TSR Collaboration
Nov 22, 202227 min
Written by Maura Beattie & Scotty Loughlin, additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships or at a singular meet. You will notice that these rankings may mirror the national meet results, but not precisely. That is intentional. These rankings are intended to be an aggregate, not a recency list.
Was not ranked in our last update.
First number indicates how much the team has moved in the rankings.
The second number indicates where the team was ranked in our last update.
The 6k course in Stillwater, Oklahoma was not very kind to the Toledo Rockets who tumbled to 28th place at the NCAA XC Championships.
Lead runner Joy Chirchir, who posted a respectable 52nd place, concluded what has been a somewhat up and down season for her. However, if the Rockets were going to have a chance at making some noise and cracking the top-20, then they were going to need a performance like this from Chirchir (check!) as well as a similar performance from their second scorer, Faith Linga.
Linga was in the mix for much of the race, but fell back as the race continued and ultimately finished 127th. And with their third runner only barely cracking the top-200, the scoring portion of this lineup simply deteriorated.
Looking at Toledo’s season as a whole, they’ve gone full circle -- starting at TSR #25, getting kicked out of our rankings, working their way back up to TSR #15 following a phenomenal Nuttycombe performance, and finally falling back to TSR #25.
Next season, they’ll bring back the core of their lineup and could potentially make a jump thanks to some added experience, although admittedly, that was the argument for them this season. Nonetheless, we'll keep a close eye on the Rockets during the upcoming indoor track season for more breakout performers.
The Rams had been slowly but surely been trending upwards during the early portion of the postseason until they faltered hard to 25th place at the national meet.
On the bright side, Sarah Carter ran the best race of her season (and maybe her career) by placing 43rd and finishing just three spots out of All-American range. That was an extremely encouraging sign for Colorado State as Carter is expected to return next season and could be the consistent low-stick scoring spark they’ve been looking for.
Beyond Carter, there were no more top-100 finishers for the Rams, which was surprising given the growing experience and progress that we had seen from women like Annabel Stafford and Lily Tomasula-Martin over the last year.
Ultimately, CSU's excessive scoring forced them well-outside of the top-20 standings that they were expected to finish in. Even so, this was a team that held their own this season. They 4th at the Griak Invitational ahead of Ohio State and Wisconsin and were a very respectable 17th place at Nuttycombe.
Make no mistake, this team deserves to remain in our rankings.
Fortunately, four of Colorado State’s scorers are expected to return next fall (according to TFRRS) and can grow from this fall’s national meet experience.
The Syracuse women gave us two seasons in one. The Orange appeared to be one of the better distance programs in the NCAA during the regular season, but they simply couldn't get any momentum going in the postseason.
The Orange placed 6th at the Cowboy Jamboree, four points behind Stanford and comfortably ahead of teams like Utah Valley, Washington, Arkansas and Michigan. A 13th place finish at Nuttycombe seemed to validate the Syracuse women as a legitimate top-tier team that was on the rise.
Unfortunately, our initial concerns about Syracuse's postseason inconsistencies continued to ring true as the Orange fell to 6th at the ACC XC Championships, barely snagged the second automatic qualifying spot in the Northeast region and eventually faded to 23rd at the national meet this past Saturday.
That said, Savannah Roark has been one of the best bright spots on this team in 2022. Her ability to give the Syracuse women an identity and a true low-stick, one who finished 23rd at the NCAA XC Championships, was massive as the team looked to establish themselves among the best in the NCAA.
Abigail Spiers (124th) and Sophia Jacobs-Townsley (139th) were decent enough this past weekend, but they probably had another 20 points in them, each. And with no other woman cracking the top-180, there just wasn't enough scoring support to truly let Roark's low-stick performance shine.
However, let's be clear on one thing: The Syracuse women are talented. Finishing 6th at the Cowboy Jamboree and 13th at Nuttycombe doesn't just happen by accident. Even so, over the last few seasons, they have continued to leave us scratching our heads in the postseason with results that we think could certainly be better.
So while their regular season does suggest that they should be ranked higher, the Orange's history and last three meets of 2022 suggest that this ranking is a better representation of where they sit in our D1 hierarchy.
You can’t have your best season every single year.
That’s now how this sport works.
And unfortunately for Michigan, they had to learn that this fall.
The Wolverines didn’t see much consistency in their lineup and overall team performances this season as they lacked those two components. As a result, Michigan saw themselves fall to 22nd at the national meet, right in line with our pre-national meet ranking.
We had expected Ericka VanderLende, Katelynne Hart and Kayla Windemuller to be a formidable trio this fall, but that scoring potency never matriculated, making this season a tough one for the Wolverines.
VanderLende wasn't quite as strong as she has been in season’s past and even though she was the runner-up finisher at the BIG 10 XC Championships, her 76th place finish at the national meet wasn't quite the All-American result that we were hoping to see.
Kayla Windemuller looked fantastic early in the season, but seemingly lost some steam in the postseason while Katelynne Hart just never looked like herself for most of the season.
Thankfully, Samantha Tran and Samantha Saenz were reliable top-five scorers this fall, but they just didn't have the same strength that some of their competitors did. And with that, Tran and Saenz saw themselves finish 100th and 141st, respectively, on Saturday.
Those aren't exactly poor performances, but they're not exactly head-turning either for a team that is usually fighting for a top-10 or top-15 showing on the national stage.
The Wolverines left us wanting more throughout the entire season, but they always did just enough to suggest that they were a top-25 team. Their runner-up finish at the BIG 10 XC Championships ahead of Wisconsin, Ohio State and Northwestern is evidence of that.
Michigan was also able to record a 41-second top-five time-spread at the national meet, so the pack-running was there for the back-half of this roster. The firepower, however, was not.
A 21st place finish at the NCAA XC Championships for the Arkansas women basically left us shrugging our shoulders and saying, "Yeah, that seems about right."
Isabel Van Camp may not have earned All-American honors, but anyone who followed the NCAA cross country scene knows that her 48th place finish at the national meet isn't the best indication of her true potential. Still, that was a respectable front-runner result for an Arkansas team that truthfully couldn't be too picky about where they were getting their scoring.
Mia Cochran (64th) has been such a pleasant surprise as a true freshman and finished near the top of her ceiling at the national meet. She gave the Razorbacks a sneaky-good 1-2 punch alongside Van Camp, something that she had quietly done all season long.
Sydney Thorvaldson's national meet finish (113th) wasn't quite as strong as we thought it could be at the beginning of the season, but that's not to be mistaken with a bad result. Plus, based on her regular season, this wasn't too far off from where her results suggested that she would place.
However, the theme all season long for this squad was that the Razorbacks' bottom-two scorers just couldn't support a lineup that was somewhat limited on their top-end scoring potency. National meet finishes of 178th and 211th overall are fairly good evidence of that.
The Arkansas women are in a rebuild of sorts after losing a mass number of elite scorers over the last two years. For them to finish 9th at the Cowboy Jamboree, 19th at Nuttycombe and runner-up at the SEC XC Championships is actually fairly respectable.
Arkansas was never the best team in any field they toed the line for -- it wasn't even close -- but considering the current place that this team is in of their roster lifecycle, you gotta respect what this group did during Coach Lance Harter's final cross country season.
The Florida State women were one of the hardest teams to rank this fall. The Seminoles had such an up and down season before going on to the NCAA XC Championships this past weekend.
And once they were in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the 'Noles went from being unranked to TSR #20 thanks to an 18th place finish on Saturday.
What’s even harder to believe is that the Seminoles were only one point, yes one point, behind Washington, the 17th place team.
It’s hard to know where to start with Florida State as there weren’t too many things pointing to a top-20 finish throughout this season...and yet, a top-20 result also felt plenty reachable.
The Seminoles got some solid performances out of Emmy van den Berg, Alyson Churchill and Agnes McTighe on Saturday as all three women recorded top-85 finishes with van den Berg capping the lead scoring at 50th place overall.
Admittedly, FSU's fourth and fifth scorers were well back in the field, crossing the line in 165th and 184th. Finishes like that weren’t going to propel this team into the top-15, but it was still enough to help Florida State beat some nationally ranked squads.
A lack of consistency still has us scratching our heads with regards to the Seminoles after this season. They were really solid at Joe Piane, struggled at Nuttycombe and just fine at the ACC XC Championships.
And at the end of the day, 18th at the NCAA XC Championships roughly matched the rollercoaster season that Florida State had.
A 20th place finish at the national meet for our TSR #20 team would suggest that the team in question should, naturally, remain at TSR #20 in our rankings.
However, with certain teams' resumes falling to the last few spots of our list (such as Colorado State and Toledo), and wins over the Ohio State women looking more impressive than they did one month ago, the Spartans actually get a one-spot bump.
Katie Osika (33rd) capped off a fantastic year with a huge All-American finish, delivering the same kind of low-stick scoring potency that she has displayed all season long. Meanwhile, McKenna Veen (115th) and Kaitlyn Hynes (125th), while not posting the most exciting results, still offered some level of scoring stability similar to what we've seen from them throughout most of this season.
But with no other women in the top-160 (although their entire top-six were in the top-175), and the only true scoring differentiator being Katie Osika, the Spartans settled for a 20th place finish in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
There's admittedly an argument for Michigan State to be ranked even higher than TSR #19. They beat Ohio State and Wisconsin at both the Griak Invitational and the BIG 10 XC Championships.
However, at the two largest meets of the season, Nuttycombe and the NCAA XC Championships, the Spartans fell to Ohio State once and Wisconsin twice. In fact, if you want to add the Great Lakes regional meet, then Michigan State actually lost to Ohio State twice.
So as a result, it makes sense why MSU, despite being the BIG 10 champions, are settling behind two of their conference rivals in our rankings.
Trying to figure out this Wisconsin team in 2022 has been a major challenge. Outside of losing veteran Alissa Niggemann from last year's team, this lineup is largely the same as it was in 2021.
And yet, at the same time, the consistency that we saw from this group last year was not at all present this fall and the cohesive scoring five that emerged as the Badgers' identity 365 days ago never reappeared over the last three months.
The need for a true low-stick was clearly on display at the national meet as the Wisconsin women didn't have anyone top-90 of the overall results...but maybe that wasn't necessary.
The individual performances of Shea Ruhly (94th), Samantha Stieve (97th) and Lucinda Crouch (104th) weren't going to blow anyone away, but as a collective whole, they gave this team a really solid scoring foundation this past Saturday.
And while the team's final two scorers didn't set any records, overall finishes of 149th and 160th was better backend support than a handful of teams that finished ahead of Wisconsin.
Yes, it's true, the Wisconsin women were 6th at the Griak Invitational behind Ohio State and Michigan State, were 3rd behind Michigan State and Michigan at the BIG 10 XC Championships and faltered to 5th at the Great Lakes regional meet behind all of their main conference rivals.
Naturally, one would wonder, "Then why are they still ranked ahead of Michigan State and Michigan?"
Well, at the two biggest meets of the year, Nuttycombe and the NCAA XC Championships, the Badgers finished 14th and 19th respectively. Those results clearly held more weight than whatever Michigan State and Michigan could hang over Wisconsin's head and that's why they are ranked at TSR #18.
Heading into the NCAA XC Championships, the Ohio State women were riding high.
The Buckeyes didn’t have their greatest showing at the BIG 10 XC Championships (placing 4th), but they turned their season around real beautifully at the regional and national meets before earning a huge 15th place finish this past weekend.
What helped this team see success on the national stage was their top-three who had led this varsity squad all season long. Addie Engel, who is obviously a star talent, had the race of her life when she finished 10th overall.
Engel has made tremendous improvements since finishing 66th at the national meet in the fall of 2021. We knew a big performance was on tap for this OSU ace, but finishing 10th was certainly on the higher end of her possible results.
Daniella Santos and Andrea Kuhn also proved to be the backbone of this lineup. Their borderline low-stick scoring was much needed in the second and third positions of this varsity group.
Both Santos and Kuhn were running extremely well during the postseason, finishing among the top-10 at both their conference and regional meets. Seeing Santos and Kuhn cross the finish line at the national meet in 61st and 75th place, respectively, is extremely promising for their futures.
Ohio State doesn’t have the backend to help complement their 1-2-3 firepower, but that should come with experience. Two minutes separated Engel from the team’s fifth scorer, something that surely needs to decrease to well under a minute if the Buckeyes want to continue being a top-tier national-caliber team.
The early portion of their season wasn't crazy exciting, and the BIG 10 XC Championships certainly could have gone better, but a TSR #17 ranking for Ohio State feels pretty fair.
This is a team that caught fire at the right time.
The Huskies were just two points away from Providence at the national meet (finishing 17th), meaning that they were likely two points away from retaining their ranking at TSR #15 ranking that we gave them in our last update.
In a challenging season where Haley Herberg was never at 100% (and did not toe the line at the NCAA XC Championships), Washington found noteworthy success through the emergence of Anna Gibson (63rd) and Sophie O'Sullivan (73rd). Those two women, for the most part, proved to be the most reliable that they've ever been on the grass.
A nine-second time-spread between their three remaining scorers, who finished between 130th and 160th, sandwiched the Washington women between Providence and Florida State.
Given Herberg’s absence for much of the season, and the inconsistencies that occasionally (but not always) challenged this lineup, this fall was a solid campaign for the Washington women. They never had a performance that truly wowed us, but you always walked away from their final result saying, "that was pretty solid."
If Gibson or O’Sullivan (or both) can turn into the low-stick that Herberg once was in 2021, then the Huskies could find themselves closer to the top-12 next season.
Providence dips down one peg in our rankings after finishing 16th at the NCAA XC Championships, a result that was somewhat in line with where their potential suggested that they could be.
And when you look at who they beat (and didn't beat) during this season, it's hard to argue against a TSR #15 ranking. It seems about right.
Jane Buckley finished up her star-studded rookie campaign with a near All-American finish, crossing the line in 49th place. Buckley was followed by middle distance standout Shannon Flockhart (69th) who showed tremendous growth (and consistency) on the grass this season.
It should be noted that 15th place through 18th place in the women's team standings were decided by a mere four points, so the Friars' backend held together formidably as they were able to narrowly fend off both Washington and Florida State by two and three points, respectively.
The Friars' backend certainly left us wanting more and there's clearly room for improvement, but this was also exactly what we were expecting to see from this team in terms of their lineup structure.
2022 was a noteworthy step forward for the Providence women who were ranked at TSR #19 heading into this season. Their main stars should return next year, and the closer that this BIG East squad gets to rival Georgetown, the closer they’ll get to being a top-10 team on the national stage.
The Ducks were consistent this fall and saw some glimpses of promising success under new coaches Jerry Schumacher and Shalane Flanagan.
On Saturday, the women of Oregon raced around the Oklahoma State cross country course at the national meet and walked away with a very respectable 14th place finish. For a team that came into this season ranked at TSR #21, that was a huge result.
In her first official collegiate cross country season, low-stick star Izzy Thornton-Bott earned All-American honors by crossing the finish line in 36th place. Not too shabby for someone who has also run 2:04 (800) and 4:13 (1500).
Thornton-Bott saw the remainder of her Duck teammates cross the line within 40 seconds of her finish. Sophomores Maddy Elmore and Harper McClain provided the team with two top-90 finishes while Malia Pivec and Klaudia Kazimierska rounded out the scoring by ending their seasons in the top-150.
Thornton-Bott was clearly the star of this program in 2022, but the way that the rest of this team rallied and offered highly stable backend scoring, even if it wasn't flashy, was so admirable. So many women beat expectations and shook off inexperience on stages where they should have crumbled.
The Ducks earned a monumental 11th place finish at Nuttycombe, beat Stanford at the PAC-12 XC Championships to place 3rd and earned a top-half finish at the national meet...despite having their top runner, Alessia Zarbo, out for the season.
Of the seven women who competed over the weekend for Oregon, only one runner was listed as a senior. With national meet experience now under their belts, Zarbo potentially returning and Coach Shalane Flanagan having a full year to strengthen this team via recruiting, the potential for the Ducks to emerge as the best PAC-12 team in 2023 is certainly there.
The Stanford women slide down just one spot to match their finish at the NCAA XC Championships of 13th place.
Zofia Dudek led a strong charge up front as expected, placing 20th overall and earning her first All-American finish. Her return to national prominence this fall was massively important for a deep team that desperately needed low-stick scoring.
As far as the rest of this scoring lineup is concerned, we never saw them replicate their high-floor performances from the Cowboy Jamboree where a Dudek-less lineup gave Colorado a legitimate challenge.
And after seeing them place 7th at Nuttycombe, it's hard to figure out how they ultimately faded back to TSR #13 in our rankings. That, however, was likely because they faltered a bit at the PAC-12 XC Championships and a few teams simply made up for their quieter regular seasons this past weekend.
Even so, there is plenty to be excited about in the future as Dudek will return next season alongside fellow top-100 finishers Lucy Jenks (83rd) and Audrey Dadamio (93rd). Freshman Riley Stewart had an “off” day at the national meet, but was a strong rookie throughout the season as a whole.
Looking ahead at 2023, Stanford very well could have a preseason rank close to where they began on our charts this fall at TSR #8. But for now, they’ll be parked alongside their final result at the highest stage.
Making one of the biggest jumps in our rankings, and rightfully so, are the Virginia women.
On Saturday, the Cavaliers flexed some of the best team-centric racing that we've seen all season long and that tactic paid off as they secured a shockingly impressive 9th place finish, only five points out of 8th place.
Four sophomores -- Mia Barnett, Sophie Atkinson, Margot Appleton and Anna Workmen -- led this young and inexperienced team. These women finished 44th, 46th, 55th and 65th, respectively, and kept their top-four time-spread to just eight seconds.
On paper, essentially every single one of those women ran far above the expectations that were set for them.
Transfers Esther Seeland and Camryn Menninger, who had been finishing right around their teammates throughout the season, faltered a bit in Stillwater, but not dramatically so. Seeland was the fifth runner across the line for Virginia, finishing in 114th place while Menninger was a bit further back in the mid-150s.
But if the biggest critique that we have for a surprise top-10 team is that their fifth runner was "only" in the top-115, then that's a good problem to have.
We admittedly should have realized how good the Cavaliers were earlier this fall, but they simply weren’t facing the best competition until the ACC XC Championships and the Southeast regional meet.
And even when they did toe the line for those races, they were losing to teams such as NC State, Notre Dame and (on one out of two occasions) North Carolina, while defeating other teams such as Florida State, Syracuse and Furman who simply weren't ranked that highly.
By the simple science of who Virginia beat and didn't beat this season, there is a VERY strong argument for them to be ranked higher than TSR #12, likely closer to their exact national meet finish. On paper, they haven't necessarily posted a result which suggests that they don't belong there.
However, with a very limited, and truthfully easy, regular season schedule, it may be more fair to reward teams that faced more consistent challenges throughout the year.
In other words, there isn't a good answer to this rankings scenario.
Regardless, a 9th place finish at the national meet showed us that the Virginia women aren't an underdog any more.
The Utes fall just outside of our top-10 after finishing 12th at the NCAA XC Championships, a very solid end to what has been, by almost every measurement, a grand success.
Emily Venters got the Utah women off to a fiery start as she crossed the line of her final cross country race in 12th place. Venters capped off a phenomenal season, redeeming her DNF result from 2021 and finalizing one of the best comeback campaigns that we can remember.
The second and third scoring Utes – Simone Plourde (45th) and Keelah Barger (80th) – ran very well, and although they didn't quite run as well as we think they could have, they were still by no means bad.
Ariel Keklak (102nd) ended her season as one of the more underrated support scorers in the country while Erin Vringer (133rd) closed out the scoring at a fairly reasonable spot.
Although the national meet didn't go entirely as planned for the Utah women, their season as a whole was still a big step for this program. The Utes won the Griak Invitational over a deep field, had one of the best front-fours at Nuttycombe, tied Colorado (losing the tie-breaker) at the PAC-12 XC Championships and took the second auto-qualifier out of the Mountain region.
Compared to their preseason ranking of TSR #15, closing up shop at TSR #11 should be viewed as a job well-done for the Utes.
The Buffaloes missed out on the top-10 at the national meet by only five points. Where could those five points have been made up? A few places, but this isn’t the time to point fingers.
Colorado had a few setbacks during the course of this season, yet they were still competitive at the biggest meets in the country. Placing 4th at the Cowboy Jamboree, 9th at Nuttycombe and winning the PAC-12 title were the main highlights of their season.
As for their performances from this past weekend at the national meet, the Buffaloes finished roughly where we anticipated them to be. Bailey Hertenstein, who had been running strong all season long, had the best race of her career by finishing 5th. Hertenstein’s transfer from Indiana to Colorado at the start of the fall was clearly the right move and the new training seems to be paying off.
Ella Baran, another transfer, was just what Colorado needed when usual low-stick, Emily Covert, faded hard on the hills to 103rd place. Baran moved up extremely well over the second-half of the race before finding herself vying for an All-American finish.
The former D3 runner shot up 20 places over the last kilometer of the race and ended her season with a remarkable 30th place finish, maintaining great scoring potency for the Buffaloes.
Runners 3-4-5 -- Gabrielle Orie, Emily Covert and Kaitlyn Barthell -- brought the team home. Orie and Barthell finished in 78th and 129th, respectively, with the former result being one of the best results that Orie has ever had.
But as for Covert, the All-American talent reportedly spent much of the season rehabbing an injury and the Oklahoma State course wasn’t going to play nice with those who had a minimal aerobic base.
The Buffaloes obviously had their bright spots this fall with a few bumps in the road. But even without Covert at her best and Hannah Miniutti out of the lineup with a season-ending injury, the Colorado women were still a top-10 team -- and it's really hard to not be impressed by that.
Coming into the NCAA XC Championships, Georgetown’s DNA was that of a team with a strong scoring trio, a reliable fourth runner and a question mark at their final scoring spot.
That makeup was exactly what they showed at the national meet. However, the emergence of some other teams (primarily Virginia) rained on the Hoya’s parade and pushed them to 10th place overall
As far as their low-stick trio was concerned, finishes of 21st, 39th and 59th, respectively, for Maggie Donahue, Grace Jensen and Chloe Scrimgeour was a powerful way to kick-off the team's scorecard.
Sami Corman’s 86th place finish was not her best day given the talent that she has shown in previous races, but it was still plenty respectable while Melissa Riggins’ 123rd place finish was oh-so-close to allowing Georgetown to hold off Virginia.
The Hoyas looked so dangerous this year. They were loaded with elite scoring and their depth, at times, proved to be far more plentiful than we were expecting it to be. And when you look at the teams who they did and didn't beat this year, it's really hard to argue with a TSR #9 ranking as their seasonal summarization.
Um...surprise?
One of the most predictable results that we saw at the national meet this past weekend was the BYU women finishing 8th overall. That result matched our last set of rankings and none of our writers' predictions had the Cougars deviating more than two spots from their final placement.
Aubrey Frentheway (32nd) didn't have one of her better races of the season, and yet she was STILL an All-American and an outstanding low-stick scorer. She was closely followed by Lexy Halladay-Lowry (34th) who shook off her national meet woes with her first All-American honor.
McKenna Lee (70th) didn't get the All-American honor that we thought she could, but she continued to be one of the most reliable veterans in the country while Sadie Sargent (71st) picked a really good time to have the best race of her career.
Through four runners, this team was SO good. Sure, they may not have had the absolute best low-sticks or the absolute best middle-lineup scorers in the field, but the BYU women still looked like they had one of the more complete lineups in the nation.
Admittedly, their final scorer finished 111th overall which wasn't ideal relative to the other scorers on this team. Even so, the first 80% of this scoring lineup was fantastic and they ultimately carried this team on Saturday.
And the craziest part is that we don't think that BYU ran their best race! There was a very realistic avenue where the Cougars could have finished 5th in this national meet field.
Generally speaking, no one should be surprised by this season-ending ranking for BYU. They beat everyone that they should have and lost only to the absolute best teams in the country. Yes, they did fend off both Notre Dame and North Carolina at Nuttycombe, but both of those teams ultimately got the better of the Cougars at the always more important national meet.
Regardless, for a team that was in a semi-rebuild, this was a great season for the BYU women.
The Tar Heels are going to be a force to be reckoned with next year as this entire 5th place team from the national meet is anticipated to return for the 2023 cross country season.
Now, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we need to look at what North Carolina did in Stillwater over the weekend.
Front-runner Brynn Brown was expected to be the leader of this team, but even with a 42nd place finish, she wasn't the focal point of this squad on Saturday.
Instead, it was teammate Kelsey Harrington who filled the role of being the Tar Heels' top scorer. The sophomore, who had been quietly throwing down solid and steady performances throughout the season, ran to a monster 17th place finish, far from what we had anticipated her to do (in a good way).
This set the ball rolling for the Tar Heels.
Brown crossed the line in 42nd, only nine-tenths of a second from the top-40 while teammates Sasha Neglia and Natalie Tyner weren’t too far behind in 62nd and 66th, respectively.
And with true freshman Eva Klingbeil offering even greater scoring stability at the fifth lineup position in 103rd place, the UNC women shockingly cracked the top-five and looked like one of the most complete teams that we had seen all year.
The North Carolina women proved to be a very talented team this fall. They took down a strong Georgetown team numerous times, were competitive in highly challenging conference and regional meets and a 6th place finish at Nuttycombe largely validates this end-of-season ranking for the Tar Heels.
Seeing the Notre Dame women record a 7th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was hardly a surprise, even if their ceiling was that of a 4th place podium team. Much like the BYU women, none of our writers' predictions had the Irish deviating more than two spots from their final placement.
Olivia Markezich (8th) is so. freaking. good. She only got better as the season went on and truly established herself as an elite star. I know we throw the word "elite" around fairly often, but this time, it seems appropriate...I think.
Erin Strzelecki (54th), Katie Thronson (68th), Siona Chisholm (81st) and Annasophia Keller (103rd) didn't stand out in any dramatic way relative to other scorers in similar lineup positions, but they didn't really need to. While it would have been nice to have another true low-stick next to Markezich, the rest of this squad simply did their job and kept this team's floor fairly high on a large and vulnerable stage.
And in the end, that was enough to give the women from South Bend, Indiana a 6th place finish in the overall results.
There may be some controversy with this ranking as the North Carolina women finished 5th overall at the national meet while the Notre Dame women finished 6th. Naturally, one would suggest that the Irish should be listed behind the Tar Heels.
But there were a few reasons why we crafted these rankings like we did.
Notre Dame not only beat North Carolina at the ACC XC Championships, but they also beat them at Nuttycombe (by one place). The Irish are also the only team not named New Mexico to give the NC State women a legitimate scare this season.
And in that same ACC XC Championship race, the UNC women finished 4th overall (without Brynn Brown) behind not just NC State and Notre Dame, but behind Virginia as well.
With the women from Chapel Hill coming into this national meet ranked at TSR #9 and the Notre Dame women coming into this past weekend ranked at TSR #5, it's not entirely unreasonable for their collective seasonal resumes to meet at this intersection of our top-25 list.
The Lumberjacks may not have been able to make the podium this fall, but gosh, did they impress us (and likely everyone else) this season. At the end of the national meet, the women of Northern Arizona were rewarded with their highest national meet finish since 1991 by finishing 6th place overall.
Elise Stearns left it all out there on the grueling Oklahoma State course by finishing a remarkable 4th place overall. If it weren’t for Stearns becoming the most improved distance runner in the NCAA this fall, then NAU wouldn’t have been flirting with a team finish like this.
After resting at the Mountain regional meet, junior Annika Reiss came up three seconds shy of an All-American finish, but still earned a respectable 47th place result. Reiss, another breakout candidate, was great on this course at the Cowboy Jamboree and ran 16 seconds faster this time around.
Jesselyn Bries, Bryn Morley and Alexis Kebbe were the final scorers for the Lumberjacks, crossing in the finish line in 67th, 95th and 99th, respectively. That group offered such wildly valuable scoring stability and they are the main reasons why this team had such a high floor, making them seemingly incapable of having a poor performance.
And the craziest part is that Taryn O'Neill wasn't even a scorer for this squad on Saturday!
NAU has seen tremendous growth over the last few seasons under Coach Mike Smith and that success doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
The home course advantage wasn’t exactly on full display this past Saturday as the Cowgirls settled for 4th place at the NCAA XC Championships -- a result that should still be viewed as an end to a successful season.
The “Batman and Robin” duo of freshman sensation Natalie Cook (7th) and 3k national champion Taylor Roe (13th) ran very well. However, the Alabama women simply flexed far greater firepower and the New Mexico women were almost certainly going to be the deeper team regardless of what Cook and Roe did.
Gabby Hentemann (57th) didn't have her best day as she was unable to reach All-American status like we thought she could. And with Pre-Nationals champion, Billah Jepkirui, fading to 151st, the Cowgirls didn't have anywhere near enough scoring potency to match NC State, New Mexico and Alabama.
However, that said, Gabija Galvydyte (74th) and Stephanie Moss (91st) proved to be a pleasantly surprising backend supporting cast. They at least kept things in tact and didn't take away from the scoring potency that we saw from Cook and Roe.
Based on how their season went, the Cowgirls' final ranking was almost certainly going to reflect their national meet finish as long as it was in the top-five or top-six. And sure enough, that's exactly what we saw.
It’s crazy to think that Alabama had the best top-four in the field and still finished 3rd overall, a total of 52 points behind the national title winners. But like we said all season long, the Crimson Tide women would only go as far as their fifth runner would take them.
The Alabama women have one of the most potent scoring fours that we've seen in a very long time in Hilda Olemomoi, Amaris Tyynismaa, Flomena Asekol and Mercy Chelangat. This quartet showed out this past weekend as all four of them finished among the top-16.
Gosh, that's impressive...
First-year Crimson Tide runner Hilda Olemomoi didn’t let the fact that she had never competed at an NCAA Championship deter her from bumping elbows with the nation’s best. Olemomoi was impressive all season long, never failing to finish outside of the top-three going into Saturday. And although she wasn’t among the top-three at the national meet, a 6th place finish was probably the higher end of her ceiling.
Amaris Tyynismaa finishing 9th wasn’t too surprising. Her history on this course, placing 3rd back in March of 2021, had to play in her favor.
Tyynismaa’s counterpart, the March 2021 NCAA champion, Mercy Chelangat, wasn’t able to run herself to another title. Rather, the Crimson Tide faded to 16th place, a still-great result for someone who seemingly had an "off" day.
Between Tyynismaa and Chelangat was Flomena Asekol. The sophomore bounced back well from an unexciting Alabama Crimson Classic performance to finish 14th at the national meet, a result that exactly matches her preseason ranking from TSR.
The four names mentioned above kept their time-spread to a mere 13 seconds, but when you add in their fifth scorer who placed 155th overall, that spread increases to 72 seconds.
To be clear, Elka Machan was reliable all season long as Alabama’s final scoring option. She is the best fifth scorer who the Crimson Tide have had in quite a while and she is a big reason why there was at least some stability in this lineup throughout this fall.
Even so, without another woman in the top-100, the more complete lineups of NC State and New Mexico ultimately had the edge given the thoroughness in their lineup.
Regardless, the Alabama women should be thrilled. They beat already-high expectations coming into this season and they flexed some of the better raw firepower that we've seen from a non-champion in a very long time.
New Mexico started their season at TSR #2 and held onto that ranking during the fall months, even challenging NC State on multiple occasions.
Leading into the NCAA XC Championships, there was a strong expectation that the Lobos would put all five of their scorers in All-American positions…and they did! That should not be taken for granted considering how strong the national meet field was and how challenging the course in Stillwater, Oklahoma has proven to be.
The main question regarding the Lobos’ chances at a national title was this -- Will one or more New Mexico stars emerge as top-10 finishers to compete alongside the low-sticks of NC State, Oklahoma State and Alabama?
The answer to that was, "no."
Although their firepower didn’t quite pan out, this five-deep lineup of Amelia Mazza-Downie (22nd), Gracelyn Larkin (26th), Samree Dishon (37th), Emma Heckel (38th) and Elise Thorner (40th) all ran smart races within themselves and avoided any excessive scoring that would have sacrificed their silver medal.
If just the slightest thing had gone wrong for NC State, then the Lobos could have absolutely won this national title by simply boasting the best depth in the country.
This squad was thrilling all season long and should be bringing back their whole lineup next year to challenge the Wolfpack one again. And as far as the 2022 cross country season goes, no one can argue with them retaining their TSR #2 ranking.
Standing atop of the podium for the second year in a row were the women of NC State. Despite a few hiccups along the way, including injuries and "off" days, the Wolfpack were still able to walk away from Stillwater, Oklahoma with gold.
As expected, star athlete Katelyn Tuohy gave her team the best low-stick score possible with her individual win. The sophomore wasn’t antsy when Florida’s Parker Valby darted to the lead shortly after 2k, but rather, Tuohy bided her time and slowly moved up until ultimately overtaking the Gator ace.
Kelsey Chmiel was the second part to the Wolfpack's dynamic duo. She delivered yet again as the three-time All-American snagged individual bronze, proving to be one of the best secondary scorers from a championship team in NCAA history.
All season long, Samantha Bush was a reliable scorer and held true to that promise on Saturday, crossing the line as the Wolfpack’s third runner. Bush had probably her best race of the season, recording a 15th place finish to build on what has been an overall fantastic year across all three seasons.
Now, yes, runners 1-2-3 were instrumental to NC State’s success at the national meet, but the woman who really needs the praise is the team's fourth runner, Nevada Mareno.
The Wolfpack veteran essentially saved the day for her squad when she crossed the finish line in 29th place, a huge All-American honor. Mareno was having a respectable season leading up to the "Big Dance", emerging as a reliable varsity option and, at times, the occasional fifth runner for the Wolfpack.
Yet, in Stillwater, she popped off. The senior athlete was on the move from the get go, starting the race in a modest 77th place before moving up an average of nine places per split.
Mareno picked up the pieces that needed to be filled at the national meet and was rewarded with not only an All-American honor finish and team championship, but also our "unsung hero" award that we're randomly making up on the spot.
The remainder of this NC State lineup was far from perfect, but they were at least good enough, even if this team needed to rely on their sixth option.
Freshman Brooke Rauber, who was solid at the ACC XC Championships with her 10th place finish, was able to sneak into the top-100 with a 90th place finish. That result was enough to solidify a comfortable win for the Wolfpack despite her inexperience on this stage.
We had also expected Sydney Seymour to contend for a top-40 finish based on her earlier performances, but her lack of experience at the national meet showed when she didn’t score for her team. That said, her 98th place finish would have still been more than enough to secure the team title if Rauber had faltered.
This was truthfully not NC State's best season ever. They tied with New Mexico at Nuttycombe, got a scare from Notre Dame at the ACC XC Championships, were without Marlee Starliper as well as Savannah Shaw and had to rely on Nevada Mareno having the race of her life to win the national title.
And yet, despite all of that, they walked away from this season undefeated and with the national title. What more could you ask for?
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