TSR's 2023 D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): Update #1

TSR Collaboration
Oct 9, 2023
8 min read

Updated: Oct 9, 2023

Written by Conor Daly, Kevin Fischer & Gavin Struve

Additional edits and commentary via Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve

Do you have an interest in writing for The Stride Report? We are looking for knowledgable high school coverage writers, D2 coverage writers and D3 coverage writers who can help us with our rankings and previews! Want to know more? Read this and send us an email at contact@thestridereport.com to let us know!

NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at a singular meet or (eventually) at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. Click here to learn more about our ranking criteria.

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. Amherst Mammoths (Unranked)

The Amherst women found their way into our top-10 after an impressive start to the season which included a win over Williams at the Little 3 Championships followed by a very solid 4th place performance at D3 Pre-Nationals.

After the departure of some key runners, Sylvan Wold has stepped into the ace role beautifully and could get even better. Not only that, but the other scorers behind her have largely been what the Mammoths needed them to be, specifically Julia Schor.

It’s also important to note that Daphne Theiler, who was 6th at last fall’s Mideast Regional XC Championships, has not raced yet this fall. Plus, freshman Nikki Chopra, who was off to a hot start in September, did not race at D3 Pre-Nationals.

With a full lineup, this team has the potential to move even higher.

9. St. Olaf Oles (-1 / 8)

The Oles haven’t necessarily been "bad" this fall and their tight pack-running efforts have been characteristic of what we have grown to expect from them. The main reason they drop in our rankings is that they just haven’t managed to "wow" yet.

After losing by over 40 points to Carleton and escaping two close calls against UW-Eau Claire, it would be tempting to drop the Oles out of the top-10.

Even so, they still have an ace up their sleeve in Alison Bode who was an All-American over 10,000 meters during the spring, but hasn’t competed yet this fall. If you account for her scoring power, then St. Olaf is still a very dynamic team with a strong scoring five. And in fairness Bella Call has been plenty solid and she has had some decent support from Laura Walda as well as Grace Moeller.

In our eyes, it makes sense to give this group the benefit of the doubt at this time. We'll come back to this team during our next rankings update.

8. Williams Ephs (-2 / 6)

Williams has been a little bit confusing this fall.

Their first two competitions of the season were without low-stick Genna Girard, and they clearly missed her a lot, dropping tight competitions to Vassar and Amherst. But even when Girard made her triumphant return, dominating at the Purple Valley Invite, MIT managed to sweep places 2-3-4-5 and beat the Ephs.

Luckily, D3 Pre-Nationals was a big step in the right direction. The Ephs faced all three of the teams that they had lost to in September, beat two of them and even gave MIT somewhat of a challenge for runner-up. Ella Ball, whom we have been a bit critical of, looked much better this past weekend and was one of the major highlights of that team performance.

Overall, this is a team that might be taking a while to fully grow into the season. It's also clear that Molly Fitzgibbons can be significantly better after a slow start to her fall campaign, although it's not entirely clear exactly what she'll be able to produce over the next month.

Regardless, Williams appears to be starting to figure things out and gaining some steam. For that reason, we're giving them a relatively minor two-point drop.

7. Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (-5 / 2)

The defending national champions haven’t raced against Division Three competition just yet this season, but from what they have produced so far, we have been greatly underwhelmed. Sara Stephenson has met expectations, but the rest of her supporting cast has not.

The Blue Jays have been left relying heavily on transfers Sarah Conant and Jenna Lange who have been solid scoring pieces. But at the same time, they have not necessarily shown the upside that we thought they could have based on Conant’s 9:52 (3k) and Lange’s national-level experience.

The Paul Short Invitational has been the closest that we’ve seen the Blue Jays go up against Division Three competition. The SUNY Geneseo women were in their race and beat Johns Hopkins by a significant margin. The unranked NYU women (who were in a different race) just straight-up performed better than the Blue Jays as well.

Although it hasn’t been the prettiest start, we’re going to give the Blue Jays some grace since we know that they have the pieces to be one of the best teams in the country. They did, after all, win NCAA gold last year after not being in the conversation to do so.

6. SUNY Geneseo Knights (+1 / 7)

Although they haven’t looked totally in form just yet, the SUNY Geneseo women had a quality outing at Paul Short. At Lehigh University, they took home the best performance among the Division Three teams that competed there despite not appearing to be at 100%.

Sub-16:50 (5k) runner Rachel Hirschkind (115th) had an “off" day, crossing the line as the Knights’ third runner. Meanwhile, middle distance specialist Sierra Doody, who figures to be an All-American contender on the grass, fell outside of the Knights’ top-seven, altogether.

Is it concerning from a consistency standpoint that the Knights’ top duo both had bad days? A bit, for sure. But since they still ran relatively well compared to other Division Three programs, even a fairly poor showing tells us that they are capable of a lot more when this lineup is firing on all cylinders.

At the same time, several things did go well for this New York-based program. Multi-time national qualifier Penelope Greene (47th) led the way as she looks to continue a fantastic start to the season. Lily Fowler-Conner (102nd) was a solid scoring piece and Kaitlyn Grossman (169th) was able to comfortably finish in the top-half of the field.

The Knights had barely enough stability in their fifth runner, but Jillian O’Rouke (206th) did enough to keep the team competitive on their outing. And moving forward, with the return of Doody to top form and Hirschkind's potential reemergence into a low-stick role, the Knights shouldn’t be too worried about any backend uncertainty.

5. MIT Engineers (0 / 5)

The MIT women are simply a really good team right now.

They have both low-sticks that they can rely on and the depth to be competitive with any team in the country. After catching the eyes of the public with a dominant win over a very respectable Williams program, the MIT women went to D3 Pre-Nationals and put forth a runner-up finish.

The Engineers ran as well as we expected them to, posting strong results across most of their lineup. They were just outdone by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on the day.

Gillian Roeder was excellent with a 4th place finish and was followed by Lexi Fernandez in 11th place, giving this team a very strong top-two. The rest of their scorers were within the top-35, which was good, but not potent enough for the win.

We thought that Kate Sanderson would be in contention to win individually, but she fell back to 34th for an uncharacteristically poor day.

Other than that, the early going points to nothing but positive signs for the Engineers. We do hope to see the 13th place finisher from last year’s cross country national meet, Olivia Rosenstein, race soon as she could elevate this team to another level.

4. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas (+6 / 10)

The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women have been a fascinating team to monitor thus far. With comparatively modest expectations entering the season, the Athenas have thrived early-on.

As recapped in one of our previous group chat articles, the Athenas ran phenomenally at the UC Riverside Invitational, taking down many Division One and Division Two programs, including Arizona, Southern Utah and Azusa Pacific. But that was only the tip of the iceberg as the Athenas went on to win the D3 Pre-Nationals in dominant fashion.

Natalie Bitetti has been leading the way in peak form, looking ready to compete with anyone in the country. However, it’s been sophomores Elle Marsyla and Riley Capuano who have stepped up in a big way to give their team an edge this fall. Not to mention, middle distance specialists such as Angela Gushue and Laura Zimmer have had no rising up to the 6000 meter racing distance.

Simply put, this team has somehow pieced together a very complete lineup despite losing multiple key names from last year.

After somewhat comfortably winning D3 Pre-Nationals, we can’t wait to see what the CMS women are able to do against our top-three teams, all of whom have yet to go head-to-head with the Athenas. Momentum is a wonderful thing to have entering this stage of the fall months and the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women have it in spades.

3. Carleton Knights (0 / 3)

Even with singular star Clara Mayfield now gone, the Knights have hardly missed a beat this fall. Hannah Preisser is not the same kind of talent as Mayfield, at least not yet, but she has stepped up capably into the lead scoring role.

Regardless, the Knights’ depth and cohesive scoring (five women among the top-14 individuals) was what gave them a narrow win over UW-La Crosse in their first real taste of competition at the Running of the Cows.

Carleton, and Preisser, looked even more dominant against a solid St. Olaf group at the Blugold Invitational, beating the Oles by 47 points as Sophie McManus and Phoebe Ward joined Preisser in the top-five.

We haven’t seen the Knights face elite competition yet, but their early success, as a group and among their individuals, against nationally competitive teams bodes well for their trajectory entering the second-half of the season.

2. U. of Chicago Maroons (+2 / 4)

An enviable blend of firepower and depth has set up U. of Chicago to maintain their recent level of success despite some significant departures from last year’s national runner-up squad.

After sweeping the top-six spots in their season-opener, the Maroons took on a more competitive field at the Gil Dodds Invitational. There, they beat rival Washington U. by a huge margin as they again swept the top-five spots.

The Joe Piane Invitational (Gold race) offered a new level of competition and the Windy City-based women performed admirably against a Division One field with relatively balanced scoring despite star Maddie Kelly falling back to 41st place.

After such a convincing start to the season, we’ve moved the Maroons up to the spot where they finished last fall. The emergence of Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel as another low-stick star raises both this team’s ceiling and floor. Plus, Elisabeth Camic has been a very pleasant surprise, especially after placing 15th in South Bend, Indiana.

With a handful of excellent support scores, this lineup structure makes U. of Chicago an incredibly difficult team to take down, especially when Maddie Kelly is at her best.

1. Wartburg Knights (0 / 1)

Even if the order in which their stars have finished this fall hasn’t necessarily been what we expected, the team results have largely been the same. That puts Wartburg as a convincing (but not invincible) TSR #1 team at this point in the season.

The Knights’ first few weeks of the season didn’t tell us a ton as they raced a thin field at their home meet, ran a “B” squad next and then faced mostly Division One competition at the Redbird Invite. Still, we got a feel for their potential lineup structure this season.

Through September and the very early portion of October, Lexi Brown and Shaelyn Hostager have been the top tandem rather than Aubrie Fisher and Ellie Meyer. That could certainly change, but the Knights' top-four is no less potent than we thought it would be.

We’d like to see Wartburg against more formidable competition to gauge how they compare to other premier Division Three squads, but we’ve seen no reason to drop the Knights from the top spot at this juncture.