TSR's 2022 Preseason D3 XC Top 20 Rankings: Just Missed & Honorable Mentions (Women)

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.

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JUST MISSED (in no order)

Paloma Hancock, Sophomore, Johns Hopkins

One of the first women to miss a spot in our D3 XC Top 20 rankings is Paloma Hancock, a rising distance talent who could be a superstar for the Blue Jays as soon as this fall.

In her first cross country campaign, Hancock saw varied success. She knocked out a small rust-buster before traveling to the Iona Paddy Doyle Meet of Champions and placing 10th overall. That was a solid finish, especially when you consider that she took down some talented teammates, but it was hard to truly gauge just how good she was at the time.

Then, at the Louisville XC Classic "Gold" race, Hancock joined her team in a collectively underwhelming showing...we think. Hancock finished 77th overall in a field that featured multiple D2 and D1 opponents. However, trying to gauge the Blue Jays' results with very few D3 equivalents was a challenge.

For perspective, Hope's Ana Tucker placed 28th overall in the same race.

A 11th place finish at the Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle was a fine result for Hancock. Still, it left the relatively young runner in limbo as far as her cross country potential was concerned.

After a solid (but expected) 5th place finish at the Centennial XC Championships, Hancock blew us away at the NCAA XC Championships. In her first-ever national meet, the Johns Hopkins ace threw down a jaw-dropping 21st place finish to earn an unexpectedly high All-American finish.

Hancock would later venture to the indoor and outdoor ovals, but only competed five times between the two seasons, producing modest times in each effort.

As we sat down and reviewed Hancock's resume for these rankings, we were stumped. For her first-ever cross country season, we think she did pretty well if you look at her non-national meet results.

But that's just it.

We THINK she did well.

With Johns Hopkins competing at meets like the Iona Paddy Doyle MOC and the Louisville XC Classic, trying to compare the Blue Jays' performances to D1 and D2 competition doesn't help us when constructing D3 rankings. Having limited competition in the Centennial Conference doesn't make things any easier.

That thought process, paired with the breakout D3 stars who we saw on the track, forced us to make a brutal decision and leave Hancock out of our D3 XC Top 20 rankings.

Still, this a fairly young runner with tons of upside who finished 21st in the most important meet of the year. All of those facts leave us a little hesitant to leave Hancock outside of our actual rankings, but we are reluctantly doing it anyway.

Genevieve DiBari, Senior, Pomona-Pitzer

The Sagehens are known for their men's cross country prowess. However, Genevieve DiBari is an upper-tier talent in her own right. And if you look at her 2021 fall resume, then you may believe that we made a mistake by putting her in this "Just Missed" section.

After winning her rust-buster, DiBari ventured to the UCR 40th Annual XC Invitational. Once there she finished 3rd overall...in the "Open" race. Still, that was a nice early-season result. The same could be said for her 3rd place finish at the Cougar Challenge.

But then DiBari's season really began to ramp up. She placed 4th at the Augustana Invitational (in the varsity race), taking down top D3 talents like Riley Mayer and Carina Collet in the process. DiBari later placed 3rd at the SCIAC XC Championships, taking down women like Emily Clarke and Margaret Trautner in the process.

And then she really broke out.

After winning the West Regional XC Championships, DiBari went to the cross country national meet and put together a fantastic 25th place All-American finish, blowing away our expectations. From that performance, it was clear that this Pomona-Pitzer standout had peaked perfectly for the postseason.

DiBari would go on to have limited success on the track, ultimately leaving the two track seasons with a 17:20 (5k) personal best.

We'll admit, it's hard to find an argument against DiBari. She never really had a poor race in the fall and clearly peaked in the postseason. Leaving her our of our D3 XC Top 20, on paper, doesn't look right.

This, however, is less about DiBari and more about the rest of our rankings. There were simply some women who had better overall cross country seasons, better national meet finishes or breakout campaigns on the track compared to our Sagehen ace.

That said, being the 25th place finisher at the national meet already puts DiBari somewhat close to our TSR #20 spot (meaning within the top-20) based solely off of returners. When you factor in superstars from the winter and spring months, ranking DiBari becomes much more challenging.

Much like Hancock, we don't feel great about putting DiBari here. In a few months times, we hope that she will allow us to put her in our D3 XC Top 20 rankings before we get to the postseason.

Hope Murphy, Sophomore, Baldwin Wallace

Hope Murphy is probably a name who you have heard of before. Her stunning performances on the track this past winter and spring elevated the Baldwin Wallace standout to an entirely new level this year.

Now the question is, can she reach new heights on the grass?

In her two rust-busters at the start of the 2021 cross country season, Murphy quickly earned two top-four finishes. She later finished 45th in the Paul Short "Brown" race, a result which didn't necessarily jump off the page in comparison to a few other D3 women.

A similar-caliber 10th place finish at the Oberlin College Inter-Regional Rumble didn't really move the needle for us, but a title victory at the OAC XC Championships certainly did.

In that race, Murphy took home the victory over teammate Alyssa Laughner who placed 5th. Prior to that, Laughner had been beating Murphy throughout the regular season.

Murphy's postseason peak would extend to the Great Lakes Regional XC Championships where she placed 6th, but her national meet performance was likely not what she had hoped for. The rising Baldwin Wallace star earned a 194th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships and ended her season on the grass.

But then Murphy took to the track and became one of the most lethal middle distance runners in the country. She ran a 4:57 mile, qualified for the indoor national meet in that event (where she would make the finals), run 2:11 for 800 meters, run 4:26 for 1500 meters and secure bronze in the 1500 meters at the outdoor national meet.

To put it simply, Murphy found her racing sweet spot and reached an entirely new level.

Now, admittedly, middle distance racing doesn't always translate to the grass. However, it's abundantly clear that Murphy's fitness is simply in a new stratosphere compared to where she was at in the fall.

One has to believe that Murphy's improvements on the track will at least partially translate to the grass. If that happens, then Murphy could be closer to the inside of our top-20 rankings than the outside of our non-existent top-30 list.

After all, this is a girl who won a conference title on the grass.

Ellie Meyer, Sophomore, Wartburg

As a freshman during the 2021 cross country season, Meyer showed promise, although her national-caliber presence wouldn't be felt until much later in the year. Still, there were some encouraging results that we saw from this Wartburg youngster that are worth mentioning.

After winning her rust-buster, Meyer settled for a respectable 11th place finish at the 59th Les Duke XC Invite followed by a rough 15th place equivalent finish at the Dan Houston Invite. However, a 35th place finish at the Augustana Invitational, while not bad, did show us that Meyer still had some work to do.

The then-rookie would end her fall season with a somewhat expected 11th place finish at the American Rivers XC Championships. Of course, that was only the start of something far more exciting.

Meyer's success on the indoor and outdoor ovals would truly bolster her resume in ways that her cross country season hadn't shown us before. She was part of a national title-winning DMR squad during the winter months and then ran 17:36 for 5000 meters in the spring.

However, maybe most impressively, Meyer peaked perfectly for the postseason. She qualified for the outdoor national meet in the steeplechase, advanced to the finals and ran a strong 10:38 PR to earn 6th place All-American honors.

It's extremely obvious that Meyer simply needed to get accustomed to the collegiate scene before she made waves across the country. Her incremental improvements on the track throughout the winter and the spring are proof of that.

Admittedly, we still need how Meyer translates her steeplechase success to the grass. Her cross country results were fine, but it's not a guarantee that she's going to be a superstar this fall.

Still, all signs are pointing upwards for Meyer. If we had to guess, we would feel pretty confident that she'll be an All-American come November. The only question is, where in that All-American mix will she be?

Jillian Richardson, Senior, Bates

One could argue that Jillian Richardson is one of the more underrated distance runners at the D3 level. She is very consistent, has made solid improvements over the last few seasons and rarely has poor races.

When you look at Richardson's 2021 cross country season, it was hard to be upset with any of her results. She was an unsurprising 3rd place at the Bates Super XC Shootout and later won the Maine State Meet (as expected), a college invitational with a name that would lead you to believe that it was a high school race.

At the Connecticut College Invite, Richardson would settle for a 9th place finish. It was a very solid result, especially when you consider that she beat Erin Magill, Anna Slager and others in the process. But while that result did offer greater context as to Richardson's aerobic abilities, we ultimately didn't learn anything new.

But then Richardson began to go on a tear. She secured a very solid 6th place finish at the loaded NESCAC XC Championships before finishing an even more impressive 4th place at the East Regional XC Championships.

The Bates veteran would cap off her season with a 33rd place All-American finish, a result that ultimately matched the caliber of performances that we had seen from Richardson throughout the entire fall.

Richardson was fairly solid on the track, running 9:59 for 3000 meters on a flat-track and later running 17:52 for 5000 meters. Still, it was clear that the greatest aspect of her resume was her cross country success.

Overall, there isn't really any critique to be made about this low-stick scorer. Richardson was consistent last fall, has built promising experience, never really had a poor race and proved that she could be competitive in multiple high-end fields.

The only thing that Richardson has to do from this point on is simply get a little bit better. Her performances are very promising, but they're just not quite at a top-20 level (yet).

Still, that could all change a few months from now.

HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no order)

• Cameron Bujaucius (John Carroll)

• Sofia Carlson (St. Olaf)

• Carolyn Shult (UW-Eau Claire)

• Elliot Singer (Colorado College)

• Sidnie Kulik (Amherst)

Quick Note(s) & Key Omissions

• Despite extensive research and outreach, we were unable to confirm whether or not Caltech's Margaret Trautner will be returning this fall. The Stride Report has opted to exclude Trautner from our rankings based on TFRRS data.