TSR's 2022 D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): Update #5

TSR Collaboration
Dec 6, 2022
10 min read

Updated: Dec 6, 2022

Written by Grace McLaughlin & Eric Baranoski

Additional edits and commentary by John Cusick & Garrett Zatlin

NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships or at a singular meet. You will notice that these rankings may mirror the national meet results, but not precisely. That is intentional. These rankings are intended to be an aggregate, not a recency list.

KEY

(Unranked):

Was not ranked in our last update.

(#/#):

First number indicates how much the team has moved in the rankings.

The second number indicates where the team was ranked in our last update.

10. Wayne State (MI) Warriors (Unranked)

To be honest, we may have underestimated how good the Wayne State women. The Warriors overall season was solid, but they never stood out in any major way.

The Warriors implored a team-centric strategy of racing together all season long. And sure enough, that approach once again yielded success as they finished 9th place as a team at the NCAA XC Championships this past weekend.

Their time-spread was a mere 38 seconds!

However, what may be even crazier is that the Warriors didn't have a single All-American talent as Ashley Defrain was their highest finisher in 51st place. The rest of the top-five were Briana Vojinov who finished in 73rd, Reagan Justice who finished in 75th, Thailyia Christensen who finished in 85th and Charlene Yarema who settled for 110th.

The Warriors showed that the pack-running style can be just as effective as a team that is less balanced, but more top-heavy. They showed that at the Lucian Rosa Invitational, finishing 3rd as a team with all five scorers finishing within a minute of each other. The same thing happened at the GLIAC XC Championships where they finished 2nd behind Grand Valley State.

The time-spread slipped to more than a minute at the Midwest Regional XC Championships, which may have led us to believe that their gaps would have ballooned even further at the national meet.

And clearly, that wasn’t the case.

This was an incredibly encouraging result from the Wayne State women and a huge resume booster for their overall season. The Warriors never finished worse than 3rd as a team until the national meet and their efforts make them worthy of TSR #10 in our final rankings.

9. Stanislaus State Warriors (-4 / 5)

The Stanislaus State didn’t have the best national meet showing, but that one meet will not define their season. They were the winners of the CCAA XC Championships as well as champions of the West Regional XC Championships.

We won’t pin their underwhelming result on the weather, but last year in Florida, they were 12th as a team and this year in Seattle, they were 18th. Take that for what you think it's worth.

This time around, they did have an All-American as Kaela Dishion delivered with a respectable 34th place finish, although we admittedly thought that should could have been a few spots higher. Senior Najwa Chouati also had a respectable day with her 54th place finish.

But after that is when things began to go awry for the Warriors.

Kayden Legen finished 126th, Yahaira Zuniga was two spots back in 138th and Haleigh Humble was their final scorer, in 174th place. There is not a whole lot that you can do with finishes like that which simply don't support the low-stick scoring value of a lineup.

All in all, this was still a very respectable season for the Warriors as they have something to try and build on for next year.

8. Western Colorado Mountaineers (Unranked)

A recent addition to our “Just Missed” category who have since been elevated to our top-10, the Big Red Machine ran their way back into our rankings as they will finish in our TSR #8 spot, a position which matches where they finished at the national meet.

Allison Beasley allowed her season-long consistency to carry her to a top finish last Friday, settling in 19th place while securing her second-consecutive All-American honor. The same could be said for Katie Doucette, although she really had to hang on as she finished 37th for the second year in a row.

Add in Leah Taylor in 78th place, Emma Kjellsen in 99th place and Gretchen Slattum in 103rd place and you have a Mountaineers team that secured a top-10 finish at the national meet for the second-year in a row.

While Western Colorado moves back into our rankings, we still believe that they could have finished better than 8th place at the NCAA XC Championships. We thought that Doucette would improve upon last year’s finish and really take this team over the top.

The Mountaineers made two All-Americans go a long way in the team title race, but there were points certainly left out on the race course.

7. CSU-Pueblo Thunderwolves (Unranked)

CSU-Pueblo amassed three solid performances in a row to cap off their season.

It started at the RMAC XC Championships where they finished 5th, a solid result, but not one that captured any significant attention. The Thunderwolves later backed up that performance with a 4th place finish at the South Central Regional XC Championships.

Still, we were hesitant about them.

But last Friday, the Thunderwolves silenced any doubts that we had about them, finishing in 6th place overall and emerging as one of six RMAC teams inside the top-10. This CSU-Pueblo group clearly used last year’s disappointing result (a 20th place team finish on the national stage) as a key learning moment with many of the same runners from 2021 toeing the line with a year of experience under their belts.

And their improvements were just as drastic as the weather.

Helen Braybrook turned a 131st place finish from last year's national meet into a career-best 6k time and a 23rd place All-American finish this year. Veteran Yasmine Hernandez earned her first All-American cross country performance, finishing in 27th place overall.

Over the course of a year, Margot Thomas-Gatel improved 62 places, going from 120th at last year's season finale to 58th last Friday. Bethany Donnelly, who ran at a national meet for the first time in her career, finished 64th while Claire Pauley performed about the same as last year -- 104th in 2021 to 109th in 2022.

The regular season efforts that we saw from the Thunderwolves wasn't anything to brag about, but they had one of the best postseason performances of any team in the national meet field, relative to expectations.

It just goes to show how much experience can benefit a team.

6. Cedarville Yellow Jackets (+1 / 7)

Coming into this year's national meet, the Cedarville women were already having a cross country season to remember.

They were champions at the GMAC XC Championships and then placed 2nd at the Midwest Regional XC Championships behind Grand Valley State, a result which gave them an automatic qualifying spot to Seattle.

The Yellow Jackets' pack-running style was plenty effective all season long, even at a larger meets like the Louisville Classic where they finished 10th overall as a team.

So why wouldn’t that racing style work at the NCAA XC Championships?

Well, it did it work!

Their 34-second time-spread allowed Cedarville to minimize their scoring vulnerabilities even without boasting an individual All-American...although, Savannah Ackley finished in an agonizing 41st place, one spot from that honor.

But with Hannah Rhem in 50th, Naomi Herman in 57th, Bethany Sholl in 80th and Alayna Ackley in 93rd, the women from Ohio were able to put just 271 points on board. That was good enough for 7th place -- a solid result which rewarded their depth, but also indicated that they needed more firepower to be a podium squad.

This is was Cedarville's highest national meet finish in program history and based on they ran this season, that's not too surprising. Few non-podium teams were as consistent as the Yellow Jackets were throughout their fall 2022 campaign.

5. Augustana Vikings (+1 / 6)

Throughout the season, we doubted the Augustana Vikings, but they rallied when it mattered the most (again) and proved us wrong with their 5th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships, scoring 218 points.

And because of that, they move up one spot in our rankings to TSR #5.

The Vikings had a great day as a team, but on the individual level, they had some surprisingly great results. Megan Means ran out of her mind with her 11th place finish, a result that was a massive deviation from the unexciting performances that she had produced prior to last Friday. Nicolette Schmidt also had a fantastic day, finishing in 16th place overall.

The Vikings had Means and Schmidt has a low-stick duo up front and then a pack of three women completing their lineup. Iris Velting placed 71st with Ella Bakken and Mia Salas in 77th and 79th place, in that order.

The Vikings had a slow start to their season, but continued their history of showing up at the national meet. Their combination of top firepower and a tight backend pack kept their point total relatively low and displayed their balance of both talent and depth.

4. UC-Colorado Springs Mountain Lions (0 / 4)

The Mountain Lions of UC-Colorado Springs placed 4th overall last Friday with 184 points.

Layla Almasri led the way with her 10th place result, improving upon her 12th place finish from last year's national meet. Kate Hedlund also had a phenomenal day with her 20th place finish while Anna Fauske had a stellar performance of her own in 24th place, delivering on the potential that she had shown all season long.

Riley McGrath rounded out UCCS' four All-Americans in 32nd place.

Rachel Richtman was her team's fifth runner in 128th place which admittedly limited the Mountain Lions' team score. However, Richtman actually kept their excessive backend scoring within reason when it could have easily gotten out of hand -- and that deserves to be commended.

Either way, UCCS' final result displayed the strength of their front-runners, but also highlighted their greatest weakness when it came to their limited depth.

Overall the Mountain Lions had a great day in Seattle and earned a podium finish with four All-Americans, although it's admittedly surprising that they didn't even crack the top-three with four All-Americans.

Even so, the UC-Colorado Springs women are emerging as yet another consistent cross country powerhouse from the state of Colorado.

3. Colorado Mines Orediggers (0 / 3)

The Orediggers of Colorado Mines scored 164 points to earn bronze at the NCAA XC Championships, arguably one of the least surprising results that we saw last Friday.

Molly Maksin led the way once again with her 12th place finish. Meanwhile, Zoe Baker and Grace Strongman finished as All-Americans in 33rd and 39th, respectively. Baker's result admittedly left us wanting more, but Strongman was a major (and unexpected) reason why this team was able to edge UCCS.

Clare Peters cracked into the top-50 with her 47th place finish, not quite earning All-Americans, but clearly overcoming her lack of experience at this level. Fellow teammate Holly Moser rounded out Mines' scoring in 61st place with Alayna Szuch displaying her team's depth with a 66th place result.

Jenna Ramsey returned to racing after an extended absence from the starting line and finished 101st which is not indicative of her true talent. She will be a name to watch as she returns to full fitness during the indoor track season.

Overall, the women of Colorado Mines had a solid day. Maksin’s 12th place finish was huge for her team's score, Baker is probably more talented than her 33rd place finish shows, and Strongman had an extremely strong (no pun intended) performance to earn All-American honors as a rookie.

Peters did not have a fantastic day, but she still held it together and provided great value in the middle portion of the Orediggers' lineup. Moser and Szuch had good races and displayed the Orediggers’ depth, giving 'Mines one of the most complete lineups that we had seen from any team all season long.

Bronze is what we predicted for Colorado Mines and they lived up to our expectations, but their lineup and performances were not exactly how we predicted them to unfold.

2. Grand Valley State Lakers (0 / 2)

The Grand Valley State Lakers repeated as the national meet runner-up finishers with a team score of 126 points.

Star low-stick Klaudia O’Malley led the way with her individual bronze medal finish and Lauren Kiley joined her teammate in the top-10 with her stellar 7th place finish. Usual low-stick Natalie Graber started off the race strong, but faltered to 35th place in the final kilometer.

Regardless, Graber still finished as an All-American and aided her team in a 2nd place finish. Luckily, Kiley’s surprising 7th place finish helped lessen the damage on the Lakers’ point total.

Kayce Rypma narrowly earned All-American honors with her 39th place finish while rookie Abby VanderKooi closed out the Lakers' team scoring in 55th place with Taryn Chapko close behind in 59th.

The Lakers didn’t have a perfect day, but it wasn’t necessarily bad, either. O’Malley made a late surge at the end of the season to once again solidify herself as one of the best cross country runners in the nation, proven by her runner-up national meet finish from last year.

Lauren Kiley had a phenomenal day with her top-10 finish as a freshman, proving that she will be a force in the years to come. While Graber had an "off" day, she held it together for her team and was still an All-American. Plus, even if she had won this race, GVSU wouldn't have defeated Adams State.

Rypma, VanderKooi and Chapko performed relatively well as expected, creating a solid and stable backend lineup for the Lakers.

Overall, this was a solid note for the Lakers to end their season on. There were certainly points left on the table, but 2nd place was nearly a guaranteed result for them as long as they went out and executed.

1. Adams State Grizzlies (0 / 1)

The Adams State women were victorious in Seattle and won their third national title in a row. They dominated the field with a team score of 75 points, a whole 51 points ahead of the runner-up team, GVSU.

Adams State performed well as a team and on the individual level, displaying their insane level of talent and unmatched depth. Their lethal lineup consisting of Cotter, Robles, Robinson, Schoellkopf and Hykes pulled together for a near-perfect day after a rough regional meet showing.

Stephanie Cotter broke away from the field for the individual crown. Brianna Robles improved upon her 6th place finish from last year to settle for 4th place on Friday. Precious Robinson lived up to the potential that we saw from her earlier this season with her 15th place finish and Emily Schoellkopf had a solid day in 25th. Morgan Hykes rounded out their scorers in 38th, capping off five All-American runners for the Grizzlies.

This performance displayed Adams State’s tradition of excellence and ability to perform at the NCAA XC Championships. The Grizzlies again dominated the field and added to their legacy with their 20th national team title.

And truthfully, no one should be surprised.