seeing her finish 2nd overall at Florida State last Friday, just two seconds behind Donaghu, was impressive. By finishing 2nd overall, Logue gave her resume some diversity when it comes to the top distance talents that she has taken down over the past few months.

Not only that, but we're beginning to see just how good women like Taylor Roe, Ceili McCabe and Gabby Hentemann can be. That makes Logue's convincing wins from this past fall even more impressive and that's a major reason why she got bumped up three spots.

Donaghu holds her place at TSR #2 in these rankings following her win at the FSU Winter XC Classic. This was Donaghu’s first race since COVID-19 halted the indoor track season in 2020, but that didn't stop her from breaking away for a two-second victory over Iowa State’s Cailie Logue and Stanford teammate Zofia Dudek.

A lot can change in the span of a year, but Donaghu stayed true to form despite not racing for quite some time. She is clearly still a top threat who just took down an elite field. The Stanford veteran could use this race as a major confidence booster and potentially carry this momentum into the postseason where she may be able to challenge Whittni Orton.

The BYU women traveled to Las Vegas for the Silver State XC Challenge. However, Orton didn’t toe the line with her fellow teammates.

It has been said that Orton was nursing some foot pain which admittedly makes us a little cautious about her prospects of racing this winter given her prior injury history. Even so, there is plenty of time between now and the NCAA XC Championships in March. Orton is still one of the best overall distance talents in the country and she'll remain at the top position until we have a true concrete reason to drop her from our TSR #1 spot.

Erika Freyhof (Nebraska)

Allie Guagenti (Ohio State)

Ceili McCabe (West Virginia)

Haley Herberg (Washington)

Tyler Beling (Boise State)

Anna Camp-Bennett (BYU)

Taryn O’Neill (Northern Arizona)

India Johnson (Michigan State)

Jenna Magness (Michigan State)

Zofia Dudek (Stanford)

Gabby Hentemann (Oklahoma State)

Alissa Niggemann (Wisconsin)

Aubrey Roberts (Stanford)

Anna Kostarellis (New Mexico)

Lotte Black (Rhode Island)

Katie Thronson (Tennessee)

Marlee Starliper (NC State)

Abby Nichols (Colorado)

Taylor Somers (Oklahoma State)

Hannah Nuttall (New Mexico)

Brogan MacDougall (Wisconsin)

List may be longer than usual as we attempt not to penalize athletes for not running and aim to reward athletes who ran well this past fall (and so far this winter).

- Hannah Nuttall (New Mexico) is no longer lost on the New Mexico roster.