TSR's 2022 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Rankings (Women): #5 U. of Chicago Maroons

Edits and additional commentary by Garrett Zatlin

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After placing the Washington U. women at TSR #6, we are opting to stay in the midwest with the University of Chicago women at TSR #5.

It's hard to dislike the Maroons this fall. They were a very young team last year that still had substantial success in highly competitive fields. They return a good portion of their 2021 squad and many of their women are still capable of substantial improvements as they grow another year older.

Admittedly, a portion of this ranking is banking on the idea that this team improves at each scoring spot and develops greater firepower to complement their depth.

But if that does happen, and we think it could, then this may the last team that any top-tier D3 program will want to face in the postseason.

* * *

After an early rust-buster, the Maroons kicked-off their 2021 cross country season at the very competitive MSU Spartan Invite. On Michigan State's home course, the U. Chicago women toed the line against numerous high-level midwest rosters across all divisions.

And yet, the Maroons prospered.

Freshman Claudia Harnett had an immediate impact with a very encouraging 13th place finish. That edge in low-stick scoring was complemented by fellow rookies Lucy Groothuis (22nd) and Maddie Kelly (31st).

With elders scorers such as Kaitlyn Van Baalen (47th) and Caitlin Jorgensen (50th) closing out the scoring, the Maroons had a complete-enough lineup to finish 4th overall, taking down the likes of Hope and Calvin by considerable margins.

After dominating a fairly easy field at the Augustana Brissman-Lundeen Invite, the U. Chicago women would venture back to Augustana for a race that would prove to be far more competitive.

Harnett wasn't just holding her own, she was thriving. Her runner-up result in a loaded field was a massive scoring spark for the Maroons once more. With Kelly and Van Baalen securing a pair of backend top-20 finishes, and with Frances Schaeffler placing 21st overall, the U. Chicago women looked strong through four scorers.

But with the team's final scorer fading to 43rd place overall, the Maroons were sent backwards in the team standings. Chicago settled for 4th place overall after losing to the Washington U. women on a tie-breaker. Pomona-Pitzer and Wartburg would take the top-two spots.

It was the first "off" day of the 2021 season for the U. Chicago women. Their depth was uncharacteristically limited and the gap behind Harnett was larger than expected.

It was a somewhat similar story at the UAA XC Championships. Harnett took home the win and her supporting cast, while solid, went 12-13-16 in the final results while their final three varsity runners went 22-23-24.

With Washington U. putting five women in the top-10, the Maroons were simply outmatched, settling for a runner-up result with exactly double the score of the Bears.

And the Midwest Regional XC Championships? Essentially the same thing.

Harnett finished 3rd overall while the combination of Kelly, Schaeffler and Van Baalen went 10-14-18 with Elisabeth Camic closing out the scoring in 26th place. And with Wartburg joining the Washington U. women in this field, the Maroons had to settle for a far-out 3rd place result.

Of course, the national meet would be the bigger priority.

Despite being trounced by their conference and regional meet foes, those losses would become a bit more understandable given how well the midwest teams fared in their season finale.

Harnett's 17th place finish aligned with the rest of her seasonal results. However, she would be the only All-American for the U. Chicago women. The good news was that Van Baalen (53rd), Schaeffler (64th), Rachel Huston (84th) and Kelly (96th) all finished in the top-100, closing out the scoring far faster than they had all season long.

In the end, the Maroons would secure a fantastic 6th place result, losing to regional rivals Wartburg and Washington U. who finished in the next two spots of the final standings. And considering how young team this was, there was a lot to be happy about, especially as we enter the 2022 cross country season.

* * *

The U. Chicago women return four of their top-seven women from last fall, but lose only two scorers, effectively bringing back a heavy portion of their still-young core from the 2021 cross country season.

The women no longer listed on the Maroons' 2022 cross country roster are Sarika Temme-Bapat, Kaitlyn Van Baalen and Rachel Huston. Those latter two women were two highly impactful names throughout last fall, especially Van Baalen. They were able to support Harnett's low-stick scoring throughout last year, stabilizing the Maroons' lineup while the team worked to cleanup the latter-half of their top-five.

Trying to replace the value that those three women brought to this team last year is not going to be easy. However, this group is still SO young and SO deep that, on paper, they should only go upwards from last year.

In 2022, the U. Chicago women are going to be led by the best true freshman in the country from last year, Claudia Harnett. She was UAA conference champion last fall and was 3rd at the Midwest regional meet, falling behind only Aubrie Fisher and Kassie Parker. A top-20 All-American finish also needs to be highlighted.

However, what we really liked seeing from her is that she never let the moment get too big for her. Despite her youth, she was very reliable and very steady. Not all low-stick stars can say the same, especially those who were as inexperienced as Harnett.

The Maroons' newest low-stick star narrowly missed qualifying for the indoor national meet in the mile this past winter, but she still helped her team to a 3rd place finish in the DMR.

During the spring, she qualified for the outdoor national meet in the 1500 meters with a time of 4:30.59 from the UAA Outdoor Championships, but decided not to enter the national meet.

In fact, that UAA championship meet was the last time that we saw her race during outdoors. Hopefully she will come back ready to race this fall because clearly cross country is clearly where she shines and the Maroons will not be a top-five team without her.

Behind Harnett, the Maroons will be looking to Maddie Kelly and veteran Frances Schaeffler to step up.

Kelly came into the 2021 cross country season after qualifying for her first national meet the previous spring. She had finished 14th in the 1500 meters earlier that season, so she clearly had the potential be a high-impact scorer.

Last fall was easily Kelly's best season of cross country ever. She was U. Chicago's second scorer at the UAA XC Championships, finishing overall 12th and later finishing 10th at the Midwest regional meet to collect her first All-Region honors.

The NCAA XC Championships was not her best race as she was swallowed up by the crowd and finished in 96th place. We firmly believe that she has the talent to break into the top-40 come November -- and that firepower is exactly what this team is going to need from her in 2022.

Luckily, Kelly showed signs of improvement on the track, setting personal bests in the 800 meters, the 1500 meters, the mile, the 3000 meters and the 5000 meters earlier this year. She also finished 3rd in the DMR at the indoor national meet and 12th in the 1500 meters at the outdoor national meet.

In our eyes, she'll be U. Chicago's greatest x-factor this fall.

As for Schaeffler, she is more of a longer distance talent, qualifying for the indoor national meet in the 5000 meters this past winter as well as the 10,000 meters this past spring. She finished 15th in both races, a pretty good result for someone who is expected to be a team's third scorer.

Schaeffler tends to consistently get better as the season goes on. Last year, she started the season by running 23:08 (6k), but ended her season at the national meet a whole minute faster in a time of 22:07. That mark netted her a 64th place finish.

If she can run with Kelly and capitalize on her very encouraging results from the track, then the idea of Schaeffler being a top-50 talent, or even All-American, seems plenty realistic.

Those are the top-three women who we expect to headline this lineup. And while trying to fill out the rest of this varsity group won't be easy, there are still plenty of key names who we feel could be impact scorers later this fall.

Some other key women on this team include sophomore Elisabeth Camic, senior Maya Ordonez, junior Lucy Groothuis and senior Anna Kenig-Ziesler.

Ordonez is an interesting name to monitor because it looks like this fall will be her first collegiate cross country season since 2019. While she is mostly an 800 meter runner, she is quite talented. She finished 12th at the indoor national meet and 13th at the outdoor national meet this past spring.

Let's also not forget, Groothuis was 22nd at the MSU Spartan Invite. That is an outstanding result which allowed her to be the second scorer for the Maroons that day. But after not racing at the Augustana Interregional Invite and recording a DNF at the UAA XC Championships, Groothuis' 2021 season was ultimately done.

Despite racing only a handful of times since then, it's clear that Groothuis can be one of the biggest and best names on this roster in 2022. And if she's at 100% later this fall, then this is almost certainly going to be a podium team.

Watch our for her.

* * *

Harnett is the true star of this team, but if the Chicago women want to be true podium contenders, then their supporting cast will need pack up behind her and offer better overall firepower.

The Maroons' fifth scorer from last fall was ultimately a weak point for this team throughout the 2021 cross country season. But with the rest of this squad thriving on the track and improving their depth, that shouldn't be much of an issue for the U. Chicago women in 2022.

The real determinant of this team's success over the next few months will be whether or not their middle lineup scorers can develop into All-American candidates. Because if they can, then this will almost certainly be a podium team in November.