TSR's 2023 D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): Update #3

TSR Collaboration
Nov 6, 2023
7 min read

Written by Conor Daly, Kevin Fischer & Gavin Struve

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 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. Lynchburg Hornets (0 / 10)

Since our last update, the Lynchburg women took a comfortable win at the ODAC XC Championships. And while that may not be one of the more competitive conferences, we continued to see some promising developments from the Hornets.

A transfer duo has been crucial to the success that Lynchburg is having this fall. Kayla Werner, an addition from Liberty, took the individual conference title as she continues to add to her All-American campaign. And arguably the biggest breakthrough for the Hornets has been the rise of Methodist transfer, Courtney Drumm. She has been on an upwards trajectory throughout the season, most recently finishing as the Hornets’ third scorer.

Add in Allison Dell, Sarah James, Kristen Werner and Molly Silva to provide stability throughout the rest of this lineup, and the Lynchburg women are an easy team to like. Going forward, the Hornets will look to cruise through their regional meet before testing themselves in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

9. UW-La Crosse Eagles (Unranked)

The UW-La Crosse women do not have any mind-boggling performances to their name. However, they do hold a handful of solid wins this season, including efforts where they destroyed some of our "Honorable Mention" teams which was enough to enter this late-season edition of our top-10 team rankings.

Most recently, the Eagles took a commanding victory at WIAC XC Championships. As expected, Maddie Hannan and Katelyn Chadwick led the way in 2nd and 3rd, respectively, continuing to provide a solid front duo that this team can build around.

But where the Eagles really showed their dominance was their ability to put the entirety of their top-seven within the top-14 spots. Many teams of this caliber fall off after their fifth scorer, but the Eagles have a full varsity lineup of women who could score for them on any given day.

Couple that win with a heartbreakingly narrow loss to Carleton (TSR #3) early in the season and a dominant win over St. Olaf, it’s easy to see the Eagles as a top-10 squad.

8. Williams Ephs (0 / 8)

We were really looking forward to the Amherst vs Williams showdown at the NESCAC XC Championships. Both teams were, after all, ranked right next to each other in our top-10. And yet, despite our expectations, the matchup was a blowout. The Ephs flat-out dominated, putting five runners in front of Amherst’s third scorer to take the title.

So...why haven’t we moved Williams up in our rankings?

Well, the blowout might be more attributable to a bad day from Amherst rather than a spectacular day for the Ephs. Nonetheless, Williams has only been trending in the right direction this entire season, and the NESCAC XC Championships was no exception.

Not only has Genna Girard remained one of the top individuals in the nation, but Ella Ball seems to be in All-American form despite a rough start. Veteran Molly Fitzgibbons has been a steady pulse in the middle part of the lineup while the backend of this scoring contingent has been able to produce consistently strong results in the latter-half of the season.

It’s a lineup structure with few flaws, if any. And it's that stability that leaves the Ephs with a very high floor going into the postseason where performances tend to be highly variable.

7. MIT Engineers (-2 / 5)

In some regards, the MIT women feel eerily similar to the Williams men (who occupy our TSR #7 spot in our latest men's rankings update). Yes, the Engineers fall in our top-10 list, but that's by virtue of what teams around them have achieved rather than any shortcomings that they've displayed over the past fortnight.

Just as the Ephs did, this Massachusetts-based elite academic institution won their conference title after finishing runner-up at D3 Pre-Nationals. MIT faced respectable competition at the NEWMAC XC Championships and won despite the Coast Guard women flexing better firepower that day. Of course, with all five scorers in the top-10, the Engineers again proved the class of their conference.

That being said, the continued absence of Olivia Rosenstein has put a ceiling on this podium-aspiring outfit. And with their top low-stick ace seemingly not racing this fall, it's tough to envision this team finishing much higher than this ranking (which matches their national meet finish from 2022).

That could change if women like Gillian Roeder and Kate Sanderson are firing on all cylinders on the same day, although that hasn't been always been a given this fall despite all of MIT's successes.

6. SUNY Geneseo Knights (0 / 6)

The SUNY Geneseo women didn't win their home meet last month, losing to a worthy adversary in Carleton, but it had to provide some level of catharsis to put forth their annual dominant effort at the SUNYAC XC Championships.

We didn't learn anything new from the Knights sweeping the top-nine spots at their conference meet, but their stars — Penelope Greene and Rachel Hirschkind — appear to be in sound form entering the postseason. And that's more (having stars and health, let alone both) than some teams can boast at this point in the season.

5. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas (-1 / 4)

The women of Claremont, California continue winning and are still very much a strong podium contender despite what a negligible drop in our rankings may imply.

From their D3 Pre-Nationals victory to a SCIAC conference title, the Athenas have a well-defined and dependable scoring structure with stars and supporting pieces who have been tested in a couple of different deep, national fields this season.

It certainly doesn't hurt to have one of the NCAA's more proven cross country stars, Natalie Bitetti, leading the lineup. However, the ongoing rise and reliability of Elle Marsyla and Riley Capuano is what has truly made this team a legitimate podium threat in 2023.

4. Wartburg Knights (-2 / 2)

Regardless of what their gradual drop from our preseason TSR #1 spot signals, the Knights still feel like they have all of their preseason goals in front of them. That, of course, is due to the wealth of talent that they have on hand.

The problem is that Wartburg hasn't had all of their women race up to their full capabilities on the same day. That's how they finished runner-up to U. of Chicago at the Augustana Interregional (the Maroons have lost since taking our TSR #1 mantle).

And while they perhaps could have been more convincing at the American Rivers XC Conference Championships title over Central College, the team results aren't really what concerned us with Wartburg.

Several of the Knights' individual stars have been performing slightly below the admittedly high expectations that we've set for them for this fall. Of course, that's a problem hundreds of teams around the country would trade their present situation for. Shaelyn Hostager, Ellie Meyer, Aubrie Fisher and Lexi Brown are still one of the most feared quartets in the country.

But at the end of the day, it's depth that remains the main x-factor as to whether or not this team can realistically challenge for the national title. And if they are able to close down the gaps after their top-four, then the Knights will be a difficult team to defeat, even for the squads ranked ahead of them.

3. Carleton Knights (0 / 3)

Carleton continued their undefeated streak at the MIAC XC Championships, putting five women in the top-nine to beat St. Olaf by a 26-point margin.

Breakout seasons from several members of their supporting cast have put the Knights in a position where they are an even better team than last year despite losing a program-altering talent in Clara Mayfield.

Between Phoebe Ward operating on a completely different level than last year, and the duo of Helen Cross and Sophie McManus translating their track success nicely to the grass, this team is looking more and more like a title contender. Add in the potential for Hannah Preisser to finish as a top-half All-American, and this is a really scary lineup.

Carleton's biggest competition on the regional stage will be our TSR #9 team, UW-La Crosse. And even though they had a scare against that group at the Running of the Cows, we expect that they will dispatch that test fairly comfortably.

2. U. of Chicago Maroons (-1 / 1)

Our previous TSR #1 team takes a small drop after losing to then-TSR #7 squad, NYU, at the UAA XC Championships. Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel ran well, but lost her individual battle with Grace Richardson. Maddie Kelly lost her battle with Morgan Uhlhorn and the backend scorers failed to make up the gap from the top-two.

In fact, it got even larger!

With a better day from Elisabeth Camic, who was 14th at the Augustana Interregional, this battle might have been a closer matchup. Even so, you can’t blame one individual in a situation as the Maroons were simply out-dueled overall.

Are they still a better team in terms of talent than NYU? Quite possibly, although it’s hard to say. But after a head-to-head loss, we have no choice but to move U. of Chicago down a spot. The Maroons are definitely still in the mix as a national title contender, but that won’t happen if they don’t clean up some lineup gaps.

1. NYU Violets (+6 / 7)

It’s difficult to express how surprising NYU has been this year.

Entering the season, they had a strong top-two returning in Grace Richardson and Vivian Kane, but a gap after those that duo kept them largely off of our radar in August.

But newcomers Morgan Uhlhorn (freshman) and Kate Cochran (transfer from Seton Hall by way of SUNY New Paltz) have made the Violets one of the most exciting teams in the country in terms of firepower. And with solid improvements from Janie Cooper, that Violets have seemingly constructed a scoring five that looks pretty complete.

Even after an incredible start to the season, there were some questions recently regarding whether the Violets were a serious podium contender. But their double-digit victory over U. of Chicago was monumental in quieting any doubts we had, and they now sit at a well-deserved TSR #1 spot as the de facto national title favorites.