TSR's 2022 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Rankings (Women): Just Missed & Honorable Mentions

NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On rare occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.

---

Just Missed (in no particular order)

Saint Olaf Oles

We really like the Saint Olaf women this fall. A lot.

The Oles' 2021 cross country squad was very young throughout last year. Their lineup featured five women who were considered to be underclassmen by eligibility. Not only that, but from last year's squad, they return six of those seven names!

The Saint Olaf women were phenomenal in the postseason last year. Despite their youth and inexperience, they took dow a strong Carleton team for the MIAC XC Championship title and then later advanced to the national meet where they placed 13th overall.

With so many high-upside youngsters returning with additional experience, one would think that the Saint Olaf women should be a lock for a top-10 ranking -- and that may be a fair assumption!

However, the Oles were admittedly not great during the regular season. They underwhelmed in most of their meets leading up to their championship race and didn't often display the best firepower.

And with Emily Mickelson -- a consistent top-three scorer who placed 3rd at Saint Olaf's conference meet last fall -- now out of the program, there will be even more pressure on this team to capitalize on their development.

Regardless, there are more positives than negatives surrounding this program. They have some of the best upside in the country and they proved that they could post solid performances when it mattered the most.

UW-La Crosse Eagles

There are a ton of similarities between the UW-La Crosse women and the Saint Olaf women. Both teams were very young during the 2021 cross country season, both teams held one or two high-scoring veterans and both teams had the best performance of their seasons at the national meet.

Division Three stalwarts such as Calvin, Saint Olaf, UW-Eau Claire and Carleton all fell to the Eagles last fall, a series of results which gave them momentum entering the postseason. That led to the UW-La Crosse women securing conference and regional titles before placing 11th at the national meet.

Much like Saint Olaf, there's a very good argument for this Eagles team to be ranked in our top-10. Unfortunately, this is a team that loses their top national meet scorer in Rachel Jeffers as well as their fourth scorer from the national meet in Emma Malooly.

In fact, Malooly was actually her team's top scorer on numerous occasions last fall, making her departure far more damaging than we may realize.

And with the Eagles not having anyone in the top-50 of last year's national meet results, trying to find upfront scoring potency this fall is going to be a structural roadblock that could limit this team from entering the top-10 of our rankings.

Even so, the rest of this squad will almost certainly get better. Maddy Vantassel and Jenna Lovejoy have both shown signs of being potential front-runners in 2022. Women like Maddie Hannan and Katelyn Chadwick were also excellent in the 5k this past spring.

The floor for this UW-La Crosse team is fairly high -- we don't see them having too many poor outings this fall. And if they can find greater firepower over the next few months, then this group should be a top-10 team without a doubt.

Carleton Knights

For the most part, the Carleton women held their own during the regular season, taking down some top-ranked midwest teams. However, their postseason performances left us wanting more, especially when they reached the national stage.

We'll admit, seeing the Knights finish 21st overall at last year's national meet wasn't great. On paper, they were probably closer to a top-15 squad on the right day. While they weren't unbelievably amazing in every race that they toed the line for, they were still fairly solid and consistent throughout most of last fall.

But here's the catch: Carleton returns every. single. woman. from their 2021 lineup. Not only that, but six of the Knights' seven varsity runners from last year all held freshman or sophomore eligibility. The only athlete who didn't was Clara Mayfield, a distance superstar who can't get much better in terms of her scoring impact.

With nearly everyone in this lineup capable of making massive leaps in their fitness this fall, it's hard not to be optimistic about this Carleton squad. In theory, they can only go up in comparison to last year's results.

Of course, they need to actually deliver on this speculative upside before we truly consider them for a top-10 ranking. There are plenty of other programs who return plenty of young runners that were a bit more proven during the 2021 cross country season.

Still, with many of those Carleton youngsters building on their momentum during the winter and spring months, the prospects of this group being significantly better in 2022 look very good right now.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)

• Carnegie Mellon Tartans

• Bates Bobcats

• MIT Engineers

• Calvin Knights

• UW-Eau Claire Blu Golds