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TSR's 2022 Preseason D3 XC Top 20 Rankings: #15-11 (Women)
- Hannah Thorn
- Aug 1, 2022
- 6 min read
Additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin
15. Sara Stephenson, Junior, Johns Hopkins
Last year, after racing against largely D1 and D2 competition at Iona and Louisville, Sara Stephenson finished 7th in a competitive D3 field at the Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle. In that race, four of the six athletes who finished ahead of her would go on to finish in an All-American spot at the NCAA XC Championships.
To put it simply, Stephenson was in some good company.
Stephenson herself looked to be in a promising position to contend for one of those All-American positions. However, she ultimately fell short of that goal with a 56th place finish, a still-solid result for her at the time.
But it wasn't until this past winter and spring when Stephenson had her true breakout campaign.
She set massive personal bests of 5:00 (mile) and 9:44 (3k) on the indoor oval and would later finish 8th in the 3000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships. During the outdoor track season, she kept her momentum rolling with lifetime bests of 17:01 in the 5000 meters and 10:51 in the steeplechase, finishing 9th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in what was a very deep and fast steeple final.
With the departure of four women from the Blue Jays top-seven, including their ace Ella Baran, Johns Hopkins will have their work cut out for them if they want to defend their national title from last fall.
Several of the Blue Jays' returners will have to make jumps in their fitness, but we have every reason to believe that Stephenson will do exactly that. After all, we already saw how good she was over the past eight months.
Although she was the sixth runner for the Blue Jays at last year's national meet, Stephenson's role as a scorer will expand significantly this year. We still need to see her translate her recent track success to the grass, but let's not act like she hasn't been great on the grass before.
After all, Stephenson was the 2019 ODAC champion and the runner-up finisher at the 2019 South/Southeast XC Regional Championships, all of which came when she was at Washington and Lee.
14. Natalie Bitetti, Sophomore, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
Natalie Bitetti had an exceptional cross country season last fall. She was consistently performing at a high level during the regular season and kept getting better throughout her championship meets.
On paper, it's hard to dislike this high-upside underclassman.
One could argue that Bitetti's 2021 regular season was potentially better than her postseason, and that's saying a lot. She secured a quietly impressive 11th place finish at the UCR 40th Annual XC Invite and later finished 3rd in the "Silver" race at the loaded Louisville XC Classic.
Those results were flat-out excellent.
Bitetti would go on to secure a 4th place finish at the very competitive SCIAC XC Championships and later finish 3rd in the West Regional XC Championships. She capped off her fall season with a phenomenal 16th place All-American finish at the national meet, a proper reflection of how her cross country season had gone.
The CMS youngster would then flex her speed on the track this past spring, running 2:16 for 800 meters and 4:33 for 1500 meters, qualifying for the outdoor national meet in the latter. She only raced longer than a mile on the track once last year, running 10:05 in the 3000 meters back in February.
Despite her focus being on the middle distances during the winter and spring months, last fall's 16th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships gives us all the indication that we need as to how she can perform over six kilometers.
Considering that last year was her first collegiate cross country season, Bitetti can probably not only replicate that success, but improve upon it in 2022. Her team situation will likely be similar as well, with the Athenas in the hunt for a team national title.
Don't sleep on someone who could be a top-10 name come November.
13. Genna Girard, Sophomore, Williams
It feels safe to say that so far in her Williams career, Genna Girard hasn’t toed the starting line as often as she would have liked. Between cross country and track, she has raced a total of nine times in the last 18 months.
At first glance, that's far from ideal.
But maybe that means that Girard has so much more to offer...right?
Yes, there will certainly be question marks surrounding her availability this fall. Still, we know that when the Ephs' distance standout is actually racing, she is one of the best distance runners in the nation.
During the 2021 cross country season, Girard finished runner-up to Tufts standout Danielle Page (who will now be at Michigan) twice in the regular season. However, those two silver-medal results were at a couple of the most competitive regular season D3 meets in the country, the Williams Purple Valley XC Invite and the Connecticut College Invitational. To only lose to the same woman between both of those races was extremely impressive.
Girard went on to place 3rd at the NESCAC XC Championships, would win the Mideast Regional XC Championships and then settled for a strong 15th place All-American finish at the NCAA XC Championships.
After not racing during the winter, the Williams ace ran 35:34 for 10,000 meters at the Colonial Relays...and then didn't race for the rest of the outdoor track season.
It’s pretty clear that when Genna Girard can toe the line, she is a massive force to be reckoned with. In fact, with a full training cycle, there isn’t much of a limit as to what she can do.
On paper, Girard has an argument to be ranked in our top-10. Still, her lack of racing forced us to push her back a bit, just as a ranking precaution. Regardless, her presence on the grass makes the D3 distance running scene so much more competitive and fun.
12. Annika Urban, Junior, Emory
There's a lot to like about Annika Urban coming into this 2022 cross country season.
The Emory youngster won the D3 South Regional XC Championships by a whole minute last fall. That result simply validated a 2021 cross country season where Urban was undoubtedly one of the best in the nation. The only D3 competitors she lost to (prior to the national meet) were Claudia Harnett and Evie Miller.
Urban would go on to finish 12th at the NCAA XC Championships. It was a strong performance which put her firepower on full display, but it was certainly not a surprising performance, either.
The Emory star has gone on to put together a very good track resume as well.
Urban posted personal bests of 4:30 (1500) and 16:50 (5k) this past spring. Despite missing most of the indoor season, two national meet qualifications in the 5k and All-American honors in the 1500 meters this spring solidify her as one of the greatest three-season threats in the country this year.
Urban doesn’t have many bad races and she has come through countless times in the clutch. She clearly runs well in the postseason and it's extremely apparent that she belongs in the upper-tier of women at competitive meets instead of the next step down.
You can always rely on her to be in the mix when it matters most, and that consistency will go a long way towards helping her compete at a high level this fall.
Now, she just needs to find the proper edge to consistently take down other superstar talents, both in this section of our rankings and in our top-10.
11. Claudia Harnett, Sophomore, U. of Chicago
Claudia Harnett, one of the most heralded distance recruits in Division Three coming into last fall, was every bit as good as she was expected to be as a true freshman.
Harnett had no issues transitioning to the collegiate level. She earned highly promising top-three finishes at all but one meet she raced in her build up to the NCAA XC Championships. The only exception was a 13th place at the MSU Spartan Invitational, a field that was filled with D1 and D2 competition.
At the national meet, the rising Chicago star finished 17th overall, the highest finish amongst athletes with freshman eligibility.
On the track, the rookie continued to meet high expectations. She qualified for the indoor national meet in the mile, but opted to scratch that event in favor of a fresh DMR leg where she helped the Maroons to a 3rd place finish.
In the spring, Harnett ran 2:11 for 800 meters and 4:30 for 1500 meters, qualifying for the outdoor national meet in both. However, she did not compete after her conference meet, presumably due to injury, although that is only speculation.
Assuming that she is healthy this fall, Harnett will be one of the top names in the country. The talent to compete with the best has always been there and she has even proved it on multiple occasions.
However, Harnett now has some collegiate experience to go along with her unreal talent. She will be an extremely dangerous opponent for her competitors this fall, especially if she delivers on her super exciting upside.
