TSR Collaboration
Apr 1710 min
Written by Conor Daly, Kevin Fischer & Gavin Struve
Additional edits & commentary by Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve
Click here to see our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.
Listed eligibility takes redshirts and Covid-related extensions into consideration.
TFRRS is used as a general, but not strict, guide when determining eligibility.
20. Lexi Brown, Senior, Wartburg (-2 / 18)
Has not competed since our last rankings update.
19. Haley Schoenegge, Freshman, Vassar (Unranked)
Throughout the indoor track season, we were talking about the great success that Haley Schoenegge found in the mile. But this time, we’re blown away by her performance in another race: the 5000 meters. At the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic, Schoenegge ran a fantastic 5k to emerge as the top Division Three finisher in an astonishing time of 16:32.
From her winter campaign, we knew that the Vassar freshman would be a prominent name in the mile (or metric equivalent), but there had been nothing up to this point that would suggest she was capable of this kind of performance in an event that truthfully is more challenging for freshmen to adjust to.
However, this effort now gives Schoenegge some fantastic proven range when coupled with her 4:37 metric mile performance from earlier spring. It was just one of those races that took her to another tier.
18. Genna Girard, Senior, Williams (-4 / 14)
Has not competed since our last rankings update.
17. Kayla Werner, Sophomore, Lynchburg (Unranked)
This 3000-meter indoor national meet qualifier didn’t look the least bit fazed by her first 5k on the track, excelling in the event with a 16:34 mark at the Colonial Relays. That’s a performance that we knew was possible based on Kayler Werner's cross country season which culminated in All-American honors. Of course, it’s nice to see that projected upside become reality.
Tack on a pair of strong recent performances of 4:53 (mile) and 4:32 (1500) that make Werner’s resume all the more convincing, especially in the early stages of the outdoor track season. All signs indicate that Werner is due for an outdoor track season that tops her winter campaign.
16. Deyanneira Colon Maldonado, Junior, Aurora (Unranked)
If we were to tell you that Deyanneira Colon Maldonado has run 16:34 (5k) and 4:32 (1500), then you would probably shrug your shoulders and think "Yeah, that’s about right for a woman ranked in this range."
But what if we told you that the Aurora ace ran that 1500-meter time less than 24 hours after that 5k performance? If we had to guess, you would probably be pleasantly surprised just as all of us at TSR certainly were.
Not only are these marks very good on their own, but they show Colon Maldonado’s excellent ability to double. Aside from the indoor national meet, she has proven time and time again that running two races on the same day or during back-to-back days is no problem for her. That series of results has to improve her stock and we feel increasingly confident she that can earn double All-American honors come late May.
15. Dale Leonard, Freshman, Ramapo (-2 / 13)
The highest-finishing true freshman among the distance events at the indoor national meet has had a solid start to her outdoor track campaign. Already this month, Dale Leonard ran a personal best 2:13 (800) before running a solid 4:34 (1500) mark and matching her newly minted half-mile personal best the next day.
While none of those times by themselves are incredible, Leonard’s consistency certainly has been, particularly for a rookie. Sure, she’ll have to run faster to make it to the outdoor national meet, but after a 4th-place mile finish at the 2024 indoor national meet, we think we’ll see her earn a return to that stage in the coming weeks.
14. Julia Howarth, Junior, MIT (Unranked)
There may not be an athlete in Division Three who improved their stock as much as Julia Howarth did this past weekend. At the Raleigh Relays in late March, Howarth ran a very solid personal best of 2:11 (800). However, that was just the tip of the iceberg as two weeks later, she ran an eyebrow-raising time of 2:08.08.
I’m not sure we have the words to express how drastic that improvement is. This MIT star went under 2:10 (800) for the first time in a huge way -- with a three-second personal best. Howarth has been a national qualifier in the half-mile twice, but in a landscape where the event has been dominated by Emma Kelley, she just made a huge case for herself to be the second-best D3 woman in the country at that distance.
This ranking could prove to be modest if Howarth continues to perform at this level and backs up that performance. Even so, we need to see a few more outings to be convinced.
13. Shaelyn Hostager, Junior, Wartburg (+2 / 15)
After running a major personal best over 10,000 meters to open the spring season, Shaelyn Hostager moved to the 5k at UW-Platteville and found just as much success. Her 16:32 mark to finish in 2nd place in a loaded field (only behind teammate Aubrie Fisher) was a statement performance that (unsurprisingly) places her firmly in the All-American favorite category.
Hostager was already in that category for the 10k (and was an All-American over 5000 meters this past winter), but it is certainly a nice development to see her defeat fellow top-20 names in a distance half as long as her optimal event.
12. Ellie Rising, Junior, George Fox (-1 / 11)
Has not competed since our last rankings update.
11. Caroline McMartin, Senior, Central College (-1 / 10)
The double that Caroline McMartin put together at the Bryan Clay Invitational was really solid if not mind-blowing. She fell just short of a steeplechase PR with a 10:30 mark, but a season debut that currently ranks among the top-three in the country is nothing to scoff at.
It was also nice to see McMartin come back with a 4:31 (1500) PR at the same meet. Her converted 4:49 mile effort from the winter months suggests that she is capable of going slightly faster, but again, this isn’t a performance that we can criticize much.
10. Allison Sibold, Junior, St. Lawrence (-2 / 8)
The 2024 mile runner-up is having some trouble replicating her emergent success early-on in this outdoor track season. After notching a comfortable 800-meter win against lesser competition to open the season, Allison Sibold had a tough go of things at Bucknell the following weekend, running "only" 4:49/2:25 in a 1500/800-meter double.
Just a month ago, we saw what Sibold is capable of at her best, so we certainly aren’t counting her out yet. We would also be interested to see how she'd fare over 5000 meters given her 3k success this winter and her cross country All-American finish last fall.
9. Natalie Bitetti, Senior, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (0 / 9)
Despite a rough outing over 5000 meters at the Bryan Clay Invitational, Natalie Bitetti’s stock is still quite high. It's clear her fitness is in a much better place than her recent 17:06 (5k) result indicated, especially when reviewing her 4:26 (1500) and 2:14 (800) double at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite just a little over a week ago.
Both of those latter two marks were personal bests and that metric mile effort sits at NCAA #3 this season. One underwhelming mark isn’t enough to drop Bitetti in our rankings, especially when she has looked so strong in what we'd argue is her primary event.
8. Hope Murphy, Junior, Baldwin Wallace (-1 / 7)
Hope Murphy continues to contest practically every event imaginable. After opening her season with some longer races, she flexed her speed with a 400-meter/200-meter double, running 58.52 and 26.89, respectively.
Then at Bucknell, she put together a 4:29/2:10 double in the 1500 meters and the half-mile, marks that are knocking on the door of her personal bests and will grant her safe passage to the outdoor national meet barring something completely unprecedented.
Being a part of the exclusive sub-27-second (200) club and the sub-37:00 (10k) club is something that, in theory, should help Murphy thrive in any race situation.
7. Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel, Junior, U. of Chicago (-1 / 6)
Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel has hardly had the strongest past two weeks of any woman in the top-half of our rankings. She ran 4:35 (1500 meters) to finish 7th in a race that she could have won at the Chicagoland Championships. The Maroon star then ran 16:33 (5k) while falling to a pair of Wisconsin runners and another duo of Wartburg women.
The latter result was better than the former and it indicates that Battleson-Gunkel is not far from her best form. If anything, she's getting her less optimal performances out of the way before the more critical weeks of the season.
After shifting her focus from the mile to the 3k and the 5k this past winter, and then running a 10k PR (in an impressive win) to open her outdoor track campaign, it seems likely that she will focus more on the 5k and 10k this spring.
6. Megan Johnson, Junior, Central College (+6 / 12)
After having one of the best first halves of April of any D3 woman, Megan Johnson is deservedly the biggest riser in this edition of our rankings.
This Central College ace started her season with a 10k PR in late March and then dropped way down in distance for a 1500-meter win (and PR) over fellow stars like teammates Caroline McMartin and Peyton Steffen as well as Wartburg's Aubrie Fisher and Ellie Meyer, the latter two of whom were competing on their home track. Johnson then ran even faster over that distance, setting a new metric mile PR of 4:31 at the Bryan Clay Invitational.
However, her most significant result this month was a 10:19 steeplechase PR while winning her heat against a large Division One contingent. That mark puts her comfortably at NCAA #1 this season. Johnson now looks primed to become much more than the backend steeplechase All-American that she was last spring. In fact, she could legitimately challenge for the national title if she continues to progress at this rate.
5. Grace Richardson, Senior, NYU (0 / 5)
Add Grace Richardson to the list of athletes who have run multiple PRs throughout this still-young outdoor track season. The difference between her and most (and a similarity between her and Megan Johnson) is that she achieved her new set of personal bests between the 1500 meters and the 10k!
Marks of 34:06 (10k) and 4:26 (1500) run two weeks apart at Raleigh Relays and Princeton's Larry Ellis Invitational, respectively, put her at NCAA #2 and NCAA #4 this season. The fact that Richardson thrived in two different deep and competitive fields bodes well for her postseason prognosis as we near the season's midway point.
4. Aubrie Fisher, Senior, Wartburg (0 / 4)
Aubrie Fisher has recently crossed paths with several of the women ranked directly below her in our top-20.
She sits just behind Megan Johnson at NCAA #2 in the steeplechase after winning her season opener, then also finished runner-up behind Johnson over 1500 meters at the Wartburg Outdoor Select meet before toppling Battleson-Gunkel and Shaelyn Hostager over 5000 meters this past weekend.
The latter two marks -- 4:35 (1500) and 16:28 (5k) -- were both PRs for Fisher.
This reigning steeplechase national champion may be wise to attempt the 5k/steeplechase double on the national stage for the second year in a row given how sharp Johnson also appears to be over the barriers and water pits this spring. Their first meeting in that event could come with an American Rivers Conference title on the line.
3. Grace Hadley, Senior, WPI (0 / 3)
It speaks to Grace Hadley's scorched-Earth start to 2024 that we questioned whether she had any chance at upwards mobility in this week's rankings.
Alas, Emma Kelley and Fiona Smith appear to be all but immovable fixtures atop our rankings. But this past weekend, Hadley joined them in holding an NCAA #1 mark this season. Hadley, who has also run nationally competitive PRs in the 800 meters and the 10k in recent weeks (quite the dichotomy), just produced an eyebrow-raising time of 4:17 (1500) that sits as D3's fastest mark this season by five seconds.
The WPI veteran has emerged as the clear metric mile title favorite after winning gold in the mile at the 2024 indoor national meet. But after tripling on the national stage last month, we anticipate that Hadley may contest an additional event in late May. She was an All-American in the 5000 meters last spring, so we're excited to see what she could achieve over that distance this spring.
2. Emma Kelley, Junior, Washington U. (0 / 2)
The past fortnight brought more personal bests for Emma Kelley in her final Division Three campaign before transferring to the University of Wisconsin. They weren't in her primary distance, the half-mile, but rather the metric mile (4:22), the 400 meters (54.18) and the 200 meters (24.72).
Those results have her at NCAA #2, NCAA #1 and NCAA #11, respectively, this spring in addition to her NCAA #1 mark for 800 meters. As a publication that focuses on the distance events (800 meters and up), usually when we talk about range, it's from those distances up.
But Kelley has a singular speed-based skillset that is so lethal and so unique to our rankings that it allows her to easily handle anything thrown her way.
1. Fiona Smith, Junior, St. Benedict (0 / 1)
There are a strange amount of athletes who have run both the half-mile and the 10,000 meters early this season, and you can count Fiona Smith among them. That she ran PRs in both (2:16 and 32:57) speaks to her control over her fitness and a desire to improve upon it.
Sandwiched in between those results was a pair of wins over 1500 meters. Smith now sits at NCAA #1 in the 10k this season by over a minute and NCAA #5 in the metric mile.
Given that she has won titles in her past three races on the national stage and has been no worse than a top-half All-American at every national meet since the spring of 2021, Smith feels like she still holds the most value atop these rankings even for as good as the women in and around her orbit have been.
Julia Howarth (MIT)
Deyanneira Colon Maldonado (Aurora)
Kayla Werner (Lynchburg)
Haley Schoenegge (Vassar)
KICKED OFF
Lexi Fernandez (MIT)
Penelope Greene (SUNY Geneseo)
Maddie Kelly (U. of Chicago)
Alessia Sarussi (Washington U.)
JUST MISSED (in no particular order)
Lexi Fernandez (MIT)
Penelope Greene (SUNY Geneseo)
Maddie Kelly (U. of Chicago)
Alessia Sarussi (Washington U.)
Cyna Madigan (UW-Oshkosh)
Tanise Thornton-Fillyaw (Goucher)
Maddie Hannan (UW-La Crosse)
Audrey Maclean (Middlebury)
Libby Ranocha (Emory)
Danielle Schultz (Washington U.)
Brigid Hanley (Emory)
Sara Stephenson (Johns Hopkins)
Riley Buese (Lewis & Clark)
Paige Phillips (Coast Guard)
Rachel Hirschkind (SUNY Geneseo)
Amelia Lehman (UW-Oshkosh)
Elisabeth Camic (U. of Chicago)
Rachel Krouse (UW-Stevens Point)
Faith Duncan (Wilmington (OH))
Megan Bell (Rochester)
Kayla Kass (Stockton)
Ellie Meyer (Wartburg)
Laura Zimmer (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)
Kate Sanderson (MIT)
Caitlin Jorgensen (U. of Chicago)
Helen Cross (Carleton)
Lucy Gagnon (Williams)
Annessa Ihde (Bethel (Minn.))
Julia Schor (Amherst)
Mckayla Felton (UW-Stout)
Annie Huang (Johns Hopkins)
Rebecca Markham (Hope)
Peyton Steffen (Central College)
Estelle Snider (U. of Chicago)
Kate Cochran (NYU)
Lara Kallem (Simpson (IA))
Helena Teixeira-Dasilva (Washington U.)
Mary Blanchard (Carleton)
Hannah Preisser (Carleton)
Sophie Tedesco (U. of Chicago)
Kendall Accetta (Colorado College)
Elle Marsyla (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps)
Annika Carlson (Chapman)
Ella Whinney (Wellesley)
Alexandra Blake (Washington U.)
Pria Parker (Smith)
Riley Capuano (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps)
Jules Bleskoski (RPI)
Notes
- N/A