TSR's 2023 D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): Update #4 (FINAL)

TSR Collaboration
Nov 24, 2023
10 min read

Written by Marissa Kuik & Grace McLaughlin

Additional edits and commentary via Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve

NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships or at a singular meet. You will notice that these rankings may mirror the national meet results, but not precisely. That is intentional. These rankings are intended to be an aggregate. They are not recency lists.

KEY

(Unranked):

Was not ranked in our last update.

(#/#):

First number indicates how much the team has moved in the rankings.

The second number indicates where the team was ranked in our last update.

10. Wingate Bulldogs (Unranked)

After an impressive race at the cross country national meet, Wingate enters our top-10 team rankings for the first time this season. Like their male counterparts, these Bulldogs had a relatively quiet regular season before peaking for the postseason.

There were signs that this could be a fringe top-half team on the national stage after the Bulldogs won their conference and regional meets with tight spreads. But on Saturday, they pulled out all of the stops in their most important race of the season.

Thanks to an incredibly tight top-five time spread of 27 seconds, Wingate placed 8th at the 2023 national meet -- and they thrived even without a true low-stick by placing three women just inside the top-60.

The upfront trio of Ona Alonso, Mollie Scott and Sira Bo offered tremendous upfront scoring stability, staying far more compact than what their Paul Short effort signaled back in September. And while Brooklyn Pierce (85th) and Tatjana Mense (92nd) were great, it was Grace Burrell (82nd) who added yet another scoring option to this team's lineup.

The Bulldogs finish the season at TSR #10 simply because a couple of teams ahead of them had more complete season-long resumes despite faltering a bit at the national meet. Regardless, the Wingate women boasted one of the more thorough and stable lineups in the country this fall.

9. Cedarville Yellow Jackets (0 / 9)

Cedarville — one of those aforementioned teams that finished just behind Wingate on the national stage — has been up and down in our rankings throughout this season.

The Yellow Jackets contested a loaded Louisville XC Classic field earlier this fall, were upset by Tampa over 5k at the UAH Chargers XC Invitational and then won the G-MAC title with ease. As you can see, trying to get a grasp as to how good this team was throughout this fall was a bit of a challenge.

However, after a strong runner-up performance at the Midwest Regional XC Championships, which they then backed up at the national meet with a 10th place finish, Cedarville peaked at just the right time. As such, this feels like the most fitting landing spot for them.

The 'Jackets posted a different scoring structure this season than when they finished 7th at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships. The 2023 version featured more refined firepower, but a more detached backend (which was still pretty solid).

Hannah Rhem (21st overall the national meet) and Savannah Ackley (38th) really stepped up to give this program consecutive top-10 team finishes and wrap up a solid season in desirable fashion. For a group that had a hiccup earlier this fall, that scoring potency ended up being the difference maker on Saturday. However, throughout the fall months, Corinne Lynch was the key cog who bridged the gap and offered stability.

8. Lee (Tenn.) Flames (-2 / 6)

To be honest, a 9th place finish for this team at the cross country national meet was a little underwhelming, although it was certainly not bad.

After putting forth some really impressive performances this season and winning their conference and regional meets, we thought that the Lee (Tenn.) women could at least inch near a podium finish.

However, the 4th to 9th place spots on Saturday were incredibly competitive in the women’s team race, so seeing the Flames fall to the back of that group was not totally surprising given how the race played out.

On top of that, low-stick Aria Hawkins had an “off” day, finishing 91st overall at the national meet, limiting Lee's scoring potency. However, the Flames were able to salvage a solid result with lead scorers Liza Kellerman (41st) and McKenna Cavanaugh (43rd) having arguably their best races of the season to finish just outside of All-American honors.

You could also argue that Danielle Horter's 70th place finish was the best of her season, giving this team a far more stable middle-lineup group than expected. She was a key reason why this team stayed within the top-10.

We had slightly higher hopes for a team that thrived against Division One competition earlier this season and came in on a winning streak. Even so, they still performed admirably throughout the fall months and deserve to land comfortably in our final top-10 rankings.

7. Augustana (SD) Vikings (Unranked)

Thanks to an enviable scoring spread, the Augustana (SD) women were one of the most pleasant surprises of the 2023 NCAA D2 XC Championships.

We mentioned early-on in the season, after the Griak Invitational, that Aubrey Surage had the potential to be a low-stick for this team. And sure enough, it seems as though she lived up to that expectation. Surage finished an impressive 34th place overall on Saturday, bolstering the Vikings' team scoring with a low-stick result.

But what made the 'Vikes' performance even more impressive was their spread between their final four runners sitting at just four seconds! Yes, four seconds!

With Surage offering an All-American performance and the rest of their scorers filling in the backend of the top-75 overall, that was enough for a breakout 7th place finish as a team.

The Vikings were quietly strong all season and flirted with a spot at the back-half of our rankings. They placed 2nd overall at both their conference and regional meets, behind only Winona State, after winning the Griak Invitational. But on the biggest stage, they more than validated the notion that they're deserving of a top-10 ranking, and they receive a spot that matches their national meet finish.

6. West Texas A&M Buffaloes (+1 / 7)

After so many years of West Texas A&M boasting two stellar low-sticks, but not having enough behind them to make a run at a top-10 team finish, the Lady Buffs developed enough up-front scoring and backend support to place 6th at this year’s NCAA XC Championships.

Eleonora Curtabbi (the national runner-up) became an even more developed veteran low-stick star while freshman Sarah Koomson (6th overall) recreated the scoring power of the departed Florance Uwajeneza -- and that's not what we expected to see coming into the fall months.

However, what helped this team reach a new level in 2023 was the improvement of their support scorers.

Charleston (WV) transfer Elise Leveel finished 47th overall while Betty Bajika placed a respectable 84th place. And although their fifth runner was a little further back in 164th place, the Buffaloes looked significantly more complete than they did a year ago with a near-identical up-front scoring group.

We knew that this team was capable of a great race at the national meet because of their consistency during the latter-half of the season. However, it was difficult to gauge a squad whose best result coming in was arguably a 4th place finish at the South Central Regional XC Championships. We knew that they could do more and that's why was great to see them finally deliver on their potential on a stage that matters the most.

5. Winona State Warriors (0 / 5)

By virtue of directly reflecting their TSR #5 ranking with their finish at the NCAA XC Championships, the Winona State women stay put in our final rankings update. We had a good idea of what this team would be early in the season and their results never wavered from those expectations.

Lindsay Cunningham was the individual national champion, as expected, and fellow low-stick Kaylee Beyer finished a fantastic season in 7th place. Sophia Taarud (49th), Mckenna Taylor (95th) and Allison Kenefick (115th) rounded out a cohesive lineup for a point total of 219.

The Warriors have much to be proud of and they proved themselves to be an elite D2 program. Cunningham and Beyer represented one of the best 1-2 punches in the country, Taarud's rise offered extremely valuable middle-lineup scoring and both Taylor and Kenefick did enough to be competitive.

That kind of stability through five runners helped this group open the season with a flourish — a win over Division One competition followed by a strong 4th place result at the Lewis XC Crossover — before coasting through the early stages of the postseason with conference and regional title wins.

4. Western Colorado Mountaineers (0 / 4)

Western Colorado stays put after securing the final podium spot at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. The Mountaineers, who were both a ways behind 3rd place and ahead of 5th place, were firing on all cylinders at the national meet and have largely exceeded our overall expectations this fall.

Allison Beasley has been fantastic throughout this season and finished it off with a stellar 10th place finish, although that falls in line with her entire fall campaign. Alongside her, Leah Taylor had one of the stronger secondary scoring results of the weekend with a phenomenal 13th place finish.

Taylor was a valuable scoring piece, and perhaps an All-American contender before Saturday, placing 11th at the RMAC XC Championships and 14th at the South Central Regional XC Championships. However, few could have predicted that she'd finish just three seconds and places behind her superstar teammate.

While Beasley and Taylor deserve major kudos for their performances, it was Peyton Weiss’ 26th place national meet finish that elevated this team to a new level.

Weiss enjoyed what was arguably an even more drastic improvement than Taylor after placing 28th at the RMAC XC Championships and 29th at the South Central XC Regional Championships. Gretchen Slattum’s 54th place finish matched the reliability and fitness that we’ve seen from her all season and Lauren Willson capped off her strong rookie campaign with a 78th place finish -- she was a sneaky-good piece for this team in 2023.

Major kudos to Coach Jennifer Michel and her team for piecing together a praiseworthy scoring structure composed of women who were at various points in their athletic development.

3. Colorado Mines Orediggers (0 / 3)

Colorado Mines unsurprisingly finished as the bronze medal team at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships after sitting at TSR #3 the entire season. That, of course, doesn't make their result any less impressive.

The Orediggers scored 121 points and had four All-Americans. That's wildly impressive, especially when you consider that several members of this team have not been firing on all cylinders this fall.

Holly Moser (18th), Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge (20th) and Clare Peters (25th) displayed impressive pack-running and finished within five seconds of each other. Molly Maksin was a bit further back in 35th place while Margaux Basart finished her breakout season in 50th.

Riley McGrath (58th) and Grace Strongman (79th) also posted solid results for the Orediggers as they provided added insurance and served as evidence of the overall depth of the team.

While 3rd place at the cross country national meet is a successful result and something that Colorado Mines should feel proud of, we didn't learn much, if anything, from this result. There’s not too much else to say about a team that finished runner-up at the South Central regional meet and the RMAC XC Championships after winning the Lewis XC Crossover, but couldn't surpass the top-two teams.

Bronze was seemingly the ceiling for this team and they showed up and got it done even if Maksin and McGrath weren't at quite the same level that we’ve seen in the past.

2. Adams State Grizzlies (0 / 2)

While we thought Adams State could perhaps harness some national meet magic and pull off an upset, we mostly expected them to earn the silver medal. Sure enough, they did just that with an impressive total of 86 points.

Brianna Robles placed 4th and was then followed by Tristian Spence (16th), Ava O’Connor (17th), Morgan Hykes (29th), Emily Schoellkopf (40th), Elena Carey (60th) and Reina Paredes (80th). That was a complete team performance which showcased the Grizzlies' talent, even if their final scoring structure (and order) was a bit surprising.

Spence, a freshman, had the race of her life and really stepped up as a top-half All-American. O’Connor and Hykes lived up to expectations while Schoellkopf likely could have been better, although 40th is still a respectable result for someone who ended up being the fifth scorer.

Having five All-Americans and not winning the NCAA title feels a bit wrong, and this team likely would have won gold virtually any other year. Adams State entered with some momentum after winning their conference and regional titles. Unfortunately for them, without Stephanie Cotter, the Grizzlies simply couldn’t match the firepower of our TSR #1 team…

1. Grand Valley State Lakers (0 / 1)

Grand Valley State has sat at TSR #1 since beating Adams State at the Louisville XC Classic in early September, and they backed up that ranking perfectly at the cross country national meet.

The Lakers won gold with just 59 points and had five (yes, five!) All-Americans. In addition to that impressive accomplishment, Grand Valley State had four women in the top-15 which is just absolutely absurd and a testament to the talent, depth and legacy of this program.

Of course, when you look at back at our preseason individual rankings, maybe that shouldn't be a total shocker.

Natalie Graber led the way with her individual bronze medal and capped off a very successful season. Klaudia O’Malley placed 8th which is her third top-10 finish in a row at the cross country national meet. Ana Tucker (14th) and Lauren Kiley (15th) provided very solid scoring potency for the Lakers even if we perhaps expected both to be just a smidge better.

Allie Arnsman stepped up as the final scorer for Grand Valley State in 33rd place. The true freshman built momentum and fitness throughout the season and performed like her veteran teammates when it mattered most.

Kayce Rypma (42nd) and Abby VanderKooi (67th) also posted very respectable results. Putting all seven runners in the top-70 is laudable and not even Adams State could touch the Lakers with the amount of firepower and depth they have.

We were curious to see if this team had maintained their elite level of fitness after being relatively unchallenged in wins at the GLIAC XC Championships and the Midwest Regional XC Championships. And sure enough, they kept on winning. The GVSU women are the undeniable top team in the country this year after that performance and they are perhaps one of the better teams in Division Two history.