2023 D2 Indoor Top 25 Rankings (Women): Preseason (Part Two)

Written by Grace McLaughlin & Marissa Kuik, additional commentary & edits by Garrett Zatlin

Click here to read Part One as well as our Just Missed & 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.

13. Zoe Baker, Junior, Colorado Mines

Zoe Baker is easily one of the most experienced endurance runners in Division Two. That, and the fact that her resume is full of All-American honors, earns her a TSR #13 ranking heading into the 2023 indoor track season.

It's admittedly hard to properly rank Baker. She has run some incredibly fast times, owning personal bests of 9:33 (3k) and 16:16 (5k). And when you factor in altitude conversions, she has run 4:50 (mile) and 9:27 (3k).

Baker has often found herself near the top of the D2 indoor national leaderboard in numerous events. In fact, she has even found herself in the conversation for NCAA gold. However, some of her national meet performances don't necessarily reflect her title-winning potential.

Last year, the Oredigger star placed 10th in the 3000 meters and 8th in the 5000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She opted to run another double at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, placing 16th in the 5000 meters and 9th in the 10,000 meters. Most recently, Baker earned a 33rd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.

The Oredigger ace will be a top name in both the 3k and the 5k this season, but how she executes and responds to certain tactics on championships stages are what will ultimately determine her end-of-season ranking.

12. Kate Hedlund, Sophomore, UC-Colorado Springs

Kate Hedlund comes into this 2023 indoor track season listed at TSR #12 thanks to her talent in the mile and her impressive string of performances from this past fall.

With competitive personal bests of 2:12 in the 800 meters and 4:49 in the mile, Hedlund is a top name in the middle distance events who could also evolve into a stellar 3k runner following a promising 2022 cross country campaign.

The Mountain Lion ace placed 6th in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships last winter and later finished 12th in the 1500 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships the following spring. Most recently, she placed 20th at the NCAA XC Championships, showcasing her impressive balance of speed and endurance.

And in our eyes, that event diversity paired with a valuable year of experience could elevate this UCCS star to another tier.

Hedlund is one of the top returners in the mile this winter and her progression during the cross country season forces us to believe that she will be even better this winter, especially if she runs in the longer events.

But like we've mentioned with a few other women, we're not necessarily questioning whether or not Hedlund will improve this fall -- it's just a matter of how much.

11. Ava O'Connor, Sophomore, Adams State

Ava O’Connor was among the harder names to rank this season due to her freshman-year inconsistency and her recent absence during the 2022 cross country season. But ultimately, we decided on a TSR #11 ranking for this Adams State runner.

Her bronze medal in the mile at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships simply held too much weight to not put her in Part Two of our preseason list.

O’Connor had a stellar year on the track during both the winter and spring months, running times of 2:09 in the 800 meters and 4:46 in the mile. Overall, she had a solid outdoor track season, setting a 1500 meter PR of 4:21, but she faltered at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and placed 22nd in the event.

Even so, this Irish distance runner showed tremendous poise, underrated turnover, promising endurance via her 9:37 (3k) personal best and subtle signs of advanced tactical awareness. And when you paired all of those aspects with her raw fitness, few women at the Division Two level seemed to be as dangerous as O'Connor was last winter.

However, O'Connor was seemingly redshirted this past fall, so we have not seen her compete since last spring. That recent lack of racing, her underwhelming end to the 2022 outdoor track season and still-developing consistency is why she just barely sits outside of our top-10.

Even so, given the talent that she displayed last year, O'Connor is undeniably one of the top milers in Division Two heading into this season. If she continues to build on her success from last year, then she could end up earning silver instead of bronze.

10. Riley McGrath, Junior, UC-Colorado Springs

Riley McGrath is another impressive mile / 1500 meter runner for the UC-Colorado Springs women who, in our eyes, can occasionally be underrated by the rest of the Division Two world. Her talent and experience puts her at TSR #10 in our preseason rankings.

The Mountain Lion ace placed 4th in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships, a pleasantly surprising result which felt like a statement to the rest of the D2 realm.

However, McGrath would go on to (somewhat) validate that result by placing 9th in the 1500 meters and 20th in the 5000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships the following spring. She also placed 32nd at the NCAA XC Championships this past fall.

Of course, it's not just McGrath's national meet experience that places her this highly in our rankings. She owns personal bests of 2:14 in the 800 meters, 4:47 in the mile, 9:43 in the 3k and 16:36 in the 5k. Altogether, those times make her one of the more dynamic and versatile distance talents that Division Two has to offer this year.

McGrath has been consistently improving over the last year and goes into this season stronger, aerobically, and with so much more experience. The UCCS junior will likely be a top name in the mile, but like her teammate Kate Hedlund, she also shows a lot of promise in the 3k, an event that she could, theoretically, be a tactical nightmare in.

9. Katie Doucette, Junior, Western Colorado

Katie Doucette was one of the most impressive runners in all of Division two last winter.

At the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships, the Western Colorado star was the runner-up finisher in the 3000 meters and also placed 4th in the 5000 meters, pulling off a stellar double at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She also placed 8th in the 5k at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and was most recently 37th at the NCAA XC Championships.

Admittedly, Doucette has not flexed the same firepower that we once saw from her at the 2022 indoor national meet. She has had a few occasional (although not consistent) slip ups, and some national meet performances of hers have been better than others -- but we know that the raw talent is there.

Doucette owns legitimately-elite personal bests (at the D2 level) of 9:20 in the 3000 meters and 16:08 in the 5000 meters, making her a top returner in both events. Until proven otherwise, Doucette is a top-10 name on the indoor oval.

Given her extensive amount of experience and proven upper-tier talent, Doucette will be hard to beat if she returns to the peak of her fitness this winter. We don't always know what we're going to get out of this Mountaineer veteran, but even Doucette at 90% makes her a comfortable All-American candidate in the eyes of The Stride Report.

8. Taryn Chapko, Sophomore, Grand Valley State

Taryn Chapko is a nationally competitive middle distance runner who has also proven to be majorly successful on the grass -- and that's a massive rarity.

While relatively young by eligibility, this Laker ace has actually evolved into a true veteran, building an impressive resume who will once again by a major threat in the middle distances this winter.

Chapko placed 5th in the 800 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships last winter, but then showcased her incredible ability to effectively move up in distance, placing 6th in the 1500 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Oh, and she was 59th at the NCAA XC Championships this past fall.

Despite being heralded as a middle distance runner, Chapko was consistently a scorer for Grand Valley State during the fall months and was actually the 14th place finisher at the 2021 cross country national meet.

And if you're still not totally convinced, then maybe a recent 9:41 (3k) personal best will convince you that this GVSU ace is a versatile weapon in every race that she toes the line for.

However, more importantly, Chapko owns personal bests of 2:07 in the 800 meters, 4:25 in the 1500 meters and 4:51 in the mile. And here's the craziest part -- she's only ever run the mile once!

While Chapko opted to focus on the 800 meters last winter, another year of aerobic development, a promising cross country season and an All-American honor in the 1500 meters last spring indicates that she could be very successful in the mile as well.

Chapko's greatest firepower and potential lies in the 800 meters, an area that the Lakers probably need her in the most. Her momentum has seemingly not slown down over the past year, her progression is promising and she is one of the most reliable postseason middle distance talents in the nation.

And as she goes into this indoor track season with more experience...what's not to like?

7. Eleonora Curtabbi, Senior, West Texas A&M

One of the biggest surprises from the 2022 cross country season was Eleonora Curtabbi.

Sure, she did win the 3000 meter steeplechase title at the 2022 outdoor national meet and she did finish 30th at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships, but we don't think anyone expected her to finish in 6th place this year at the cross country national meet!

In fact, she was right behind her teammate Florance Uwajeneza who has been a distance running juggernaut since transferring to West Texas A&M.

All of that begs the question...if Curtabbi did so well last year coming off of a 30th place cross country national meet finish, how much better can she be on the oval after coming off of a 6th place finish from the same meet a year later? She already won a national title in the steeplechase, but what is her potential on the indoor oval?

First, let’s look at how she did during last year’s indoor and outdoor track season.

Curtabbi was actually fairly quiet at the start of her 2022 indoor track season and did not even qualify for the indoor national meet! She ran 16:55 (5k) and 9:54 (3k). Those are decent times, but not anything that grabbed our attention.

However, Curtabbi then began to show off her range once the outdoor track season hit. She clearly worked a lot on her speed and came away with two personal bests in the 800 meters and the 1500 meters, running 2:08 and 4:24, respectively.

But where she really made a name for herself was in the 3000 meter steeplechase. In that event, she won the national title in a time of 10:07. Curtabbi dominated the D2 ranks in this event and she continued to build off of that success going into the 2022 cross country season.

Again, it may seem controversial putting Curtabbi this high in our rankings after her very lackluster 2022 indoor track season. Even so, the combination of her incredible outdoor track season from last spring and the massive improvements she made on the grass has us feeling like she is plenty deserving of this spot in our rankings.

6. Florance Uwajeneza, Senior, West Texas A&M

Ranking Florance Uwajeneza was somewhat of a tricky case.

On one hand, Uwajeneza had one of the best cross country seasons of her life this past fall. She won titles at the Lone Star Conference XC Championships and at the South Central Regional XC Championships. She then ended up 5th at the NCAA XC Championships.

However, on the other hand, she did not compete at all during the 2022 indoor OR outdoor track seasons. Nothing at all!

Many reasons could have contributed to her absence, but in order to better understand what kind of an athlete Uwajeneza is, and why we ranked her where we did, let’s look back at when the last time she did compete on the track.

During the 2021 indoor track season, Uwajeneza really showed off her range. She qualified for the national meet in the 3000 meters, the 5000 meters and ran the fourth leg for the Buffalos’ DMR squad. The West Texas A&M star ended up finishing 2nd overall in that 5k race, running a personal best of 16:10 in the process. She then came back and finished 4th in the 3k as well.

Not too bad for a race-heavy indoor national meet, huh?

Uwajeneza then went on to run a 10k PR of 34:24 during the outdoor track season. She would ultimately finish 10th overall in that event at the outdoor national meet before recording a DNF in the 5k.

Uwajeneza then came back with a strong fall season in 2021, finishing 9th at the cross country national meet.

Naturally, we thought Uwajeneza was ready for an even better 2022 campaign on the track, but unfortunately, she was completely absent from competition.

Luckily, we got to see this West Texas A&M star finish up a stellar 2022 cross country season earlier this year. Our fingers are now crossed that we get to see her capitalize on her fitness this winter.

Even though Uwajeneza does not have any track times from the past year, we believe that her past performances on the national stage, in conjunction with her consistency during cross country, deserve a TSR #6 preseason ranking.

5. Klaudia O’Malley, Junior, Grand Valley State

Relative to expectations, Klaudia O’Malley probably had one of the quieter 2022 cross country seasons of any athlete ranked on this list...and yet she still came away with a 3rd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships!

And let's be clear, this GVSU star did not have a bad season prior to the cross country national meet. On the contrary, she still finished incredibly well in the majority of her races! It was just the expectation that she would lead Grand Valley State during the entirety of their fall campaign, not just on the national stage.

She was, after all, the reigning cross country national meet runner-up from the fall of 2021.

O’Malley’s experience on the national stage will once again help her on the track this winter. During the 2022 indoor national meet, O’Malley finished 2nd in the mile, played a role on the Lakers’ 5th place DMR squad and recorded a DNF result in the 3k. For the outdoor national meet, she finished 4th in the 1500 meters and 14th in the 5000 meters.

Although that DNF result in the 3k from the NCAA Indoor Championships and a low finish in the 5k at the NCAA Outdoor Championships were less than ideal, those results don’t put O’Malley’s talent into question.

The GVSU veteran recently kicked off her 2023 indoor track season with a 9:28 mark in the 3000 meters at Grand Valley State’s home meet, only five seconds off of her personal best. And when you pair her blistering 3k performances with her 4:19 (1500), 4:44 (mile) and 16:15 (5k) marks, it's clear that few women in the NCAA boast the same raw fitness that O'Malley has shown us over the last few years.

This past cross country season proved to us that O'Malley is still one of the most reliable All-American talents in the NCAA. In fact, we even believe that she has the capability to be a national title winner! But with the mile, 3k and 5k all have title favorites other than O'Malley, meaning we were forced to place her at TSR #5...for the time being.

4. Ukeyvia Beckwith, Senior, Embry-Riddle*

*NOTE: Following publication of this article, The Stride Report has learned that Ukeyvia Beckwith is not expected to race this winter.

Ukeyvia Beckwith is a true middle distance star with great consistency on championship stages. Her underappreciated prowess in the 400 meters and the 800 meters earns her a TSR #4 ranking heading into the 2023 indoor track season.

The Embry-Riddle ace was 4th at the NCAA Indoor Championships last winter and then validated that result with a massive 3rd place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Both All-American honors came in the 800 meters.

Of course, being a multi-time upper-half All-American in one of the best middle distance eras of Division Two also means that Beckwith has run some incredibly fast times. The Peach Belt veteran owns impressive personal bests of 55.08 in the 400 meters and a blistering PR of 2:05 in the 800 meters.

And the best part is that Beckwith is one of the best postseason performers in the country relative to her regular season results. Few women in D2 are able to peak as effectively as this Embry-Riddle talent when it matters the most.

She's just that clutch.

Beckwith's stellar speed and sneaky-good level of experience make her a top name in the 800 meters once again this season. Her overall progression and excellent postseason consistency suggests that she'll have another successful season in the 800 meters.

And maybe even win a national title...

3. Lindsay Cunningham, Sophomore, Winona State

Two things are for certain with Lindsay Cunningham: She wins a lot and she does it in dominant fashion.

Cunningham won every single cross country race that she toed the line for this past fall except for the NCAA XC Championships where she finished runner-up only to Stephanie Cotter. Of course, her silver-medal performance was impressive in-and-of itself as she still put a 16-second gap on the rest of the field.

Even during the 2021 cross country season, Cunningham won every single race besides the cross country national meet where she still finished 7th. And for the most part, the indoor and outdoor ovals are no different when it comes to Cunningham’s ability to win.

During her 2022 indoor and outdoor regular season campaigns, Cunningham lost only once. She finished 4th in the 10,000 meters at the always-competitive Bryan Clay Invitational.

At last year's indoor national meet, the Winona State superstar finished 5th in the 5000 meters, the only race that she qualified for at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Then, at the outdoor national meet, she qualified for both the 5k and the 10k, but opted to just compete in the 5k.

Her decision to just race the 5k led to a 4th place All-American finish.

Admittedly, those final results are not exactly mind-blowing for someone who sits at TSR #3, but she still showed a ton of promise as a youngster and clearly leapt to an entirely new level this past fall.

The midwest standout boasts personal bests of 9:43 in the 3000 meters, 16:05 for the 5000 meters (outdoor) and 34:08 for the 10,000 meters.

Cunningham definitely thrives in the longer races as her times improve significantly once she hits 5k/10k. She's also an aggressive front-runner, so expect her to press hard from the start in most of her races this indoor track season just like she did on the grass this past fall.

Cunningham definitely knows how to lead races and is typically by herself most of the time when she competes. Truthfully, some of her competition isn't quite as strong as what the mountain-area teams face, but the gaps that Cunningham is able to establish over nationally-ranked names from the midwest is astonishing.

Cunningham is likely ready to drop some absurdly fast times this winter. And if she can continue to carry her cross country momentum to the track, then there's a good chance that she'll put her name on an all-time list and potentially win a national title.

2. Brianna Robles, Junior, Adams State

Brianna Robles has really blossomed into a household name for Division Two distance running and she can thank her elite level of consistency for that.

Robles is coming off of a very impressive campaign on the grass where she finished 4th at the NCAA XC Championships. She also came away with a national title in the 5000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last spring and was the runner-up finisher in the 10,000 meters at that meet as well.

However, maybe more importantly, the Adams State star also won a national title at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 5k and finished 3rd in the 3k last winter. Robles already has a mass number of accolades just from the past year, but we think she is going to be even better this winter than in previous seasons.

First and foremost, Robles finished higher up at the NCAA XC Championships this past fall than she did last year. Her 6th place finish at the 2021 cross country national meet set her up for a dynamic track season and she is more than capable of pulling off even better performances this year.

Robles also has some serious range. The rising Grizzly ace boasts personal bests of 4:27 (1500), 9:20 (3k), 16:00 (5k indoor) and 32:50 (10k). She also ran the last leg for the Grizzlies in their national-qualifying DMR.

It's one thing to flex the incredible raw firepower that is evident on Robles' resume. However, when you pair incredible raw fitness with underrated consistency and range, then you see why she sits at TSR #2 in our rankings.

1. Stephanie Cotter, Senior, Adams State

She’s baaaaack.

It’s hard not to put Stephanie Cotter at the top of our rankings after she dominated the field at the NCAA XC Championships this past fall. We missed Cotter last year after she decided to transfer to Northern Arizona University, but now she’s back at Adams State to dominate the D2 circuit once again.

And truthfully, we don't have any reasons to doubt her.

At the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships, Cotter bested the field in the mile to win gold. She then repeated at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships by winning the 1500 meter national title as well.

The all-time D2 superstar boasts personal bests of 4:44 in the mile and 4:14 in the 1500 meters. Cotter also has a PR of 2:09 in the 800 meters, speed that she has clearly utilized in flawlessly-executed championship wins.

Now, with Yasmine Hernandez (CSU-Pueblo), Berenice Cleyet-Merle (Indianapolis) and Celine Ritter (Lee (Tenn.)) all out of the NCAA, Stephanie Cotter probably has the best shot of winning a national title in the mile than she ever has before -- and between the mile and te 1500 meters, she already has four NCAA gold medals!

Even though she does not compete much throughout the regular season and she doesn’t race in a lot of other distances besides the mile and the occasional 800 meters, Cotter's overall dominance is hard to beat.

Plus, the Adams State veteran is coming fresh off of her second national title in cross country. If she really wanted to move up to the 3000 meters or 5000 meters, she absolutely could...and maybe even win a national title there as well.