Hannah Thorn
Aug 3, 20227 min
Additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin
Sophia Wolmer is probably the biggest wildcard on this list.
Last fall, Wolmer only started one cross country race and that was the Connecticut College Invitational. Unfortunately, she recorded a DNF in that race and we didn’t get to see her toe the line again until January.
Prior to that fall season, this Amherst veteran had a successful 2021 outdoor national meet, taking 9th in the 5000 meters and 7th in the 10,000 meters. This year, her track performances were a little more up and down.
During the winter months, she made up for lost time and ran at least once, if not twice, almost every weekend. She ended her season at the indoor national meet, finishing 19th place in the 5000 meters. Her 18:09 mark was a good 50 seconds off of her seasonal best, so obviously it wasn’t her best weekend.
The spring months, however, looked better for Wolmer as she set personal bests in the 1500 meters, the 5k and the 10k. Her 10k mark of 34:59 was set at the NESCAC Outdoor Championships and it was the NCAA #8 time in D3 that season.
Wolmer's outdoor national meet showing was also up and down. She had a solid performance in the 10k by finishing 9th, but one could argue that she was capable of more. Unfortunately, she would go on to record a DNF in the 5k the following day.
Like we said, trying to figure out Wolmer's ranking is tricky. Seeing her record three DNF results in an academic year isn't great and she wasn't available for the 2021 cross country season.
Still, the potential that she showed on the track this past year, and in past seasons, was very exciting. Running 16:50 (5k) and 34:59 (10k) is flat-out impressive and she has multiple All-American honors that prop up her resume.
And when you consider that she hasn't had a cross country season since her freshman year in 2019, one has to think that her track performances are the best indicator of her true talent.
Riley Mayer had a breakout year during the 2021-22 academic calendar and it started in the fall where she put together a fantastic cross country campaign.
Coming into the year, Mayer's best finish at a cross country national meet was 117th in the fall of 2019. But in 2021, this Wartburg star was a completely different (and better) runner who earned numerous top-six finishes again and again.
That's no easy feat when you are racing against not only your own teammates, but other midwest superstars like Kassie Parker and Ana Tucker. Not only that, but Mayer was facing some of the deeper D3 regular season fields in the country, toeing the line for the Augustana Interregional Invite and Dan Huston Invite.
After promising conference and regional meet finishes, Mayer's confidence must have been riding high as she came into the NCAA XC Championships and smashed her previous 6k PR on the grass.
The Wartburg star finished 27th overall to earn All-American honors in a time of 21:38.
But then Mayer kept the momentum going, setting personal bests on the indoor oval in the 800 meters, the mile, the 3k and the 5k. The veteran decided to race the 5k at the indoor national meet where she finished 9th overall in a then-PR of 17:11.
Nothing better than running your fastest when it matters the most, right?
However, that PR didn’t last long as she ran 16:55 (5k) and 36:02 (10k) on the outdoor oval, both personal bests. Then, at the outdoor national meet, Mayer decided to not double and only focus on the 5k. She finished in 17th in 17:55, a full minute slower than her personal best.
The heat and humidity might have gotten to her and it's admittedly unfortunate that she had a disappointing end to what was a truly great year for her.
This fall, Mayer will be working alongside Aubrie Fisher and the rest of her teammates to win a team title. The Knights finished 4th at the national meet last year and bring back a very strong core of runners. With Mayers improvements, there's a real chance that they could contend for gold.
For the most part, Mayer is hard to argue against in terms of her value in these rankings. Her 27th place finish at the cross country national meet was strong, but at this point in our D3 XC Top 20, one could argue that she maybe needed to finish higher to earn a top-10 ranking.
But when you look at the very few women who actually beat Mayer during the fall of 2021, many of them are either not returning, ahead of her in these rankings or are awfully close to this top-10 section.
To put it simply, Mayer is in very elite company.
Meredith Bloss is the top runner out of the West region this year and she is back to prove that we should probably stop overlooking that region.
The former Cornell runner had her first season in D3 last fall and found great success. Bloss recorded a handful of promising regular season results, but her two finishes that stood out were her 4th place finish at the UCR 40th Annual XC Invite and her 7th place finish in the "Silver" race at the Louisville Classic.
That's why it was hard to be surprised when Bloss ventured to the postseason, won the SCIAC XC Championships and later earned runner-up honors at the West Regional XC Championships.
At the national meet, Bloss and the rest of her team got out hot, but ended up fading over the last two kilometers of the race. The CMS women ended up surrendering the championship to Johns Hopkins by only two points, a challenging result that has surely fired them up over the last year.
During that national meet, Bloss followed the same pattern as the rest of her team. However, fading to 13th place is still an excellent result for your first-ever national meet.
During the winter months, Bloss was able to fly to Boston to get her national qualifying time in the 5k where she wound up running 17:00.
However, the spring months is when athletes in the West region have optimal racing conditions and Bloss used that to her advantage. The CMS star ran 16:51 for 5000 meters in March when most of the country still had snow on the ground. She later followed up that performance with a 34:35 (10k) mark at the Mt. SAC Relays.
Bloss decided to only focus on the 10k at the outdoor national meet which led to her finishing 10th overall in 36:49, well short of her PR.
This rising D3 star has plenty of motivation this fall to perform better than last year and lead her team to a national title. Not only that, but after a year of national meet experience, Bloss should be able to handle the pressure of that stage even better come November.
But for the most part, Bloss is a consistent distance running standout who thrives on big stages. She has yet to have a poor race and she feels like one of the more reliable front-runners that a D3 program could have this fall.
Ranking Kathleen McCarey at TSR #7 was far from an easy decision...and let us tell you why.
On one hand, last fall was McCarey's first national meet experience. On that stage, she earned an outstanding 14th place finish. That is a very strong result for someone who had zero national meet experience before. She simply did not let the moment get too big for her.
McCarey followed up that performance by finishing 3rd in the 5k at the NCAA Indoor Championships behind Ella Baran and Kassie Parker. While her 16th place finish in the 3k the next day was a little disappointing, it was hardly a good indicator of her true talent.
Now, to play devil's advocate, we admittedly don’t know what kind of shape McCarey is going to be in this fall.
We say that because she raced only three times during the outdoor track season. One of those races was a 34:26 (10k) result at the Bison Outdoor Classic. That mark had her ranked at NCAA #3, but it was also her last race of the season.
Generally speaking, that's not a great sign.
If McCarey can successfully come back this season and prove that she is still in top form, then this ranking will be perfectly appropriate. The SUNY Geneseo star was phenomenal all throughout last fall and even earned a few marquee wins during the 2021 cross country season.
McCarey has more than proven herself and this spot feels like a good reflection of that.
Carleton's Clara Mayfield showed tons of range over the winter and spring months, something which leads us to believe that she has the right mixture of strength and speed to improve upon last year's 10th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.
Of course, Mayfield was excellent in other races as well.
The Carleton veteran earned numerous top-three finishes throughout last fall. Leading up to the national meet, she scored four silver-medal results (including at her region and her conference meets), won the St. Olaf Invitational and placed 7th in a very competitive field at the Lewis & Clarke Invite which featured the Oregon Ducks, Kassie Rosenbaum and Fiona Smith.
Naturally, one had to expect that Mayfield would impress on the national stage. And with a top-10 finish, we can convincingly say that she did just that.
On the indoor oval, Mayfield continued to emerge as a true superstar, producing personal bests in the 800 meters, the mile and the 3k. Eventually, Mayfield would go on to earn a 4th place finish in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
During the spring, the Carleton star moved up to the longer distance events, running the 10k/5k double at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. There, she secured another All-American finish by placing 5th in the 10k and later came back to place 11th in the 5k.
It's not often that the same runner earns All-American honors in the mile and the 10k just two and a half months apart. That’s wildly impressive.
Much like last year, we will most likely see Mayfield toe the line against Fiona Smith of Saint Benedicts multiple times. And in theory, that should offer plenty of valuable racing experience for Mayfield heading into the championship portion of this fall.
Of course, it's not like Mayfield needs extra experience. After all, she place 30th at the 2019 NCAA XC Championships and secured an aforementioned 10th place finish at the same meet last fall.
If she can stick close to her fellow distance stars like Tucker, Smith, Fisher and Parker, then we might have a midwest sweep of the top-five place at the NCAA XC Championships this year.