TSR Collaboration
Nov 23, 202231 min
Written by Maura Beattie & Scotty Loughlin, additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: These rankings are based on how an individual 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 athlete has moved in the rankings.
The second number indicates where the athlete was ranked in our last update.
Yasmin Marghini makes a “better-late-than-never” introduction into our rankings thanks in large part to her 35th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships where she picked up All-American honors.
Marghini had a slow start to the season, placing 46th at Joe Piane, but after a decent enough 44th place finish at Nuttycombe, the Bronco ace took silver at the Mountain West XC Championships, knocking off multiple New Mexico stars in the process.
All in all, Marghini progressed throughout the season and ran her best when it mattered the most. And while she doesn't have the most complete resume, she still did enough to emerge as a top-50 talent in our eyes.
Hailing from Columbia, Victoria Patterson joins our rankings following her superb finish at NCAA XC Championships. Although she just missed out on an All-American honor by one-tenth of a second, recording a 41st place finish at the national meet still makes her a sneaky-good talent.
Patterson had been secretly throwing down great results on the east coast all season long. And even though we didn’t rank her after a runner-up finish at both the Penn State National Open and the Ivy League XC Championships, it was clear that she held potential to deliver some exciting results in the postseason -- we just didn't know if that would come to fruition or not.
The Columbia sophomore qualified for the cross country national meet after placing 5th at the Northeast regional meet, a result that was good, but not quite worthy of a national ranking.
But at the national meet, the Columbia Lion began the race sitting in 95th place before weaving her way in and out of the field, charging up the hilly course at Oklahoma State. Patterson was able to get as high as 32nd place with roughly one kilometer remaining, but her early effort started to affect her a bit as she dropped nine places before finishing 41st.
This was Patterson’s second showing at the national meet after finishing 142nd in March of 2021 while competing for Duke. Her race this past weekend shows us that after transferring to a new program and getting some more experience in competitive meets, Patterson could move into the top-40 come the 2023 season.
Last season, Emily Covert finished 31st at the NCAA XC Championships and later backed it up in the spring with a 4th place finish in the 10,000 meters at the outdoor national meet. Given the endurance that she flexed on the track, many thought that she could make a leap into the top-15 or even the top-10 of the NCAA hierarchy if everything went according to plan.
But in reality, this season ended up being a roller coaster for Covert who was working to recover from an injury. In her defense, she did post some solid results, including a 16th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree and a 3rd place result at PAC-12 XC Championships. However, the Colorado ace ultimately lacked a signature performance, ending her season with a 105th place finish at the national meet.
It would be a poor decision to sell Covert stock as the still-rising Buffalo star will have ample opportunity to rebound and grow as her career continues. For now, though, she settles in as one of our last few athletes to crack our rankings.
Annika Reiss had a great start to her 2022 cross country season when she finished 6th at the Cowboy Jamboree. And although she wasn’t able to replicate that performance as the season wore on, she still finished 40th at Nuttycombe and concluded her season with a 47th place finish at the national meet.
And in our eyes, it makes sense to match Reiss' ranking to her national meet finish.
The NAU junior, who sat out of the Mountain regional meet, came up three seconds shy of an All-American finish this past weekend. The Lumberjack standout hovered right around the top-40 to top-60 for much of the race and although that seems like a lot of places, all those women were simply in one tight pack.
She closed well over the final kilometer over the race, passing six bodies en route to her 47th place finish. And given the fact that her only other showing at an NCAA XC Championship was a 196th place finish in March of 2021, you have to be optimistic about what the future holds for this NAU low-stick.
NC state veteran Nevada Mareno was the unsung hero for her team at the national meet this past weekend. After years of struggling to put together a complete season, Mareno not only had the race of her life, but was also rewarded with an All-American finish.
The senior was finishing in the middle of the pack for much of the season. Her 47th place finish and 36th place finish at Joe Piane and Nuttycombe, respectively, were solid, but also fairly modest. Those performances didn’t at all indicate that Mareno would make the leap to the top-40 of the national meet...but here we are.
Mareno began the race a bit further back, passing the first split in 77th place. And by halfway, she had worked her way up to the top-60. Over the last two kilometers, Mareno made one more leap, passing a total of 28 athletes before crossing the line in 29th.
This performance was exactly what NC State needed to secure the national team title. And although Mareno's season holds her back from a ranking that matches her national meet finish, it's still safe to say that few women meant more to their teams this fall than she did.
Grace Jensen was an above-average distance runner during her time at Vanderbilt where she was known more for her 4:13 speed over 1500 meters. However, she broke out in a major way during her final cross country season after switching allegiances to the Georgetown Hoyas.
Jensen raised eyebrows at Nuttycombe with a 41st place finish that was plenty valuable for Georgetown given Chloe Scrimgeour’s absence from that meet. From there, Jensen didn’t look back as she went on to finish 3rd at the BIG East XC Championships, 5th at the Mid-Atlantic regional meet and finally a clutch 39th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.
The Hoya star made a huge impact on Georgetown’s ability to hold off Colorado in the team standings and she earns a well-deserved top-50 ranking after showing outstanding consistency and excellent postseason growth.
A season filled with nothing but top-nine finishes from the Wildcat senior ended with a disappointing “off” day for Perri Bockrath as she faltered to 118th at the NCAA XC Championships.
Even so, Bockrath’s dominance from late September (8th at the Cowboy Jamboree) through early November (9th at the loaded Southeast regional meet), gives her a season-long resume that warrants a top-50 ranking, even with a shaky national meet result.
She's simply that good.
Plus, leaving out someone with that resume, who also won the Panorama Farms Invitational and placed 6th at the SEC XC Championships, would have been robbery.
Bockrath took a significant step up in her fitness during this cross country season, and it will be fascinating to see how that translates to the 3000 meter steeplechase in the upcoming 2023 outdoor track season.
For the most part, it's hard to be too surprised about Elise Thorner's 40th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships this past Saturday. On paper, everything that we saw from Thorner this fall suggested that she would be on the fringes of an All-American and as you can see by the national meet results, that couldn't be more accurate.
Thorner was always a reliable and legitimately valuable scorer for a podium favorite team like New Mexico. Finishing 20th at Joe Piane was respectable, but not amazing, while a 25th place at Nuttycombe was a nice boost to her resume.
In the end, Thorner came through with the final individual All-American honor for New Mexico and for the women's race as a whole. And truthfully, there's not much more to say other than that.
North Carolina ace Brynn Brown got off to a very strong start to her 2022 cross country season, defeating an underrated field at the Indiana Coaching Tree Invite, settling for 6th at Paul Short and posting an excellent 19th place finish.
On paper, Brown was a borderline top-30 talent.
But then Brown was absent from the ACC XC Championships, simply got by at the Southeast regional meet with an 11th place result and then settled for a still-strong 42nd place finish at the national meet this past weekend.
Brown admittedly lost some momentum in the postseason, but don't mistaken those results as poor performances. This UNC sophomore was still plenty productive throughout this entire season and never truly had an "off" day.
There's an argument for her to be ranked higher, but her national meet finish feels like a fair spot to place her in our last update.
One of the more pleasant surprises of the 2022 cross country season was seeing Simone Plourde go from solid lineup contributor to a secondary low-stick next to Emily Venters.
Sure, Plourde was never at Venters' level this fall, especially not after placing 29th at the Girak Invitational, but that was her only sub-par race of the season. The Utah ace a huge breakout race at Nuttycombe to finish 22nd and then validated that result with a season-defining 5th place finish at the PAC-12 XC Championships.
A 45th place finish at the national meet isn't bad. In fact, Plourde has a lot to be proud of when looking at that result. Did we think that she could be a top-40 All-American? Yes, we did, and Saturday wasn't her best result, but it's really hard to suggest that she wasn't one of the 50-best distance talents in the country this fall.
After a fantastic 2022 cross country campaign, we felt pretty good about McKenna Lee's chances of earning All-American honors after barely missing out on a top-40 finish in her last two attempts at the national meet.
Unfortunately, that never came to fruition as Lee placed 70th at the NCAA XC Championships. Even so, anyone who followed Lee's progress throughout the last few months can see that she was clearly one of the better distance runners in the NCAA.
Lee toed the line for two of the biggest, and arguably most competitive, meets of the year that weren't the NCAA XC Championships. Her 18th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree and 15th at Nuttycombe truly validated this BYU veteran as someone who could reliably thrive in large race settings such as the national meet.
Even so, Lee deserves a lot of recognition and respect for what she has done over the years. While she was never the low-stick star that many of her former teammates were, Lee still played an instrumental role in the Cougars' success from the last few seasons.
On their home course, Gabby Hentemann and Billah Jepkirui weren’t able to deliver top-40 performances, a disappointing development given the clear upper-echelon fitness that they both boasted.
Of the two, Hentemann had the better race this past weekend, recording her best-ever showing at the national meet when she crossed the line in 57th place. We knew that the veteran would be barely flirting with the top-40 at the national meet as she hasn’t always been consistent on this stage, but we were still hoping that she would walk away with All-American honors.
As for Jepkirui, her inexperience on the national stage showed over the weekend. She was never able to find her groove, starting the race fairly far back and not being able to make up more ground in the process.
Of course, her 151st place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was by no means indicative of where Jepkirui could finish on the right day. Remember, she won the Weis-Crockett Invite and was 3rd at BIG 12 XC Championships.
Both of these women are better than what they did this past weekend and we know that. They drop back in our rankings considerably, but based on the way that they ran earlier this season, they still solidified themselves as two marquee names in our rankings.
Coming into this season, we didn't entirely know what to expect from Ella Baran, a graduate transfer from D3 powerhouse Johns Hopkins who was 9th at the 2021 D3 cross country national meet and held a 15:49 personal best over 5000 meters.
On paper, there were signs that Baran could be a nationally competitive name at the Division One level, but we didn't have too many instances of someone as accomplished as her moving from D3 to D1.
Despite the Division One inexperience, Baran made her transition relatively seamlessly. The Colorado ace secured a highly encouraging 17th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree, settled for a slightly less impressive 47th place result at Nuttycombe and then bounced back with an encouraging 7th place finish at the PAC-12 XC Championships.
However, Baran's 30th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships this past Saturday was clearly the best result that we had seen from her this fall. We knew that she could potentially crack the top-50, but snagging a 30th place finish was likely beyond the highest ceiling that we would've given this Colorado runner going into this past weekend.
With a decent level of consistency, success across numerous races and a clear ability to peak in the postseason, Baran deserves to make a big jump in our rankings.
Admittedly, we had higher expectations for Emma Heckel during the summer months as we listed her at TSR #8 during the release of our preseason rankings. And while she never truly matched those expectations, she still proved to be a very consistent upper-tier scorer for a powerhouse program.
Heckel produced a solid 16th place finish at Joe Piane, posted an equally impressive 26th place finish at Nuttycombe, was 3rd at the Mountain West XC Championships and just ended her season with a 38th place finish at the national meet.
Sure, this Lobo standout wasn't quite as strong as she was in 2021, but the value that she brought to New Mexico over the last three months makes her one of the best distance talents in the NCAA.
Michigan State’s Katie Osika impressed us at the BIG 10 XC Championships earlier this fall and carried that momentum into the rest of the postseason.
Osika essentially came out of nowhere after an unexciting 2021 fall cross country campaign. However, in 2022, she picked up a 37th place finish at Nuttycombe and then built her resume even further by snagging a 2nd place finish at her conference meet. She then followed up those performances with a 3rd place finish at the Great Lakes regional meet before heading into the national meet.
On Saturday, the second national meet of her career, the junior standout picked women off left and right as she traversed the hilly Oklahoma State cross country course. Osika managed to pass 137 bodies between the first kilometer and end of the race before earning an outstanding 33rd place finish.
For her hard work and patient running, the Spartan athlete was rewarded with her first All-American honor and was given a small bump up in our rankings, just a touch outside of where her national meet finish was.
BYU’s Lexy Halladay-Lowry came on exceptionally strong late in the season.
Her consecutive 4th place finishes at the WCC XC Championships and the Mountain regional meet stood out on her resume prior to the national meet, as did her 13th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree. But after finishing 34th this past weekend, the All-American honor has to be the highlight of the junior’s season.
Halladay-Lowry's national meet performances went from 184th place in March of 2021, to 164th place in the fall of 2021, to most recently 34th place in 2022.
In Stillwater, Halladay-Lowry held on to a top-50 finish for the entire race, hanging with the pack in front of her and racing within sight of teammate Aubrey Frentheway. The final kilometer, which has a long incline, was tough for Halladay-Lowry as she was passed by 11 women, but she was still able to walk away with a top-40 finish.
This BYU junior is finding where she belongs after acclimating to Coach Diljeet Taylor’s training and that's a great sign for the future. She largely settles into a ranking that mirrors her national meet finish, effectively shaking off a now-negligible 57th place finish at Nuttycombe.
For the most part, what you saw is what you got from Grace Fetherstonhaugh. The Oregon State ace was a steady and reliable low-stick (alongside teammate Kaylee Mitchell) and simply produced results throughout this season that roughly match this kind of ranking.
Fetherstonhaugh secured a pair of 14th place finishes at Joe Piane and Nuttycombe earlier this year, effectively validating herself as a national-caliber low-stick. Her 9th place finish at the PAC-12 XC Championships was fine, but we certainly wanted more.
Luckily, we got more from the Beaver runner who finished 31st overall at the NCAA XC Championships this past Saturday.
Teammate Kaylee Mitchell may get more of the national spotlight, but Fetherstonhaugh isn't far behind. Her accolades deserve plenty of respect as well.
There weren't many women in the NCAA who had a better regular season than Samree Dishon. The New Mexico star, after a great year on the track, finished 13th at Joe Piane and then stunned the nation with a monster 8th place result at Nuttycombe.
Those two results seemingly gave the Lobos at least some firepower to potentially match what NC State boasted on their roster.
But after sitting out of the Mountain West XC Championships and then struggling at the Mountain Regional XC Championships, placing 98th overall, there legitimate questions from our TSR staff about what we should expect from Dishon at the national meet.
Luckily, the New Mexico youngster rallied, placing 37th overall to earn All-American honors and to salvage a postseason that produced some concerns.
Regardless, Dishon has a much better resume than some people realize and even with that odd stretch of conference and regional results, she should still be considered as one of the better young talents in the country.
After somewhat of an “off” day at the Dellinger Invite -- which might have been an intentionally conservative effort -- Izzy Thornton-Bott popped onto our radar as a potential All-American candidate with her solid 24th place finish at Nuttycombe.
From there, all the Oregon ace did was continue to impress as she finished 4th at the top-heavy PAC-12 XC Championships as well as the West Regional XC Championships. Thornton-Bott’s stock was on the rise going into Saturday and she seemed primed for a crack at the top-20 of the national meet.
That didn't quite happen as the Duck star ended up 12 seconds out from the top-20, but she still went on to finish 36th at the national meet. All in all, Thornton-Bott produced a consistent and exciting season and earns a TSR #31 ranking in our final update.
Laura Pellicoro took her middle distance speed and turned it into aerobic strength this fall.
2nd place finishes at the Bill Dellinger Invite, WCC XC Championships and the West regional meet highlighted the Portland star's resume, but it’s her Nuttycombe and national meet performances that truly showcased her talent.
Pellicoro’s 32nd place finish at Nuttycombe might not be a head-turning result, but it helped put her on the map. And at the national meet this past weekend, Pellicoro ran herself to not only a top-40 finish, but one-upped that by crossing the line in 25th place! That result was way in front of where we had projected her to finish just eight days before.
Portland’s star athlete went from missing out on the national meet last fall, to running stellar times of 2:03 (800) and 4:15 (1500) on the track, to no longer being an underdog on the cross country course.
Pellicoro has shown so much growth in one year and we are loving what we've seen from her as we head to the indoor track season.
Savannah Roark burst onto the scene this season when she notched a top-10 finish at the Cowboy Jamboree, a result that suddenly thrusted her into the All-American conversation.
However, her results at Nuttycombe (31st) and the ACC XC Championships (15th), while still solid, supported the idea that this Orange star was more of a fringe-contender for an All-American spot rather than a favorite to do so.
Fortunately for Roark, what you do in November matters the most and she took full advantage of the national meet, placing 23rd overall and capping off her breakout season. it was a massive result that easily shattered the previous bar that this Syracuse underclassman had set for herself this fall.
It seemingly didn’t take long after the departure of Amanda Vestri for Syracuse to find another true low-stick. And after Saturday, it’s very possible that Roark could be even better than Vestri when her career is all said and done.
Every year, there are a few runners who are essentially unknowns heading into the cross country season -- and Amina Maatoug was one of those women this fall.
I distinctly remember seeing the Duke sophomore’s first result, a 13-second victory at the Virginia Invite, and thinking, "How did we miss her name in the preseason?"
But here we are, at the end of the season, ranking this Blue Devil star at TSR #28 following her strong first season in the NCAA.
Maatoug was stellar in all meets this year before qualifying for the "Big Dance" in Stillwater. Her winning performance at the Virginia Invite was followed up by a 2nd place showing at Paul Short against a lethal and top-heavy field. Seeing Maatoug later finish 28th at Nuttycombe was no blemish on her season as it was her first truly competitive race and still a highly respectable result.
At the ACC XC Championships and the Southeast regional meet, the Duke runner recorded 4th and 6th place finishes, respectively. By the time she toed the line at Oklahoma State, she was in the running to earn her first All-American honors and did so by finishing 28th.
A lack of inexperience on the national stage didn’t hinder Maatoug’s performance whatsoever and she perfectly matched expectations as the season unfolded. She was a pleasant surprise.
Outside of Nuttycombe, where Bethany Graham finished 30th, the Furman star was difficult to gauge this fall given her lack of competitive meets during the regular season.
Between that Nuttycombe result and her 40th place finish at last year’s NCAA XC Championships, Graham seemed like she was due for All-American honors once again, and frankly, her 27th place finish was just about in line with where it seemed like her talent would take her.
Still, the Paladin star deserves a bump up in our rankings after having a full season free of any truly poor races while finishing in the top-30 of the national meet.
Maggie Donahue looked solid throughout the entire season, but after finishing 33rd at Nuttycombe, she seemed to be running closer to fringe All-American contender rather than a true top-40 lock.
That is, until she broke out with a massive 21st place performance at the NCAA XC Championships this past weekend, bettering her finish from a year ago by nine places and picking up her third All-American honor on the grass.
Donahue’s campaign was consistent from start to finish. Sure, there were moments where her resume lacked exciting “sparks” throughout the regular season, but the Hoya star still peaked at the perfect time and lands at a well-deserved TSR #26 ranking.
She has proven to be one of the most reliable postseason distance runners in the country.
The Razorbacks as a team weren’t as deep as they have been in the past, but Isabel Van Camp gave them excellent firepower upfront which they absolutely needed.
Week after week, the Razorback junior was finishing among the top-10. Her best showings were 10th at both the Cowboy Jamboree and Nuttycombe followed by a very strong 4th place result behind a slew of Alabama women at the SEC XC Championships.
Van Camp was expected to be an All-American finisher this past week at the "Big Dance", but she came just shy of that goal when she finished 48th. You still have to give her plenty of credit as she was only three seconds out of the top-40.
Arkansas’ low-stick star hovered around the top-45 mark for much of the race before struggling to find that finishing kick that she needed, although she still has plenty of time to fine-tune that skill for next fall.
And truthfully, almost everyone who followed NCAA competition this fall would agree that 48th at the national meet is not indicative of Van Camp's true potential.
If you didn't know Kelsey Harrington’s name...well, you probably do now.
The North Carolina sophomore, who joined the rankings after her 27th place at Nuttycombe before falling back out after the ACC XC Championships, rejoins our list following her jaw-dropping and completely unexpected 17th place showing at the national meet this past weekend.
All season long, Harrington was lurking behind teammate Brynn Brown before making the jump out of Brown’s shadow to show off her own talents. The Tar Heel ace was consistent in her races leading up to the "Big Dance", never exactly finishing at the top, but she was always on the cusp of a big performance, which came on the right day at the national meet.
Harrington raced like a veteran on a challenging Oklahoma State course and although her ranking doesn't match her national meet finish, it still gives her a massive boost.
After a quiet 18th place finish at Joe Piane and an “off” day at the Alabama Crimson Classic, Flomena Asekol began finding her stride at the SEC XC Championships where she placed 7th.
Heading into the national meet, we felt like the Alabama star was on track to be a potential All-American or closely missing out…but that was not the case.
Instead, the Crimson Tide veteran obliterated her competition in Stillwater, Oklahoma and finished 14th overall -- 15 places better than her performance from last year’s NCAA XC Championships.
Now that she has had national meet success on multiple occasions, we don’t expect to see Asekol outside of the top-30 next season unless something goes horribly wrong. While she certainly could've have been better in a few situations, she never had a truly horrible race and clearly flexed the fact that she was one of the most naturally talented runners in the NCAA.
Aubrey Frentheway hovered around TSR #15 for most of the season, consistently delivering top-tier performances on the highest stages and even taking home the WCC XC Championship individual title.
The Cougar veteran had experience finishing highly at the national meet course in Stillwater during the 2021 NCAA Winter XC Championships (15th) and seemed like a lock to replicate or exceed that performance. After all, this was someone who placed 4th and the Cowboy Jamboree and 11th at Nuttycombe!
While Saturday wasn’t the best day for Frentheway, her 32nd place finish still resulted in a well-deserved All-American honor, and given her season as a whole, we’ll only slide her back to a TSR #22 ranking.
Generally speaking, the ever-consistent Lobos matched most of our expectations at the NCAA XC Championships as Gracelyn Larkin finished 26th while Amelia Mazza-Downie took home 22nd.
As stellar as those performances were, New Mexico was going to need one of their main stars (i.e. these two women) to break out with a top-10 (or even top-15) finish if they wished to challenge NC State.
Looking at all aspects of their resumes – the value of these national meet performances, balanced with their strong seasons as a whole and the sky-high expectations for this national meet – a minor drop in the rankings feels appropriate for the Lobo’s front duo who will be back in the mix next season.
Coming into college, Stanford’s Zofia Dudek was expected to contend for All-American honors right off the bat. And during the altered winter cross country season, she looked like one of the most lethal distance talents in the NCAA.
However, due to some unforeseen injuries and setbacks, the sophomore had to wait until her third national cross country meet to crack the top-40.
Back during the unprecedented winter cross country season of 2021, Dudek was on a roll leading up to the national meet, but she faltered in that race and ended up finishing 156th. Fast forward a few months to the fall of 2021 and she fell short of an All-American honor with a 63rd place finish.
However, early-on, things were looking up for this Stanford ace.
The Cardinal athlete opened her season with a very encouraging 16th place finish at Nuttycombe before finishing 6th at the PAC-12 XC Championships and 3rd at the West regional meet. With little racing in her legs, Dudek finally lived up to her high school resume when she finished 20th at the NCAA XC Championships this past weekend.
Dudek was among the leaders early on during Saturday's race, but she was slowly moving backwards over the course of the race. Of course, she can’t be disappointed with an All-American honor. The low-stick value that Dudek brought to this team in 2022 was very much needed given that no other Cardinal runner was able to match her level of firepower.
Samantha Bush was ranked in the preseason at TSR #17 and closes out our rankings at TSR #18 after finishing 15th overall at the NCAA XC Championships.
For all the breakouts and surprises of the 2022 cross country season, Bush was not one of them, as she was expected to take a leap after putting together a breakout campaign throughout her last academic year.
Bush consistently emerged as a potent middle-lineup scorer for the Wolfpack and her ability to deliver on the biggest stages – finishing 5th at both Joe Piane and the ACC XC Championships, 18th at Nuttycombe and her aforementioned national meet finish – were instrumental in NC State bringing another team title back to Raleigh.
Sure, this NC State star brought plenty of firepower to this team in 2022, but her consistency is a major reason why she earns a top-20 spot in our final set of rankings.
For those who kept track of what Everlyn Kemboi did during the 2022 outdoor track season, it's likely not a surprise to see this Utah Valley star have major success on grass. However, Kemboi reached an entirely new level this fall that was very much on the higher end of what her true potential was.
Her 3rd place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree was a massive introductory statement to the NCAA, her win at Paul Short over a top-heavy field was validation of her talent and her 13th place finish at Nuttycombe, while not entirely perfect, legitimized Kemboi as an upper-tier scoring weapon for UVU.
Kemboi ended her season with a 19th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. That was a good result, maybe even a great one, but it wasn't quite on the same tier of performances that she was flexing during the early portion of the season.
Regardless, Kemboi's 2022 cross country campaign should be considered a grand success.
No one was coming into this season doubting Kaylee Mitchel's talent. She was an All-American in both cross country and the steeplechase and had also run times of 8:58 (3k) and 9:34 (steeple).
However, it was clear that Mitchell elevated her fitness to a new level this fall. 4th place finishes at Joe Piane AND Nuttycombe stunned most of us at TSR as we were forced to wonder, "What is Mitchell's ceiling this season?"
Mitchell did come back down to Earth with a 12th place finish at the PAC-12 XC Championships, and her 18th place finish at the national meet could have maybe been five spots better, but no one is denying that this Oregon State standout was able to be a legitimate threat to some of the most highly ranked women in the NCAA this fall.
It seems almost wrong to rank someone as legitimately talented as Ceili McCabe at "only" TSR #15 to end the season. However, with a limited resume and a tough national meet result, we really couldn't justify a ranking much better than this.
Wins at the Louisville Classic (over Bethany Graham) and the Penn National Open (over Victoria Patterson) were solid, and her BIG 12 title victory over the entire Oklahoma State lineup was wildly encouraging, but there really wasn't a major race to lift up McCabe's resume.
And after seeing her fall to 24th at the national meet, we had to send her backwards in our rankings. However, she remains in our top-15 given the fact that she took down both Taylor Roe and Natalie Cook in the postseason.
Is it fair to rank someone at TSR #14 if they were originally ranked at TSR #6 and are now back to a spot that was lower than their national meet finish?
I don't think if that makes a whole lot of logical sense, but there were simply a handful of women who just had better overall seasons than Taylor Roe which is ultimately why she is sitting at this spot in our rankings.
Regardless, a runner-up finish at both the Cowboy Jamboree and the BIG 12 XC Championships certainly put Roe in some very interesting territory going into the national meet. However, her resume, compared to a few others, was just the slightest bit more limited in term of meet diversity.
Is a 13th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships what we were expecting to see from Roe? No, maybe not, but she still had a great season and our perception of her hasn't really changed after that result.
Few women have had better comeback campaigns than Emily Venters.
After struggling with injuries and body image challenges (which she detailed to The Stride Report in a featured piece a few years back), Venters has returned to a level that has surpassed the All-American form that we saw from her at Boise State.
This fall, she beat Addie Engle to secure the win at the Griak Invitational, truly validated herself as a national-caliber star with a 6th place finish at Nuttycombe and then settled for a runner-up result at the PAC-12 XC Championships.
Venters was on absolute fire going into the national meet and had a very real chance of cracking the top-10. That ultimately didn't happen as Venters instead placed 12th, but no one can say that Venters' season was anything other than a grand success.
And if it wasn't for Mercy Chelangat maintaining a spot in our top-10 (despite placing 16th at the national meet), Venters would have likely ended her season ranked at the same spot that she finished in during Saturday's race.
If we learned anything this season, it’s that Maia Ramsden’s name shouldn’t be overlooked. And sure enough, she proved that point to us with her 11th place finish at the cross country national meet this past weekend.
The Harvard sophomore, a strong middle distance runner given her 4:12 speed over 1500 meters, took to the cross country 6k distance in a big way this fall. Ramsden raced six times this season and even though her three victories and two 7th place finishes look strong, it was her 11th place result at the national meet that was the real cherry on top for her breakout season.
Ramsden improved by 99 places from her 2021 NCAA XC Championship performance to earn her first All-American honor on the grass. She remained in the top-14 the entire race on Saturday and only missed out on the top-10 by two seconds.
With two more cross country seasons available for the Crimson athlete, the top-10 will not be out of the question for her next fall given her consistency and confident racing style.
Addie Engel was on a revenge tour this fall after missing out on the top-40 last year at the 2021 cross country national meet. She wasn’t going to let another All-American honor slip out of her hands and for that, she impressed us in a major way by going from 66th at the 2021 national meet to 10th this past weekend.
The Buckeye superstar and BIG 10 champion was on the move throughout the entire race this past weekend. She stuck onto the pack right from the gun and was able to pass 39 women from the first split to the finish line. Engel’s 10th place finish wasn’t exactly surprising by any means given her BIG 10 individual title and runner-up finish at the Girak Invitational, but to see her lead her Ohio State teammates to a 15th place finish caught our attention.
All eyes will be on this Ohio State ace over the winter and spring months as we see how well her cross country strength will translate to the track.
Although both of these women hail from the same school, we didn’t expect to have a scenario this season where they’d be ranked immediately next to each other. We were high on Amaris Tyynismaa (preseason TSR #12), but Mercy Chelangat was, of course, our preseason TSR #1 runner.
Leading up to the NCAA XC Championships, Chelangat had faded out of the national title conversation after being beaten definitively by both Katelyn Tuohy and Parker Valby. Even so, she still had a consistent 2022 campaign and seemed primed for a top-five finish at the national meet.
Instead, the Crimson Tide senior finished her legendary career on the grass with an “off” day of 16th place at the national meet. Tyynismaa, on the other hand, exceeded the expectations for her 2022 season and cruised through the course in Stillwater, Oklahoma course to a 9th place finish.
Both runners deserve top-10 recognition for their seasons as a whole. Chelangat helped create a culture of success at Alabama and she was still one one of the most accomplished runners in the country this fall based on her overall resume.
Olivia Markezich is a true championship racer.
The Notre Dame junior improved upon her 11th place showing at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships by finishing 8th this past weekend. Her season leading up to the national meet indicated that she would be a top-20 contender, but she made that one extra jump in her racing style to crack the top-10.
The leading lady for the Fighting Irish arrived in Stillwater, Oklahoma after having the best race of her season at the Great Lakes regional meet. In that race, Markezich held off Ohio State’s Addie Engel en route to a three-second victory. Eight days later, she once again capitalized on the momentum that she was building in the postseason.
Markezich found herself among the top-15 right off the bat and didn’t waiver out of that placement over the course of the 6k competition. She ultimately landed an 8th place finish in an extremely fast race and was only one second out of finishing in the top-five.
Natalie Cook may not have been the best freshman in the national meet field, but she came mighty close -- seven-tenths of a second close.
The Cowgirl ace, who came into college as a key name to watch this fall, exceeded already-high expectations. Leading up to the national meet, Cook never failed to finish outside of the top-four, keeping her name in the mix of every major meet she toed the line for.
After winning her season opener, the Cowboy Jamboree, which proved to be one of the most competitive meets of the year, Cook was able to ride that wave of momentum throughout the rest of the season.
Racing with the home course advantage, Cook ran 31 seconds faster than she did at the Cowboy Jamboree and finished 7th overall on Saturday, leading her Oklahoma State teammates to a 4th place podium finish.
This is just the beginning for Cook. She thrived this year despite being her inexperience working against her. The only direction that she can go from here is up to the very top of the NCAA hierarchy of superstars...well, maybe once Tuohy leaves.
JUCO transfer Hilda Olemomoi absolutely tore up the NCAA in her first year of Division One competition and the scary thing is...she still has loads of eligibility left, so she won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
In hindsight, Olemomoi flew under the radar as our TSR #20 runner in our previous rankings, as her resume had 3rd place finishes at Joe Piane, the SEC XC Championships and the South Regional XC Championships.
We're not sure how, but sometimes, we just don't get every ranking right...but only sometimes.
Capping off her rookie D1 season with a dynamite 6th place finish at the national meet was a huge statement to the rest of the NCAA. It's clear that Olemomoi is going to be a major problem for her NCAA competitors for years to come.
When the season began, it was expected that Bailey Hertenstein could be a high-impact transfer who would serve as a low-stick scorer for the Buffaloes. However, she exceeded that expectation early-on and proved to be so much more than an All-American talent.
The former Indiana Hoosier finished in the top-11 of every race that she toed the line for this fall, including national-caliber fields like the Cowboy Jamboree (11th) and Nuttycombe (5th). She also won the PAC-12 XC Championships!
While we thought Hertenstein would be a force to be reckoned with at the national meet, a 5th place finish was firepower that truly displayed her full ceiling of talent. It was a storybook way for the newest Buffalo star to end her first season at Colorado while picking up her third All-American honor in cross country.
Elise Stearns has to win the most improved award for this year...and it shouldn't be close. The sophomore made huge gains over the course of this season and consistently found herself bumping elbows with the nation’s absolute best in almost every major race this fall.
The Lumberjack front-runner went from 196th at last fall's national meet to 4th this year.
What a difference one year made for Stearns...
Over the course of the season (not including the national meet), Stearns raced six times and of those six races, her highest (i.e. "worst") placement was 5th at the Cowboy Jamboree, which was essentially her coming out party.
From there, Stearns continued to impress with a 3rd place finish at Nuttycombe, a win at the BIG Sky XC Championships and a runner-up showing at the Mountain regional meet. Her performances leading up to the national meet pointed towards continued success.
On a cold day in Oklahoma, the sophomore raced confidently from the front, only dropping as low as 15th place before getting back into the top-10 over the second-half of the race. Stearns found herself charging late in the race, passing three women over the final kilometer and finished two seconds ahead of the 5th place finisher.
For all of the success that the NAU men have had this season, Stearns is helping put the Lumberjack women on the map, giving them a true, nationally elite low-stick who gives this sneaky-good roster an identity.
NC State’s Kelsey Chmiel was one of the most consistent runners in the NCAA this fall and that gradual build of excellent results left her slowly inching up our rankings. The already three-time All-American added a fourth honor to her resume, this time with her best national meet finish ever (3rd).
Chmiel waited to start her season until the Nuttycombe Invite in mid-October and the delayed start seemed to paid off. The junior picked up three runner-up results going into the national meet, always finishing behind teammate Katelyn Tuohy.
At the national meet this past weekend, Chmiel’s experience on that stage and consistency paid off. The Wolfpack junior started the race out in a modest 21st place, but began moving herself up from there, getting into the top-10 just after the 2k mark.
That's how an experienced and extremely smart race navigator executes a game plan to perfection.
Chmiel essentially ended up in "no man’s land" over the final kilometer. Even so, she crossed the line in 3rd place, seven seconds behind runner-up Parker Valby and six seconds ahead of 4th place finisher Elise Stearns.
And who knows? If there had been more racing distance left, then could Chmiel have chased down Valby? That may not be as crazy of a suggestion as you might think...
There’s not much else that Parker Valby could’ve done on Saturday. The Florida Gator tried to take the kick out of Katelyn Tuohy, making her move around two kilometers, but that tactic was never guaranteed to work -- it did, however, give Valby a fighting chance.
Valby, who had flat-out won all of her races this fall, had an 11-second lead at one point over the 6k race, something that had to be done if she wanted to go for the win. The sophomore's lead began to shrink over the last kilometer and she wasn’t able to latch onto Tuohy when she was passed.
But still, you have to hand it to Valby. She wasn’t exactly demoralized when passed as she still held on for a solid 2nd place showing, only three seconds behind Tuohy.
Her season was still stellar and although she wasn’t able to get a coveted NCAA title, the Gator athlete will surely be looking for redemption next fall and in future seasons.
Katelyn Tuohy is the best of the best. The sophomore went undefeated during the season, going five-for-five in her racing schedule. Tuohy won her second NCAA title, her first on the grass, by proving herself to be a master tactician.
The NC State star bided her time on the grueling Oklahoma State cross country course, not worrying too much when Parker Valby put in a surge early-on. Tuohy rallied late in the race and charged her way up the hills before catching Valby over the final kilometer.
And when she passed the Gator runner, Tuohy had the race in her hands. Her 4:06 speed over 1500 meters gave her what she needed to kick past Valby and win by three seconds.
The Wolfpack phenom never failed to keep her competition an arms length away (or more) every time she toed the line this fall. Tuohy’s three-second victory was on Saturday was also her closest race all season, but the way she accomplished this victory was remarkable.
Tp put it simply, Tuohy is on a different level than her NCAA competitors and there’s no telling what she will do over the rest of her collegiate career.
Kelsey Harrington (North Carolina)
Grace Jensen (Georgetown)
Victoria Patterson (Columbia)
Yasmin Marghini (Boise State)
Nevada Mareno (NC State)
Ella Baran (Colorado)
Olivia Howell (Illinois)
Sydney Seymour (NC State)
Tori Herman (Kentucky)
Jane Buckley (Providence)
Calli Doan (Liberty)
Yasna Petrova (California Baptist)
Carmen Riano (Miami (OH))
Abigail Loveys (Princeton)
Ericka VanderLende (Michigan)
Emmy van den Berg (Florida State)
Sarah Carter (Colorado State)
Mia Barnett (Virginia)
Sophie Atkinson (Virginia)
Sydney Seymour (NC State)
Chloe Scrimgeour (Georgetown)
Olivia Howell (Illinois)
Sydney Seymour (NC State)
Tori Herman (Kentucky)
Jane Buckley (Providence)
Yasna Petrova (California Baptist)
Maeve Stiles (Penn)
Lydia Miller (Lipscomb)
Margot Appleton (Virginia)
Brianna Weidler (UC Davis)
Madelynn Hill (Iowa State)
Calli Doan (Liberty)
Annabel Stafford (Colorado State)
Joy Chirchir (Toledo)
Halle Hamilton (Air Force)
Sami Corman (Georgetown)
Emmy van den Berg (Florida State)
Ruby Smee (San Francisco)
Marlee Starliper (NC State)
Katie Thronson (Notre Dame)
Dana Feyen (Iowa State)
Analee Weaver (Utah State)
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