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TSR's 2022 Preseason D2 XC Top 25 Rankings: #25-21 (Women)
- John Cusick
- Jul 27, 2022
- 8 min read
Additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin
25. Yasmine Hernandez, Senior, CSU-Pueblo
If you haven’t seen what Yasmine Hernandez has accomplished as of late, then there's a good chance that you've been ignoring the entire D2 scene over the last year.
When we go back and look at Hernandez’s overall resume, it becomes clear that she has become one of the most consistent and most dominant runners across Division Two since she has donned the CSU-Pueblo uniform.
However, her performances on the track are obviously where she has garnered the most acclaim.
Admittedly, Hernandez's 53rd place finish at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships almost looks like a "bad" race when you look at what she did prior to that. She earned a surprisingly strong 13th place finish at the Chile Pepper XC Invitational and followed-up that result with an excellent 7th place result at the RMAC XC Championships.
Her 16th place finish at the South Central Regional XC Championships was fine, but it was largely unexciting. The same could be said about her aforementioned 53rd place finish at the national meet.
Still, the progression that Hernandez showed us last fall was highly encouraging. In previous years, the veteran had never finished higher than 29th place in any postseason cross country meet, making the fall of 2021 a clear breakthrough for her.
Like we said earlier, that 53rd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships almost looks like a "bad" day when you compare it to the rest of her season which, for the most part, was very good. And that result definitely feels like a bad day after we saw what her 2022 track campaigns comprised of.
Hernandez anchored her CSU-Pueblo team to a national title in the DMR, holding off U-Indy’s Berenice Cleyet-Merle in the process. She later came back to take home bronze in the 800 meters, only being bested by Alison Andrews-Paul and Kelly-Ann Beckford.
But then Hernandez did something that most women in her situation would not do -- move up to the 1500 meters on the outdoor circuit. As it turns out, that was the right decision for this Thunderwolf veteran. She eventually ran 4:15 over the metric mile to take home the national title and hold off Adams State’s Roisin Flanagan by the slimmest of margins.
And now, our perspective on Hernandez's talent is completely different, and much more positive, than it was at this time last year.
The biggest question about Hernandez heading into her final season on the grass is not whether or not she belongs in our top-25, but where she should be slated within these rankings.
Most people can see that Hernandez has made the necessary strides on the track to be a viable All-American contender over 6000 meters this fall. Sure, she is at her best as a middle distance specialist, but her 4:15 mark for 1500 meters is flat-out massive.
More importantly, we believe that Hernandez has built upon her cross country resume which has, at times, shown us that she can be an upper-tier All-American on the grass. Her performances at the Chile Pepper XC Festival and the RMAC XC Championships were, after all, exceptional.
If Hernandez's newfound fitness leads to her establishing more consistency, then making this Thunderwolf star a top-25 cross country runner seems appropriate.
24. Fiona Hawkins, Sophomore, Adams State
Fiona Hawkins has found her way into our top-25 preseason rankings in large part because she had one of the best freshman campaigns of anyone in the country.
And it wasn’t just a good year because she was a freshman -- it was, overall, one of the better rookie debut seasons that we have ever seen.
Now, admittedly, that’s not to say that Hawkins' first cross country season didn’t come without growing pains, because it certainly did. She started her season with an unexciting 51st place finish at Paul Short which, in this context, is not really a result that signaled how good she was eventually going to be.
But as the season progressed, so did Hawkins. She finished 21st at the RMAC XC Championships before improving seven spots to finish 14th at the South Central Regional XC Championships, taking down some very impressive names in the process.
She didn’t stop there, however, as she continued her impressive running at the national meet. She worked her way up to a 34th place All-American finish as Adams State's sixth runner inside the top-40. The Grizzlies ultimately ran away with the national title.
Hawkins' indoor and outdoor track seasons produced a similar series of results. The Adams State rookie posted some modest results prior to racing at the Husky Classic, but that was where she truly broke out.
The Grizzly youngster ran outstanding times of 4:45 (mile) and 9:31 (3k) that weekend to clinch her spot at the indoor national meet later that season. At the NCAA Indoor Championships, Hawkins earned a 6th place All-American finish while lowering her 3k time to 9:26, truly solidifying where she stood amongst some of the nation’s best.
During the outdoor track season, Hawkins ran 4:24 (1500) and 16:07 (5k), further proving to be one of the best all-around distance runners in the country. Both of those times were top-16 marks on the D2 national leaderboard with her 5k time being the seventh-fastest mark in the country this past year (for D2).
Sure, her 17th place finish at the outdoor national meet in the 5k wasn’t great, but that is not enough to stop us from ranking Hawkins heading into the 2022 cross country season. Her talent level is through the roof and when you couple that with the 2021-22 academic year being her first exposure to collegiate competition, then the sky really is the limit for this young Grizzly superstar.
And that is exactly why she has cracked our XC Top 25 rankings.
23. Kayce Rypma, Junior, Grand Valley State
With one of the best D2 resumes in the country, this ranking shouldn’t come as much of a surprise for those who follow Division Two running. And when you look at the general theme of this section, it makes sense that Kayce Rypma is listed at TSR #23.
Rypma is another athlete who enjoyed a streak of breakout performances during her 2022 track campaigns, something that has allowed her to join this very accomplished group of ranked women.
Rypma is probably best known for her recent steeplechase performances, but the truth is that she might be even better at the longer distances. That's because at the end of the 2022 track seasons, Rypma finished with the personal bests of 4:30 (1500), 9:52 (3k), 16:48 (5k), 35:06 (10k) and 10:23 (steeple).
Now, while her success on the track is always great to talk about, this ranking may not have been possible if she didn’t have the 2021 cross country season that she did.
Rypma had a very impressive four-meet cross country campaign from early October through the national meet. She earned two highly promising 4th place finishes at a few key meets. One of those 4th place finishes came at the Lewis XC Crossover while the other came at the GLIAC XC Championships.
The GVSU veteran then finished 9th place at the Midwest Regional XC Championships before finally finishing as an All-American (36th) at the cross country national meet.
After seeing her season on the grass, it didn't come as much of a surprise to see her have a huge breakthrough on the track. Still, we now have a year's worth of performances which allows us to definitively say that Rypma has the necessary firepower to compete with the nation’s best.
The biggest questions that we have remaining are...can she do it again? And can she follow her momentum to even better marks this fall?
If Rypma stays healthy, then there should be nothing stopping her from taking another leap upwards. She's super consistent, got better in the winter and the spring, has had success on the grass before and her All-American finish last fall may not have been the best result of her season.
Overall, everything about Rypma's resume suggests that she belongs in our D2 XC Top 25.
22. Molly Maksin, Senior, Colorado Mines
Molly Maksin is an interesting name. The Colorado Mines veteran has a strong resume, but the significant fluctuation in some of her results makes it challenging to figure out the right spot for her in our D2 XC Top 25 rankings.
Last fall, Maksin made huge improvements on the grass, specifically at the national meet. She was barely a top-30 finisher at both the Chile Pepper XC Festival and the RMAC XC Championships. An eventual 21st place finish at the South Central XC Regional XC Championships, while solid, didn't incentive us to give her a ranking, either.
But then Maksin stunned the country, earning a huge 23rd place at the NCAA XC Championships. When you consider that her regular season wasn't necessarily amazing, there wasn't really anything coming into that national meet which suggested that she would be a top-30 name.
So then the question became...is she really that good?
The answer to that question was a resounding, "YES".
On the track, Maksin ran 16:41 in the 5000 meters to qualify for the indoor national meet, a venue where she finished 12th overall with a strong time of 16:49. Then, during the outdoor track season, she ran a 10k PR of 34:56 and placed 10th at the ensuing national meet with a time of 35:07.
While 12th and 10th place finishes on the national stage aren't necessarily jaw-dropping, Maksin still put together a resume which boasted multiple strong performances in the longer races and excelled at the championship level.
Now, as we enter the fall of 2022, the modest cross country season that this Oredigger ace had last fall seems to be less of a reflection of her actual talent, but rather a previous starting point for her newfound momentum.
It's also clear that Maksin improves as the races get longer, something that is a huge advantage to have on the cross country course. And when you consider her progression on the track, Maksin's it's hard to find a spot anywhere other than TSR #22 for this Colorado Mines standout.
21. Riley McGrath, Rs. Junior, UC-Colorado Springs
If you want to talk about improving your stock, then look no further than Riley McGrath’s 2021-22 resume.
While it’s true that McGrath has continued to get better over the course of her career, there wasn’t any real indication that she would take the leap that we saw from her this past year. She had yet to contest a "true" cross country season for the Mountain Lions and generally speaking, she had proven to be more of a middle distance runner in the early portions of her career.
Admittedly, it was a rocky start for McGrath when she did finally toe the line for the Louisville XC Classic last fall after she earned an underwhelming 95th place finish. However, there’s a reason why experience is so important when it comes to racing on the grass and you could see that experience eventually shine through during McGrath’s 2021 cross country season.
The rising UCCS star later bounced back and finished inside the top-25 at the RMAC XC Championships before finishing in the top-15 at the South Central Regional XC Championships. Each time McGrath stepped up to the line of a cross country race, she was better than the last time, and that included her performance at the national meet where she finished 39th overall, the second-to-last All-American spot.
Riding on a high of momentum, McGrath then ventured to the indoor track season with the best fitness she ever had. But again, it was a rocky start for her.
It wasn’t until mid-February that we saw McGrath make her way into a national qualifying spot. On the same weekend, she ran 4:50 for the mile and then came back to run 9:43 in the 3000 meters.
The up-and-coming Mountain Lion ace finished her indoor track season as a two-time All-American after helping the UCCS women to a 7th place finish in the DMR and then later earning another 7th place finish in the mile the following day.
Of course, her momentum didn’t stop there. McGrath made her outdoor season debut with a phenomenal 5000 meter time of 16:36. Then, not even two weeks later, McGrath ran 4:21 (1500) to put herself amongst the nation’s best in Division Two for that distance.
At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, she solidified her place amongst the upper-echelon of runners, finishing 9th in the 1500 meters and then 20th in the 5k.
McGrath might just be the most underrated athlete in these rankings. If she continues on this trajectory of improvement, then she might be much better than TSR #21 in our rankings.
Yes, it's true, her cross country performances don't necessarily suggest that she's a top-25 talent on the grass (yet). However, it's overwhelmingly obvious that she is a different (and better) runner now than she was nine months ago.
