eric.baranoski
Sep 7, 20227 min
Edits and additional commentary by John Cusick & Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On some occasions, we are referencing TFFRS or team rosters in order to properly and accurately talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
For a program that has been fairly accustomed to be on the national meet podium in recent years, a 10th place result in 20221 was, relatively speaking, a bit of a "down" year for the U-Mary women.
Yes, the Marauders lost one of the best runners in program history in Ida Narbuvoll after the 2021 track season (she is now a part of the coaching staff), so last fall's national meet may have been somewhat expected.
However, this team still had some familiar high-level names with tons of experience like Starlynn Costa and Taylor Hestekin, as well as a true freshman in Alyssa Becker who would prove to be more vital than expected.
And while a "down" year wasn't too surprising, it appears that the Marauders have found yet another low-stick who can lead their already-deep roster in 2022, making them one of the more dangerous teams that Division Two has to offer...again.
The Marauders kicked off their 2021 cross country season at the MSUM Dragon Twilight Invitational where domination would be an understated description of how they handled their competition.
Hestekin, Lacey Feist and Becker finished 1-2-3 while Taryn Ceglowski and Costa brought up the rear in 5th and 6th place, respectively. The Marauders finished with 17 total team points, 54 points better than the next-best team, Northern State.
Of course, a small field with limited competition can only be weighted so much. It was great that this team had a time-spread of only 17 seconds, but could that be replicated in a larger meet with better competition?
Well, that's precisely what we learned at the Roy Griak Invitational two weeks later.
In Minnesota, the Mauraders made a statement, taking home the win in the "Maroon" race over their regional rivals such as Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota State. However, neither of those programs were ranked. On paper, U-Mary was expected to defeat those teams (and they did).
Becker and Hestekin were the first two scorers for U-Mary, finishing 3rd and 4th overall, giving their team a lethal injection of scoring potency. Becker's early-season success was beginning to look more and more legitimate, validating the idea that she could truly be a low-stick star for this group.
Costa placed 15th while Ceglowski was 19th and Feist finished 23rd. Together, those final women quickly closed out the team's scoring with minimal gaps, giving U-Mary one of the most complete lineups in the field.
In the end, those finishes were good enough for 64 total team points.
That was an impressive display of team-centric racing for U-Mary, something that was reflected in their time-spread. Of course, the postseason would prove to be far more challenging at the top of the fields that they were in.
At the NSIC XC Championships, the Mauraders simply got blasted by Augustana (SD), losing by over 60 points and barely squeaking by Minnesota-Duluth with 84 points, just two points ahead of a team that they had soundly beaten in their last effort.
The Marauders put four women inside the top-20 of that race, a solid string of results which held minimal scoring deficiencies. Led by Becker, who finished 7th overall, the supporting cast on this team continued to hold their own.
Hestekin continued her strong running and finished 13th overall. Feist placed 17th while Costa was 20th. However, with their final scorer faltering to 32nd place, there were only so many points that U-Mary could cut down on when it came to matching their competition.
Two weeks later, the Mauraders finished 3rd at the Central Regional XC Championships. They lost to both Augustana (SD) and Minnesota-Duluth, but easily got the third and final automatic qualifying spot to the national meet.
The biggest takeaways from U-Mary's conference and regional performances were how they had seemingly gone backwards in terms of their lineup's scoring prowess.
At their conference meet, the Marauders had a top-five time spread of 1:21 which was good enough to squeak them into 2nd place as a team. However, at their regional meet, they improved their spread to 1:08, but the gaps between their backend scorers were actually growing larger.
Despite the minor regression in their postseason performances, the U-Mary women were able to salvage a result that truly reflected how good this team could be when they were at their best.
The Marauders finished 10th overall as a team on the national stage, led by star rookie in Alyssa Becker. The freshman garnered All-American honors finishing 17th place overall, a massive boost in scoring potency. With Hestekin, Costa, Feist and Ellen Moore filling out the rest of the scoring in 79-82-97-139, respectively, the Marauders walked away with 353 team points.
But for as good as that result was, one could have argued that the U-Mary women were capable of doing more. If Ceglowski had finished as the team's fifth scorer like she had in previous meets, then maybe a chunk of the team's points would have disappeared from U-Mary's final score.
There is mostly good news for the U-Mary women heading into this 2022 cross country. The Marauders only lose Lacey Feist from their national meet lineup.
Luckily, All-American standout Alyssa Becker, plus the likes of Hestekin, Costa, Ellen Moore and Ceglowski, all return. On paper, that is a cohesive lineup that could mimic some of the scoring value that Feist has left behind.
Of course, trying to look past the loss of Feist is going to be tricky.
The now-departed veteran was a valuable distance talent in this 2021 lineup, emerging as the team's second, third, fourth or fifth scoring option throughout the season. And for a team that saw very noticeable gaps in the backend of their top-five, having another scoring gap open up isn't ideal.
Even so, this is a fairly older team with lots of experience, something that should bode well for the U-Mary women when it comes to performing on big stages.
Post cross country, Becker took her lumps during the winter and spring months as she failed to advance to the national meet in either season. As far as the track was concerned, she didn't have any true breakout performances, but that doesn't mean that her indoor and outdoor campaigns weren't a success.
Her best indoor performance came at the NSIC Indoor Championships where she lost by less than a second to Nicolette Schmidt of Augustana (SD) in the 3000 meters. Outdoors, she rose to the occasion at the Drake Relays 5k, finishing 7th in a field filled with Division One competition.
One conclusion is that she's a better cross country than track runner, but with only one calendar year of racing, it's hard to make a definitive decision on that.
Regardless, Becker was the one constant that this team had in 2021. She was a reliable low-stick who almost always produced elite results. As long as she replicates those results in 2022, then U-Mary should continue to be the same great team that they were last year.
To find out if Taylor Hestekin has been a cross country All-American, you have to look all the way back to 2018 when she finished 29th overall on a slow course in Pittsburgh. She was the fourth scorer for a Marauders' team that took 2nd place overall at that meet.
Fast forward to the past couple of seasons and the U-Mary senior hasn't had any of that same success that she once had in 2018. On the national stage, Hestekin was 84th in 2019 and 79th in 2021, results that are far from what she is truly capable of.
On the oval, Hestekin has been a national qualifier in the 800 meters, the 1500 meters, the mile and the DMR. And yet, almost shockingly, she has yet to be an All-American individually, although she did place 4th on U-Mary's 2018 national DMR lineup.
If Hestekin returns to her 2018 form, then she could run alongside Becker and give the U-Mary one of the best 1-2 scoring combos in the country. That, on paper, could allow the Marauders to make up for some of the lost scoring that Feist is taking with her.
And if that happens, then U-Mary will almost certainly be better than they were last fall.
Another piece on U-Mary's eyebrow-raising 2022 roster is Starlynn Costa, a current senior.
Not having a resume as deep as Hestekin or Becker, Costa still scored in every meet last fall and was the third runner across the line more often than not. Having run the steeplechase over these past couple of years, one would think that there is still some untapped potential in terms of her cross country fitness...but when will we see that?
At the very least, Costa is a reliable middle lineup option who stabilizes the scoring in this top-five. Even if she doesn't improve in 2022, she won't be someone who falters or crumbles the team score.
And truthfully, that's not something that all teams can say about a few of their top-five scorers.
However, despite the promise of that top-three, the supporting cast of Ceglowski, Moore and Kristine Kalthoff need to play critical roles for this upcoming season. Having been a part of last year's team that competed at the NCAA XC Championships, these three ladies now know what it feels like to be on the starting line of a high-level race.
Of those three women, Ceglowski has the best chance of being a high-impact name as she has the fastest track times out of those three runners and also had more finishes inside the team's top-five last fall.
Other returners who could possibly make a varsity appearance for the Marauders this fall will be Andrijana Fundak and Kiran Green.
Fundak showed some promise in the longer distances on the oval, most recently taking 7th in the 10,000 meters at the NSIC Outdoor Championships. Green was also a part of the U-Mary team that competed at the 2019 NCAA XC Championships. And while she didn't race extensively last year, she has shown flashes of solid running throughout her career.
U-Mary wasn't very active on the transfer market, but they did add a current freshman in Terez Wycklendt from Wisconsin. She will most likely be redshirted, although she is a name to monitor this fall.
For us to rank the Marauders at TSR #9 coming into this 2022 season should tell you a lot about how we feel about this team. Despite losing a reliable top-five scorer and finishing 10th at last year's national meet, we already see this team being better than they were at the end of last fall.
U-Mary's 2021 cross country season may have been a down year in terms of team finishes and they certainly weren't the most consistent team by any means. However, the 2022 season has all of the makings for this team to be a viable national-caliber competitor once again.
They have a true low-stick who could be even better this fall, there is clearly room for improvement, they boast numerous veteran returners and their depth is much better than some people may realize.
When it comes to U-Mary...what's not to like?