2022 D3 Indoor Top 15 Rankings (Women): Preseason

Written by Hannah Thorn, Kevin Fischer & Brett Haffner, additional notes by Garrett Zatlin

Click here to see Just Missed names

Listed eligibility takes redshirts and Covid-related extensions into consideration.

TFRRS is used as a general guide when determining eligibility.

15. Zanzie Demco, Senior, UW-Oshkosh

Middle distance star Zanzie Demco held her own during the cross country season, earning an individual bid to the NCAA XC Championships with her 10th place finish at the North Regional Championships. That's an impressive feat for someone whose greatest strength centers around speed.

On the track, Demco boasts top marks of 2:11 (800), 4:30 (1500) and 4:57 (mile) and completed an impressive All-American double at the outdoor national meet last spring where she finished 5th in the 1500 meters and 6th in the 800 meters.

Demco is already off to an impressive start to the current indoor season, running 2:13 for 800 meters on a flat-track at the UW-Oshkosh Early Bird Invite and earning a runner-up finish just two hundredths of a second behind teammate Cyna Madigan who had a big breakout day.

Demco will look to add to her collection of All-American accolades this winter, and is in a good position to do that. She isn't someone who has a lot of poor races and her improved strength from cross country could do wonders for her mile efforts later this winter.

14. Genna Girard, Freshman, Williams

After only two seasons of collegiate competition, the young WIlliams star is already making a name for herself. As a true freshman last year, she finished 6th place in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

This past fall, she finished within the top-three at every meet prior to the cross country national meet, beating some big competition along the way, including TSR #11 runner Cassidy Kearney who ultimately finished 7th at the national meet.

Girard concluded her fall season with a strong 15th place finish in Louisville.

The Williams ace holds a 5k personal best of 17:24, but she has only raced that event once in her collegiate career and it was largely a solo effort at a tri-meet. Given her recent rise on the grass and past success in the longer distances, expect her to drop time significantly in subsequent seasons.

It’s unclear exactly how fast she is capable of running on a track, but it will be exciting to see it unfold if her performances during cross country are any indication. The real question, however, is if Girard can also extend this success to shorter events like the mile and the 3k.

13. Mackenzie Dixon, Junior, Millikin

Mackenzie Dixon is no stranger to qualifying for the national meet in the 800 meters, having done so five times since her freshman year at Millikin.

Her first four trips to Nationals weren't quite how she drew them up as she was 12th at the 2018 outdoor national meet meet, 18th at the 2019 indoor national meet and DQ'd at the 2019 national meet.

Then, as we all know, the 2020 indoor national meet was cancelled due to Covid-19.

Upon her return to the track, Dixon made sure 2021 went a little differently. She made her first national meet final and ultimately finished 4th place overall in a very competitive field that included D3 legends Esther Seeland and Emily Pomainville.

While the spring of 2021 marked a statement season for Dixon, she no doubt has even bigger things in mind for this year. While we are certainly looking to see if she can replicate that kind of success again, it is nice to know that she has extensive experience on the national stage.

12. Isabel Cardi, Senior, Dickinson

This Dickinson star has consistently been one of the best distance runners in D3 for years. She is a four-time All-American, including two 3rd place finishes that came at the 2019 cross country national meet and in the 5000 meters at the outdoor national meet last spring.

Most recently, Cardi finished 8th place at the NCAA XC Championships, a result that pairs well with her 5k personal best of 16:36 which is amongst the best in the nation. The Dickinson veteran is in a great position to add to her tally of All-American accolades this winter, and may even contend for a national title.

We think her best shot of doing that will come in the 3k, especially if Kassie Parker only runs the 5k. It also doesn't hurt that she owns a 3000 meter personal best of 9:47 as well.

11. Cassidy Kearney, Junior, Middlebury

Primarily an 800 meter and mile runner, Cassie Kearney looks to finally earn her first individual All-American honor thanks to her newfound strength.

This past cross country season, she was consistently at the front of races, including the national meet. Almost the entire field earned a PR in that race, and Kearney was no different. She finished 7th at the cross country national meet in a time of 21:02.

That endurance-based strength should serve her well this indoor season. Her personal bests are 2:10 in the 800 meters and 5:00 in the mile, both of which will qualify her for the NCAA Indoor Championship should she replicate those marks.

In fact, her 800 time should essentially make her an All-American lock if she's able to post another time like that again. But whether it's the 800 meters, the mile or maybe something longer, we will will be excited to see what type of marks Kearney is capable of throwing down this year.

10. Aubrie Fisher, Junior, Wartburg

We could not talk enough about Aubrie Fisher last winter.

Part of that was because Wartburg was one of the few teams having an indoor track season, but the other reason is because she had an incredible winter on the indoor oval. Running personal bests of 9:39 (3k) and 4:59 (mile) last year cemented Fisher as one of the best in the country.

In fact, she was one of only three women to go sub-10 in the 3000 meters and sub-five in the mile last year. And if that wasn’t enough, she went to the outdoor national meet and became a national champion for the first time. She ran 10:30 in the steeplechase, narrowly earning the win.

Her cross country performance showed that she is fit once again, running 21:00 to finish 6th at the national meet. Fast forward to the start of this winter season, and Fisher chose to run the 5k at the GVSU Holiday Open en route to a mark of 17:16.

In our minds, those results just further cement the idea that Fisher's best races are the 3000 meters and the mile. The junior will look to make her first indoor national meet after having her previous two cancelled.

9. Anastasia Tucker, Junior, Hope

One of the biggest breakout stars of the abbreviated Covid-19 season last year was Ana Tucker from Hope College. She won the 3k and the DMR at the de-facto national meet, Wartburg’s Elite Indoor Championship.

On the outdoor oval, she continued her hot streak, running 4:32 in the 1500 meters and 16:37 in the 5000 meters. She placed 4th overall in a very fast 5k at the outdoor national meet to earn her first All-American honor.

This winter, Tucker is coming off of a great performance at the NCAA XC Championships, finishing 11th overall in a personal best time of 21:15. Since then, Tucker has carried that momentum into the indoor track season, opting to run the 5000 meters at the GVSU Holiday Open where she ran an indoor best of 16:57.

This Hope College veteran is one of the best in D3 when it comes to the longer distances and she has truthfully not given us much to dislike. Watch out for her in March as she is primed to produce a top finish yet again.

8. Meredith Bloss, Sophomore, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

It’s so easy to overlook teams out west, especially during the indoor track season. Admittedly, we often see the fastest times coming out of schools from the east and the midwest.

However, one west coast talent could throw her hat in the ring of national meet contenders this year. Enter Meredith Bloss.

The junior from CMS has the potential to make a major splash this winter. She finished the cross country season strong, earning runner-up honors at the West Regional Championships and 13th at the NCAA XC Championships.

Bloss is one of a few women who has decided to test her fitness already this winter. She ran an outstanding 5k time of 16:59 at the Boston University earlier this month which currently puts her at NCAA #3 (D3).

That time is super impressive when you consider that in her only season of indoor track (2020 for Cornell), Bloss’ best time in the 5k was 18:24. That gives us reason to believe that her old personal bests of 5:30 in the mile and 10:40 in the 3000 meters will fall by quite a lot.

The only question is...by how much?

7. Evie Bultemeyer, Senior, Trine

This senior has wasted no time in putting down marks this indoor season. Earlier this month, Bultemeyer ran 16:45 for 5000 meters at the GVSU Holiday Open, a new personal best.

Then, the next weekend, she ran another PR, this time in the 3000 meters at the Indiana Tech meet, running 9:43. Clearly, she did not want her cross country fitness to go to waste.

Speaking of cross country, this was easily Bultemeyer’s best year ever on the grass. She was undefeated until the NCAA XC Championships where she finished 4th place in a new 6k personal best of 20:43.

Bultemeyer usually sticks to the shorter races on the track, so it was nice to see her strength shine during the cross country season. It also opens up the possibilities of what events she could run this winter.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see her have qualifying times in the mile, 3k and 5k and have to make the tough decision of what to run at the national meet.

6. Fiona Smith, Freshman, St. Benedicts

The future of D3 might just be Fiona Smith from St. Benedicts. Before the cross country national meet, the only D3 runner this sophomore lost to was national champion, Kassie Parker. At the NCAA XC Championships, she went out with the fast pace before settling for a 5th place finish.

That’s a great way for your first collegiate cross country season to go.

Smith does have some experience on the track with indoor personal bests of 5:00 (mile), 9:55 (3k) and 17:23 (5k). However, given her results on the grass, a few of those marks will likely be different by season's end.

After all, during the outdoor national meet this past spring, she finished 5th in the 5000 meters with a mark of 16:45 to earn her first All-American honors.

We like Smith quite a bit. Despite being on the younger side, she is experienced, boasts strong marks, has proven that she is getting better and is unafraid to challenge big names. This winter could be a major breakout season for Smith.

5. Ari Marks, Junior, Wellesley

Talk about a breakout season! Ari Marks had only one loss on the year and it came to Kassie Parker at the cross country national meet. The Wellesley product seemed to come out of nowhere this past fall, but that might be because she hasn’t raced since February 2020.

In her last cross country season, she finished 102nd at the New England Regional Championships, so you could say that this fall was quite a step-up for this senior.

Marks' TFRRS page only lists two indoor meets from 2019 and four indoor meets from 2020 which, from an availability standpoint, is a little head scratching. Then again, Covid has left us with plenty of questions about numerous athletes over the past year or two.

Marks owns times of 5:13 (mile) and 10:04 (3k). However, based on her cross country fitness, we expect those times to get crushed this indoor season. Can Marks stay on the track long enough to secure new big-time personal bests that we know she's capable of hitting? If we had to guess, we think she can.

4. Danielle Page, Junior, Tufts

This Tufts junior continues her climb up the D3 leaderboards. She earned her first All-American award last spring when she finished 3rd at the outdoor national meet in the 10,000 meters behind Parley Hannan and Kassie Parker.

In that same meet, Page also finished 6th place in the 5000 meters, giving us one of the best doubles we saw that weekend.

This past fall, she ran personal bests in both 5k and the 6k on the grass, culminating in a bronze medal result at the cross country national meet.

Page is consistently racing at the highest level, which is never easy to do. Her ability to peak in the postseason and earn consistently strong results makes her one of the more dangerous names in D3.

This Tufts star has never run anything but the 3000 meters or the 5000 meters during the indoor season and truthfully, we wouldn’t expect that to change this year. Based on what we've seen out of her in 2021, we expect her to go sub-9:50 and sub-16:45 en route to becoming a double All-American once again.

3. Ella Baran, Junior, Johns Hopkins

Ella Baran is at another level right and come March, she may be a title threat in more than one event.

Last spring, the Johns Hopkins standout finished runner-up at the outdoor national meet in the 1500 meters behind Emily Pomainville. Her mark of 4:23 from that meet was a PR and would have won the 1500 crown during most years.

The NCAA Outdoor Championships was a big meet for Baran as she also finished 2nd in the 5000 meters in a time of 16:30 behind Parley Hannan who has now graduated.

This winter, Baran will aim to keep the momentum going after finishing 9th at the cross country national meet despite only racing once previously this past fall.

Baran has already opened up her indoor track season, running the 3k at the Fastrack Season Opener at Ocean Breeze. She won that race in a new personal best mark of 9:36, leaving us incredibly encouraged about what's to come.

The crazy think to think about is that Baran could qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in any event from the 800 meters up to the 5k, but her best chance for the national title could be in the mile and 3k.

She does it all and she does it all at a high level.

That's the best way to describe Baran's resume.

2. Kassie Parker, Senior, Loras

The reigning cross country national champion is once again in the upper ranks of our D3 rankings. If you're familiar with her resume, then this should hardly come as a surprise.

Parker (formerly Rosenbum) was completely dominant this past fall, including in Louisville. Her only losses this year came against D1 competition at an early season meet at Notre Dame.

Parker isn’t too shabby on the track, either.

She is a four-time All-American and has personal bests of 9:44 in the 3000 meters and 16:50 in the 5000 meters (indoors). Seeing as how all of her 6k results were under 21:00, we’re expecting to see those track times drop even further.

Although indoor track isn’t Parker’s strongest season -- she seemingly gets better as the distance gets longer -- the Loras veteran is still expected to be a force this season and a title favorite in the longer distances.

She's not unbeatable, but Parker will prove to be a challenging name to beat.

1. Esther Seeland, Junior, Messiah

Before we jump into this section, it's important to note that Esther Seeland is expected to join the Virginia Cavaliers as a (grad?) transfer at some point in the future. However, Seeland is not listed on UVA's 2021-2022 roster and is still listed on Messiah's 2021-2022 roster.

Therefore, we have reason to believe that Seeland will be moving on at the end of this academic year, not this winter.

We could try to offer a ton of fancy analysis with Seeland, but the fact of the matter is that she's elite and there's not really any other way around that.

She's run 55.30 for 400 meters and owns a jaw-dropping time of 2:02 for 800 meters. That latter mark was run this past spring at the outdoor national meet en route to the title and an NCAA #2 all-time mark.

Seeland has also run 4:27 for 1500 meters and 4:59 in the mile, making her one of the better names in the nation in those respective events, as well.

But here's the thing: Seeland is dramatically better on the outdoor oval than she is on the indoor oval. In fact, she hasn't run faster than 2:10 for 800 meters during indoor track. Of course, that's likely because she hasn't competed on the indoor track since the winter of 2020, well before she had her breakout season.

There's no reason to believe that Seeland won't be a star this winter as long as she translates just some of her outdoor track success to the indoor oval.

And after seeing her performances last spring, we're not willing to bet against her.

JUST MISSED (in no particular order)

Clara Mayfield (Carleton)

Annika Urban (Emory)

Delaney Sall (Calvin)

Elise Lambert (Bates)

Alex Ross (Johns Hopkins)