TSR's 2022 D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): Update #4

Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Nov 14, 2022
6 min read

Written by Garrett Zatlin

Order by Kevin Fischer, Hannah Thorn & Brett Haffner

Additional edits and commentary by John Cusick

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.

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. UW-La Crosse Eagles (-1 / 9)

Seeing the UW-La Crosse women snag a runner-up finish in the North region shouldn't be majorly surprising. However, they were nearly edged by Saint Olaf, a team that was just two points behind the Eagles.

And truthfully, we thought UW-La Crosse would keep things just a bit closer to Carleton than they actually did.

Even so, Maddie Hannan (4th) continues to validate herself as a true low-stick while Jenna Lovejoy (11th), Julia Anderson (13th) and Katelyn Chadwick (15th) offered highly respectable scoring support.

There was a slight drop-off to their fifth scorer who finished 21st, but that wasn't a major issue or a major reason why Saint Olaf was so close. Overall, the Eagles held their own and proved that they could be competitive, but the latter-half of their scoring group probably could have been the slightest bit better.

9. Williams Ephs (+1 / 10)

The Williams women look like they are firing on all cylinders right now.

After a convincing win at the NESCAC XC Championships over a talented Amherst team, the Ephs validated that result by earning an even stronger victory over Mammoths at the Mideast Regional XC Championships on Saturday.

Genna Girard (3rd) and Molly Fitzgibbons (4th) are an incredibly lethal 1-2 punch while Alexandra Bettez (7th) seems to be finding some serious momentum right now. And with a veteran in Ella Ball (10th) holding down the backend of this lineup, the Williams women have given us a lot to like.

Now, admittedly, their final scorer faded to 23rd place overall, although that lineup gap is something that we have continued to see over their last couple of meets.

On a larger stage like the national meet, that backend vulnerability could send the Ephs' team score sky high, although the minimal scoring gaps at the Little Three XC Championships and the Purple Valley XC Classic do leave us with some optimism.

8. MIT Engineers (0 / 8)

We could try to go in-depth about MIT, but there really isn't a whole lot to talk about here as they easily cruised to the East regional title.

The Engineers scored 36 points while the runner-up finishers, Bates, tallied 64 points. With a seven-woman lineup that went 2-4-6-11-13-16-17, there were simply zero scoring deficiencies that their competition could capitalize on.

7. Carleton Knights (0 / 7)

The Carleton women were certainly favored to take home the North regional title, but we thought that the UW-La Crosse women would make things a bit more interesting.

Instead, the Knights scored just 41 points and pulled away from the Eagles by over 20 points. With Clara Mayfield and Hannah Preisser going 2-3 in the overall results, and two other Carleton women crowding the top-10, it would have taken a massive collapse in the fifth scoring spot for this team to not win.

And with Sophie McManus placing 20th overall, a result that is far from her true potential, the Carleton women were still able to easily snag gold.

We should also note that Helen Cross (6th) and Libby Rowland (10th) were clear the MVPs for Carleton this past weekend. Those two women had arguably their best performances of the season on Saturday.

6. Washington U. Bears (0 / 6)

A 3rd place finish at your regional meet would usually be a concerning development for a team that is ranked in the top-10 of our list. However, when that same region also holds two national title contenders, it's hard to be critical.

The Washington U. women just simply weren't strong enough to match the scoring potency that we saw from the U. Chicago Maroons or the Wartburg Knights at the Midwest Regional XC Championships.

Seeing Katie Rector place 8th overall was a highly encouraging result, especially as we go into the national meet. Lindsay Ott placing 10th was fine as well, even if we thought she could have been closer to the top-five.

But with the final three scorers in this lineup going 16-23-25, the Bears just didn't have enough scoring to compete with the top-two teams in this field.

However, Emily Konkus and Ella Behrens didn't race. If they had, then these team scores are likely much closer than what we saw. Would the Bears be able to edge the U. Chicago women? No, likely not, but it would have made things interesting.

The Washington U. women were likely resting their top women as they prepare to go all-in at the national meet later this week.

5. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas (0 / 5)

Much like the MIT women, there isn't a whole lot to analyze when it comes to the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women. The Athenas cruised to the West regional title by posting just 37 points, going 1-4-5-11-16 in the overall results which was a 36-point win over a highly respectable Pomona-Pitzer squad.

We might not have expected CMS to win the West region by this much, but a convincing victory on Saturday hardly surprised anyone.

That said, I just want everyone to put Anika Kimme on their radar. She is probably closer to teammates Meredith Bloss and Natalie Bitetti than we realize. I don't think an All-American honor is out of her reach after placing 6th this past weekend.

4. Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (0 / 4)

40 points. Mid-Atlantic title. Next closest team (Carnegie Mellon) was 72 points back.

There really isn't a whole lot to pull away from these results, but it has been super encouraging to see Isis Diaz stepping up after a slow-ish start to her season. She placed 8th overall this past weekend and has arguably been just as potent as some of her other teammates over the last couple of races.

3. U. of Chicago Maroons (-2 / 1)

It's hard to put too much emphasis on regional results when the national meet is the obvious priority for every qualified team in the country. Even so, the U. Chicago women just couldn't match what Wartburg brought to the table at the Midwest Regional XC Championships.

While Anna Kenig-Ziesler, Maddie Kelly and Lucy Groothuis all finished in the top-seven, it was the Wartburg women who actually had the better firepower. And although the Maroons have arguably had the stronger depth all season long, the Knights were able to put their final two scorers ahead of U. Chicago's fourth runner.

It's hard to look at these results and think that the U. Chicago women are still the national title favorites. Although, to be clear, they are still one of the national title contenders.

U. Chicago's success on the national stage will ultimately be determined by how strong their backend scorers can be. We know that they have a talented and deep group, but how highly can they finish on the national stage?

We'll find out soon...

2. SUNY Geneseo Knights (+1 / 3)

Grass is green, the sky is blue and the SUNY Geneseo women are the best cross country team in the Niagara region.

The Knights went 1-2-4-5-6-8-13 this past weekend to score just 18 points and earn the regional title. They look as strong as ever and have returned to their original TSR preseason ranking from the late summer / early fall.

1. Wartburg Knights (+1 / 2)

Taking down Washington U. is one thing, but defeating our previous TSR #1 team, U. Chicago, by nine points at Midwest Regional XC Championships tell us everything that we need to know about the Wartburg women -- they can win the national title.

The Knights outran the Maroons in every single scoring spot of their lineup. Aubrie Fisher (2nd) is still a superstar, Lexi Brown (3rd) is having the breakout season that we knew she could have, Ellie Meyer (6th) continues to deliver on her potential and both Shaelyn Hostager (12th) and Riley Mayer (13th) may be the best backend scorers in the nation.

The Wartburg women probably have the most complete scoring five in Division Three right now. However, the only critique that we can offer is that if just one of these women have an "off" day at the national meet, then the scoring gap to their sixth runner will make it difficult for the Knights to win NCAA gold.

Either way, the Wartburg women are back at TSR #1.