TSR's 2022 Preseason D2 XC Top 25 Rankings: Just Missed & Honorable Mentions (Women)

John Cusick
Jul 26, 2022
8 min read

Additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin

Here we go. Our 2022 men's and women's preseason individual cross country rankings. Let's start out with our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.

As a reminder, you can find our rankings rubric here. This week will be our D2 and D3 rankings.

Please note: The Stride Report made every effort to contact standout teams and key individuals who could have (potentially) had an influence in our rankings. While we do feel confident in the integrity of our lists, it is possible that the altered eligibility from the last two years forced one or two key names to unintentionally miss a spot in our rankings.

JUST MISSED (in no order)

Natalie Graber, Junior, Grand Valley State

It’s no secret that Natalie Graber is one of the better runners who attends Grand Valley State. That, however, is why it was so challenging to leave her out of our top-25.

In the two seasons that Graber has competed during cross country, she’s walked away as an All-American. That's outstanding reliability on a stage that is so important to deliver on.

So what gives? Why isn't she ranked?

Well, to be honest, if we had to choose someone who was the first one out of our preseason rankings, we probably give that nod to this Indiana native. The arguments in favor of other women were simply better...but only by the slimmest of margins.

In the fall of 2021, Graber finished as the fourth woman for GVSU at the NCAA XC Championships while placing 35th to secure her second All-American honor in as many seasons for her. Back in 2019, as a freshman, Graber secured an even stronger 32nd place finish.

Over the course of the 2021 season, Graber raced just four times and oddly enough, three of those races were during the regular season.

At the start of that season, the Laker standout finished 19th at the MSU Spartan Invitational, which is a respectable finish, but nothing that moved the needle for us. Her 57th place finish at the Louisville Classic was not confidence-inducing either.

But then Graber seemed to snap out of her rut by placing 10th at the Lewis XC Crossover just a week later. And it was that result that would ultimately catapult her to her aforementioned All-American result.

On the track, Graber's career marks of 4:35 (1500), 16:51 (5000) and 10:40 (steeplechase) are all very respectable. They also happen to be on the backend of times when you start to compare her resume against others in these rankings.

There is no doubt in our mind that Graber has the experience (and proven ability) that is necessary to finish as an All-American once again this fall. However, she will likely need to take another, somewhat small, step forward before we can consider her a top-25 runner on the grass.

Xiomara Robinson, Senior, Black Hills State

Admittedly, the 2021 cross country season began incredibly slow for this Black Hills State veteran, but as the old saying goes, it’s not how you start, it's how you finish – especially in a season that is as long as cross country.

Robinson didn’t face much competition on the grass until she got to the Roy Griak Invitational where she finished 11th overall in the Maroon section. Yes, 11th place is good, but it certainly didn’t tell us how good Robinson would be in the postseason.

The now-veteran would later carry her momentum into the RMAC XC Championships where she finished 12th overall behind some of the nation’s best distance runners. While that would have been impressive by itself, she followed up that result with an 11th place finish at the South Central Regional XC Championships, solidifying herself as an individual qualifier for the NCAA XC Championships.

Once there, Robinson scored a huge 22nd place finish, ultimately earning her first cross country All-American honor and the second of her career.

Robinson would go on to compete on the indoor oval where, admittedly, we were left shrugging our shoulders. She only ran one PR during the indoor track season and it was a new (but modest) personal best of 17:32 in the 5000 meters.

After not participating in the outdoor season, we have some mixed feelings as to where Robinson should slate in (or not in) our rankings. However, if this Black Hills State star puts together a 2022 resume that shows any resemblance to her 2021 campaign, then we feel comfortable with the Yellowjacket veteran climbing into our ranking.

Paige Tack, Sophomore, Colorado Christian

Paige Tack broke on the scene at the Lewis XC Crossover last year when she led the Cougars to a 3rd place team finish while she placed 5th overall. The only women in front of her included Klaudia O’Malley, Alexa Leppelmeier, Mackenzie Hall and Kayce Rypma.

Three of those women are/were NCAA title contending athletes in their respective events.

It was nearly a month later that we saw Tack toe the line again. And when she did, she showed some rust by placing 23rd at the South Central Regional XC Championships. However, she did help her team qualify for the national meet.

Once there, Tack proceeded to be the low-stick star for Colorado Christian, finishing 19th overall and earning a huge, possibly unexpected, All-American finish.

During the track seasons, Tack would prove that what we saw from her during the cross country season was indeed no fluke. Tack ran 9:46 for 3000 meters on the indoor oval before running 4:37 for 1500 meters, 16:55 for 5000 meters and 36:38 at altitude for 10,000 meters during the outdoor track season.

Yes, it's true, none of those times produced any NCAA qualifications. However, those indoor and outdoor campaigns did tell us that Tack belongs as part of our rankings conversation.

Tack absolutely has the potential to be a top-25 name at some point this season. She's young, improving her resume and has a marquee All-American finish.

That said, Tack's enter 2021 cross country season, while certainly impressive, leaves us wanting just a little bit more. We would just like to see a more complete season and more results before we can convincingly put her ahead of women who had better overall cross country seasons or who truly broke out on the track.

Tack's resume doesn’t place her anywhere besides our "Just Missed" list, but that doesn't mean that she's not talented or not deserving of being in our top-25.

Frankly, if someone argued in favor her, we wouldn't argue.

Jenna Ramsey, Sophomore, Colorado Mines

Ramsey is taking her talents to Golden, Colorado after spending her first two seasons at Emporia State. With this move comes a potential build on the already-exciting talent that this relatively young distance standout has previously shown us.

Ramsey capped off her short career at Emporia State with a 10th place finish at the 2022 indoor national meet. She then proceeded to skip the outdoor track season – which, from our vantage point, was a bummer.

That being said, Ramsey has an interesting case and has bounced all around (and out of) our rankings before being firmly planted in our "Just Missed" section.

The former Emporia State athlete set a personal best in that indoor national meet 5k, running 16:41, which can now be coupled with her strong 9:43 (3k) PR. However, Ramsey truly shined on the grass for Emporia State in the fall of 2021.

Leading up to the national meet, it was somewhat of an up-and-down season for Ramsey before she put together two very impressive postseason performances.

She took home the gold at the MIAA XC Championships as she ran away from Caroline Cunnigham, finishing 10 seconds ahead of her. She later just missed the podium at the Central Regional XC Championships as she finished 4th place overall behind Lindsay Cunningham, Megan Means and Nicolette Schmidt – all names who have been consistently inside our rankings.

Yes, her DNF result at the NCAA XC Championships was not what anyone had hoped, but that shouldn’t discredit what we have seen from Ramsey in the past year. She has shown us that she can run with the best of the best.

And now, she has the track times to also reflect that.

Obviously, we will need to see how she Ramsey fits within the Colorado Mines program. We also need to see how she performs on the national stage in cross country given her previous DNF result.

And admittedly, that last part makes it a bit challenging to advance her out of this section.

Still, as long as Ramsey leaves the summer healthy, she will have an immediate impact both on her new team and in our rankings. The upside that comes with her youth is incredibly exciting to think about.

Madison Brown, Senior, Dallas Baptist

The theme of recent breakout runners continues as we get deeper into this section. This spot belongs to the Dallas Baptist veteran thanks to her continued improvement on the national stage.

Coming into the academic year, Brown had been to just one national meet meet in her NCAA career. But with the 2021-22 seasons now complete, she can now say that she has been to three national meets.

And on paper, she certainly belongs there.

While Brown only raced a mere four times during the 2021 cross country season, it wasn’t necessary for her to do anything more. She finished 7th at the UAH Chargers XC Invite where she finished behind some of D2’s best athletes. A 4th place finish at the Lone Star XC Championships set her up for a fairly successful run at the South Central Regional where she ultimately finished 12th.

All of that culminated in a very solid, but somewhat unexciting, 42nd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.

Since that near-All-American finish in cross country, we’ve seen Brown elevate her level of fitness to what we would expect of someone who was almost an All-American on the grass. Brown ran 9:36 (3k) to qualify for the 2022 indoor national meet where she finished 18th overall. She also broke the 5:00 barrier in the mile by running 4:56 before the winter season was over.

But where Brown truly shined was this past outdoor track season. In the spring, she showed off her aerobic gains in the 1500 meters where she ran 4:29 and then once again in the 10k as she ran 34:51.

While she didn’t run faster than her 5k personal best of 16:21, Brown still ran fast enough to qualify for the outdoor national meet, marking the first time that she’d be competing in two events on D2's biggest stage (10k and 5k).

On the national stage, the Dallas Baptist star finished 11th in the 10,000 meters and then 24th in the 5000 meters two days later. While her 5k finish wasn’t ideal, her stock has certainly risen with that 10k performance.

Over the course of the last nine months, Brown has improved her level of consistency, aerobic firepower and overall running ability. While we do believe that she has made general improvements, we still need to see that translate to the grass. She's been strong, but not so strong that we can say with certainty that she'll be a superstar on the grass.

Still, there are far more things to like about Brown than dislike. Her ceiling this fall is much better than her floor.