TSR Collaboration
Dec 7, 202216 min
Written by Eric Baranoski & John Cusick
Additional edits and commentary 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 individual has moved in the rankings.
The second number indicates where the individual was ranked in our last update.
For the most part, this was not a great season for Megan Means.
In 2021, the Augustana ace threw down a huge 8th place finish at the cross country national meet after a pair of top-three results at her conference and regional meets. Naturally, the bar was raised for this veteran in 2022.
But throughout this fall, Means admittedly underwhelmed. She was 44th at the Augustana Twilight meet, posted a respectable 23rd place finish at the Bradley Pink Classic and then left us wanting more after placing 20th at the NSIC XC Championships and then 7th at the Central regional meet.
However, in the end, none of that largely mattered. Means proved to us that she is one of the most clutch national meet performers in the country, regardless of what her regular season resume looked like.
The Augustana star once again peaked for the NCAA XC Championships, placing 11th overall in what was a clear deviation from where she had originally set expectations.
Of course, we're now learning that expectations don't really matter as long as you can consistently produce on the only stage that everyone in the nation will look at.
Despite being listed outside of our top-20, one could argue that Kylie Anicic actually had a fairly similar season to that of our TSR #2 runner, Lindsay Cunningham.
Before the NCAA XC Championships, this Edinboro ace had only lost one race all season long, and it was to the aforementioned Cunningham at the always-loaded Lewis Crossover meet. Admittedly, her conference and regional meets were relatively light, but it's clear that this Pennsylvania-based runner was firing on all cylinders this fall.
After not having run cross country since her time at Towson University, Anicic should be very proud of her efforts on the grass as she has only gotten better since transferring to Edinboro.
She has now qualified for the national meet in three consecutive seasons (2022 indoor, 2022 outdoor and 2022 cross country). And although she slightly faded to 31st place last Friday, Anicic finally emerged as an All-American for the first time in her career.
Seeing Liz Wamsley produce an All-American performance doesn’t come as a surprise.
And why’s that?
Well, it's because of where she finished at last year's cross country national meet (55th).
If the individuals from the 2021 NCAA XC Championships were to make the necessary improvements that we thought they could, and the veterans expire the rest of their eligibility, then this Hillsdale ace had a solid shot of being an All-American talent in 2022.
And sure enough, Wamsley really took that next step in our eyes as she was able to execute at the national meet last Friday after finding success at her G-MAC and Midwest regional meets. Securing a huge 22nd place result and finishing in front of Zoe Baker of Colorado Mines as well as Natalie Graber of Grand Valley State will turn some heads.
But based on where her prior TSR ranking was coming into last weekend, it's not a total shock to see her finish where she did.
Lara Murdock entered this year as a bit of an unknown, having only raced once this past outdoor track season. But it was also a very good sign to see her excelling at the beginning of the fall months.
Her 33rd place finish at the Louisville Classic admittedly flew under the radar as she beat Anna Fauske from UC-Colorado Springs and Klaudia O’Malley from Grand Valley State, two highly talented names.
But surprisingly, nobody seemed to bat an eye, probably because we were looking to see greater consistency from them throughout the rest of the cross country season.
Of course, Murdock continued to have success on championship stages as she was 4th at the MIAA XC Championships and then 6th in a personal best 6k time at the Central regional meet.
Those were very solid result, but then she landed a massive 13th place finish in Seattle at the NCAA XC Championships. And while that result doesn't catapult her inside our top-20, it's still fair to say that her and our TSR #17 runner, Amanda Montplaisir, were two of the biggest surprises from last Friday.
On one hand, you could make the argument that Zoe Baker didn't have her best season. She continued to emerge as a consistent All-American and is still one of the most recognizable names on the D2 scene, but she has yet to emerge in cross country as a real contender.
On the other hand, she didn’t blow up last Friday. She continued to be a steady and reliable low-stick who earned a 33rd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships and she helped her team place 3rd overall.
You have to admire Baker's consistency and her ability to consistently offer great scoring value. She was 3rd at D2 Pre-Nationals earlier this year, settled for a slightly more modest 14th place finish at the RMAC XC Championships and then secured a big 7th place finish at the South Central regional meet.
She certainly deserves to stay in our rankings, but we did think that she could have done a bit more during last weekend's national meet.
Much like Zoe Baker, Katie Doucette has had more success on the track than on grass, but that didn’t stop her from finishing 37th at the NCAA XC Championships last weekend for the second-consecutive year in a row.
But while an All-American finish is an All-American finish, an honor that most women dream of having, it's clear that this Western Colorado veteran was capable of so much more after looking like a borderline-elite star this fall.
After finishing 6th at the RMAC XC Championships and 4th at the South Central region meet, which are two races made up of the best teams in all of Division Two, you might have thought that Doucette was favored for a top-10 finish in Seattle.
That, of course, was not the case.
Madison Brown may be a familiar name to some fans of Division Two as she was a national meet qualifier in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track throughout the 2021-22 academic calendar.
However, she had never earned an All-American finish. And with her 42nd place finish at last year's cross country national meet, you had to bet that she was looking forward to the 2022 national meet as she had a whole year to think about what she could’ve done differently.
That was plenty evident throughout the falls months as Brown very clearly took a step up in her fitness. Placing 10th at the Chile Pepper XC Festival and later finishing runner-up at the Lone Star XC Championships to defeat Eleonora Curtabbi was super impressive.
And although she struggled at her regional meet, that is likely due to a rumored illness that she was battling.
The Dallas Baptist star ended her season with a promising 21st place finish at the national meet, becoming an All-American for the first time in her career. She displayed savvy race tactics by putting herself in the top-40 after the first mile and knowing that she could hang on from there.
Brown had a fantastic regular season, but when you pair that series of results with her regional meet struggles, it makes sense that we ranked somewhat near where she finished at the national meet.
Western Colorado's Allison Beasley continues to thrive as one of the most underrated distance talents in Division Two, at least as far as consistency is concerned. She was a reliable top-10 finisher in all of her meets leading up to the national meet and continuously produced results that were, in retrospect, far more clutch than we realized.
It wasn’t out of the question for Beasley to earn a top-half All-American honor last Friday. She had a history of showing promise in prior cross country seasons and she showed enough steadiness throughout this fall to be a top contender in Seattle.
Finishing 19th at the NCAA XC Championships seemed right for this Mountaineer ace and she is one of the few women to be an All-American in her first two seasons of cross country. That reliability goes in a long way in our rankings.
Well, you know what they say!
First one, best one...right?
That’s exactly what happened with Amanda Montplaisir. Last Friday was her first NCAA XC Championship appearance, but you wouldn't have known that after she finished 9th overall in what was a stunning result, especially for those who hadn't monitored the Central region teams too closely this fall.
It’s fair to say that her and Lara Murdock were the biggest surprises from the national meet.
However, if you had followed Montplaisir's season, the writing was on the wall for her to have a big-time race last Friday. She won the Lucian Rosa Invitational and was runner-up at the Bob Waxlax meet. She was also 5th at both the Northern Sun XC Championships and the Central regional meet.
This Minnesota State standout was plenty capable of an upper-half All-American finish, but for as good as her 2022 cross country resume was, nothing could have prepared us to see her place 9th in her season finale.
After a quick comparison, Nicolette Schmidt had a cross country season in 2021 that was very similar to what she did throughout her 2022 fall campaign.
Last fall, she placed 4th at the NSIC XC Championships, finished 3rd at the Central regional meet and snagged a 20th place result at the NCAA XC Championships.
This year, she finished 4th at NSIC XC Championships, 2nd at the Central regional meet and secured a 16th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.
So why did we feel as if something had changed? It might have been because Augustana's meets before the championship season didn’t allow us to gain much insight or at the very least, much confidence. We knew that Schmidt was talented, but it was hard to know if she was in the same form as last year.
Even so, a handful of us at TSR were still confident in Coach Tracy Hellman’s ability to get the Vikings ready for when it mattered the most. And after last Friday, that couldn't have been more evident with the performance that we saw out of Schmidt.
Naomi Bailey was having a season to remember...and then the national meet hit.
Despite the cold Seattle weather, which we thought would actually benefit someone who goes to school in Alaska, the national stage got the best of her for the second year in a row.
The Nanook star was having a historic fall campaign as she won some of the most important meets of the season such as D2 Pre-Nationals and her regional meet. On the men’s side, Dillion Powell did the same thing and he was viewed as the obvious national title favorite. That's why it wasn't crazy to suggest that Bailey could have been a top-10 finisher last Friday.
But sometimes, bad races simply happen. And truthfully, we don't think anyone is looking at her 90th place finish from the national meet thinking that was Bailey at her absolute best.
In our eyes, she is just one performance away from proving to everyone that she is truly one of the top cross country runners in all of Division Two.
Since transferring from San Diego State, Marissa D’Atri has been the leader for this Wildcat team. The tell-tale sign of her All-American potential came at D2 Pre-Nationals where she finished 14th overall in a strong field.
And during the championship season, the distance running veteran seemed to only pick up more momentum. That was certainly an important development for her team as the Chico State vs Stanislaus State rivalry became quite heated, at least as far as the results were concerned.
Stanislaus State took home the CCAA title with room to spare, but D’Atri thrived and took 4th in that race. Later, in the bitter cold at the West regional meet in Billings, Montana, the Stanislaus State women nipped the Wildcats by just two points with D'Atri only improving, earning individual bronze in the process.
But the national meet was where the Wildcats returned the favor as they were led by D’Atri who threw down a tremendous 14th place finish. That result indicated to us that this Chico State star had peaked better than almost anyone in the NCAA, relative to expectations. And for that, we are promoting her to a ranking that matches her national meet finish.
The 2022 cross country season may not have ended the way that Kaela Dishion wanted it to, but she closed out her season as an All-American for the first time in her career. Plus, she shattered expectations this fall and truly took that next step towards being a top-tier name in the NCAA.
Winning the Cougar Challenge, placing 6th at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational, winning the CCAA title and finishing 5th at the West Regional XC Championships despite some rumored illness was a very strong resume to bring into the national meet.
Even though the weather was far from ideal for this California-based talent, Dishion still salvaged a 34th place All-American finish. And if that's the "worst" result of her season, then that's a pretty good problem to have and a major reason why remains in our top-15.
Despite finishing 15th at the NCAA XC Championships, we actually find Precious Robinson moving up from her original ranking and slotting in at TSR #12.
That's largely because a handful of top women who were originally ranked ahead of her faltered at the national meet. And the few non-ranked women who did beat Robinson ultimately had seasonal resumes which limited them from cracking our top-15.
But when you look at Robinson's resume as a whole, it's hard to argue against this ranking. She was 4th at the Highlander Invitational, 3rd at the loaded RMAC XC Championships and finished 8th at the South Central regional meet despite many of her teammates struggling on that course.
Robinson was as reliable as they come and her value as a low-stick should not be overshadowed by her historically talented teammates.
A 12th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships seems to be fairly on-par with our expectations for Molly Maksin going into last Friday. She was a steady name throughout the entirety of the fall months, although she clearly got better in the postseason.
Maksin was 7th at D2 Pre-Nationals, 10th at the RMAC XC Championships and 5th at the South Central Regional XC Championships, defeating every Adams State runner the process.
Sure, a 12th place result at the NCAA XC Championships is on the better end of what we were expecting from her, but much like we mentioned with Precious Robinson, the combination of results from last Friday and the overall seasonal resumes of others is what has allowed Maksin to earn a ranking that is one spot better than her national meet finish.
Following D2 Pre-Nationals, where Kendall Kramer finished 6th overall, all of the attention on Alaska-Fairbanks was understandably centered around Naomi Bailey. She had, after all, upset Katie Doucette to win one of the biggest regular season meets of the year for Division Two.
But Kramer also had a solid performance and continued to thrive in the postseason. She crossed the line with Bailey at the GNAC XC Championships (officially taking home the win) and later settling for a runner-up honor behind Bailey by five seconds at the West Regional XC Championships.
An 8th place finish at last Friday's national meet was a massive result for Kramer, one that validated her role as a true, upper-tier low-stick for the Nanooks. We knew that this was a realistic result for Kramer, but it did feel to be just a touch better than what her regular season suggested.
No one is looking at Natalie Graber's 35th place finish from the national meet and believing that she was racing to her full potential.
Despite the All-American performance, Graber proved to be one of the most lethal distance talents in the country this fall. Finishing 4th at the MSU Spartan Invite, 6th at the Louisville Classic and 8th at the Bradley Pink Classic are all very strong results, especially when you consider that those are predominately Division One fields.
We're not going to overreact to Graber's latest result. She was still one of the most dangerous distance runners to toe the line against this fall and we fully believe that she should end her season as a top-10 name in the country.
Coming into this season, all eyes were on Grand Valley State rookie Abby VanderKooi, the superstar high schooler who would have been considered a major recruiting win for even the highest ranks of the Division One level.
And while VanderKooi did have a solid season, it was actually Lauren Kiley who emerged as the best freshman in all of Division Two, thriving from day one.
After surprising many people with her 13th place finish at the Louisville Classic and later earning a solid, but not totally unexpected, 27th place finish at the Bradley Pink Classic, Kiley began to gain serious momentum.
The Laker rookie was the runner-up finisher at both the GLIAC XC Championships and the Midwest Regional XC Championships before throwing down a monster 7th place result at the NCAA XC Championships.
Kiley is a classic example of what can happen when high-momentum youngsters leverage their exciting upside and deliver upper-tier results. We imagine that Kiley is going to be a problem for the entirety of Division Two for years to come.
Layla Almasri continues to get better and better each time she toes the line.
Earlier this season, she finished 17th at the Louisville Classic. She then finished 5th at the RMAC XC Championships before improving two spots to finish 3rd at the South Central Regional XC Championships. The UCCS veteran later placed 10th at the NCAA XC Championships, bettering her 12th place finish from the 2021 national meet.
Mostly known as an elite middle distance talent on the track, Almasri has transitioned to the longer distances (on the grass) with almost no trouble. She has been the constant low-stick for UC-Colorado Springs and their 4th place podium finish starts with her.
Almasri has made the most of her Mountain Lions career and her presence will be greatly missed when next season rolls around. But for now, she lands at TSR #7 to end our season.
The duo of Florance Uwajeneze and Elenora Curtabbi have been a pleasant surprise during this 2022 cross country campaign. While we knew how good Uwajeneza was, we were still uncertain about where Curtabbi ranked amongst the top talents in Division Two, specifically on the grass.
But now that the national meet has concluded, we can confidently say that both women are now in the conversation of elite talents in Division Two. After going 1-2 at the South Central Regional XC Championships, these two Buffaloes finished in 5th and 6th place, respectively, last Friday, making them one of the best duos in the country.
These two led West Texas A&M to a 13th place team finish without any other teammate finishing inside the top-60 of the national field. These two have answered every call this season and their finishes at the NCAA XC Championships shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Brianna Robles bounced back from an “off” day at the South Central Regional XC Championships which saw her finish in 6th place.
And when we say "bounced back", we mean that she ran up to the expectations that we had for her going into the national meet. Robles finished 4th at the NCAA XC Championships last Friday and was Adam State’s second scorer.
Robles was 2nd at the RMAC XC Championships and she was only behind teammate Stephanie Cotter (TSR #1) in that race. There was a small hiccup at her regional meet, but that has been cleared up since.
Robles ends this season at TSR #4 and she deserves a top-five ranking after her overall performances this season.
Another NCAA XC Championship race is in the books for Klaudia O’Malley. And with it comes another top-three finish for the Laker ace.
O’Malley finished in 3rd place overall at the national meet which means she gets to move up four spots in our final rankings update. We’ve steadily seen O’Malley get better with each performance this season. She was 35th at the Louisville Classic, finished 17th at the Bradley Pink Classic and then really ramped thing up for the postseason.
She was 3rd at the GLIAC XC Championships before going on to win the Midwest regional. Her 3rd place finish at the national meet pads her already-incredible resume. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but O’Malley is truly one of the best distance talents in the country.
Her ability to perform under pressure should not go unnoticed. While she may not have been Grand Valley State’s best runner of the entirety of the season, she was certainly the best runner when they needed her the most.
It pains us to move Lindsay Cunningham back one spot, but her 2nd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships should not be viewed as a failure.
Cunningham kept pace with Cotter for nearly two miles before having to modify her racing plan and simply hold back. It’s the first time that Cunningham failed to win a race in 2022 and that’s quite the accomplishment within itself. Her wins at the NSIC XC Championships and Central Regional XC Championships were simply dominant and she deserved to be our top runner at the time.
The Winona State ace has proven that she’s capable of competing with elite talents in Division Two and she showed that each time out this year. As young as she is, this is only the beginning for the Warriors’ superstar.
The cross country season has come to a close and it’s no surprise that Stephanie Cotter is sitting atop of our final rankings.
The Adams State superstar returned to Division Two and picked up right where she left off. It’s her second national title on the grass and her dominant victory has cemented her as one of Division Two’s all-time greatest runners.
It’s also obvious that her 10th place finish at the South Central Regional XC Championships was just a minor hiccup. She won the RMAC XC Championships with ease and translated that same kind of effort into a victory on the national stage.
We think Cotter is arguably the best runner Division Two has ever seen, but we’ll leave it to you to make the final judgment call.
Lara Murdock (Pittsburg State)
Amanda Montplaisir (Minnesota State)
Megan Means (Augustana)
Nicole Lawrence (Adams State)
Johanna Wistokat (Christian Brothers)
Emily Schoellkopf (Adams State)
Katie Fankhouser (Fort Lewis)
Anna Fauske (UC-Colorado Springs)
Kira MacGill (Colorado Mesa)
Alyssa Becker (U-Mary)
McKenna Taylor (Winona State)
Bradley Weimer (Drury)
Makenna Thurston (Minnesota State)
Clare Peters (Colorado Mines)
Morgan Hykes (Adams State)
Amber Owens (NW Missouri)
Elise Leveel (Charleston (WV))
Johanna Wistokat (Christian Brothers)
Emily Schoellkopf (Adams State)
Kate Hedlund (UC-Colorado Springs)
Helen Braybrook (CSU-Pueblo)
Yasmine Hernandez (CSU-Pueblo)
Amber Owens (NW Missouri)
Riley McGrath (UC-Colorado Springs)
Kimberley Goerss (Edinboro)
Alauna Carstens (Saint Martins)
Cailee Peterson (Minnesota-Duluth)
Kayden Legan (Stanislaus State)
Holly Moser (Colorado Mines)
Abby VanderKooi (Grand Valley State)
Taryn Chapko (Grand Valley State)
Jentrie Alderson (Pittsburg State)
Lynette Ruiz (Biola)
Eline Pinter (Azusa Pacific)
Caroline Cunningham (NW Missouri)
Kaylee Beyer (Winona State)
Grace Strongman (Colorado Mines)
Regan Hodsden (Fort Hays State
Savannah Ackley (Cedarville)
Alyssa Becker (U-Mary)
Rosie Fordham (Alaska-Fairbanks)
Marissa Insinna (Dallas Baptist)
Flora Tissier (Charleston (WV))
Mollie Scott (Wingate)
Khot Juac (Sioux Falls)
Kayce Rypma (Grand Valley State)
Hanna Rhem (Cedarville)