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TSR's 2023 Preseason D1 XC Top 25 Rankings (Women): #14 Ohio State Buckeyes
- Maura Beattie
- Aug 20, 2023
- 9 min read
Written by Maura Beattie, additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On rare occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
It’s not too often that a cross country team returns their entire lineup from the NCAA XC Championships. That, however, is exactly what the Ohio State Buckeyes have this year and it's a luxury that every other team wants.
Early-season showings by the Buckeyes last fall wouldn’t have given die-hard cross country fans much to be excited. The idea of seeing this group qualify for the cross country national meet seemed somewhat unrealistic, as did placing amongst the top-15 teams on that stage.
That, however, is exactly what we saw from the Ohio State women in 2022.
And after that pleasantly surprising end to their fall campaign, Coach Sara Mason Vergote’s roster is now more experienced and no longer a dark horse team.
In 2023, the Buckeyes could be the real deal.
* * *
One of the first meets that the Ohio State women traveled to last fall was the BIG 10 Preview. There, they would catch a glimpse of the course that they would later see at their conference championship.
Against a talented Michigan team, the Buckeyes were fueled by front-runner Addie Engel’s win en route to their 2nd place team showing. Winning by a mere half second, Engel secured what would be the first of two victories on the Ann Arbor cross country course in 2022.
Also cracking the top-10 of the results were Daniella Santos and Andrea Kuhn, finishing 5th and 9th, respectively. That duo would go on to become extremely important and exactly what the Buckeyes needed when their competition got grew stronger.
Three other women, Morgan Schmitt, Akemi Von Scherr and Audrey DeSantis, would later cross the line for Ohio State, finishing within 19 seconds of each other. They were a bit further back and outside of the top-20, but confidence was clearly gained. With enough development, that backend trio held the potential to round into valuable contributors for their team.
Two weeks later, on the hilly terrain of the Griak Invitational, Ohio State faced a challenging field featuring Utah, California Baptist, Michigan State, Colorado State and Wisconsin.
Coming off of two early-season wins, Engel saw her toughest competitor at that point in the season via Utah’s Emily Venters...but everyone else was no match. The Ohio State low-stick rolled through the Minnesota hills and earned a strong 2nd place finish. It was there that Engel further established herself as a top national-caliber name.
Santos and Kuhn became synonymous with reliability after their respective 7th and 10th place showings. It took a bit longer to see their teammates cross the line, but it was Von Scherr who finished in 49th place and Schmitt who followed in 56th place to close out Ohio State's overall scoring group.
Despite the Buckeyes putting three women in the top-10, the still-developing depth of this team would only let Ohio State go so far. As a result, the women from Columbus, Ohio placed 5th overall, defeating BIG 10 competitor Wisconsin by a mere point.
It admittedly wasn't a perfect performance for Ohio State. Significant improvements at the backend of their lineup would need to be made in order for this team to be competitive with their rivals in the postseason.
Even so, it was an outing that held promise and subtle signs of potential for the future.
Prior to the BIG 10 XC Championships, Ohio State flew down to Texas A&M for the Arturo Barrios Invitational and were rewarded with a confidence-boosting win. However, that victory came against a field that they were expected to defeat.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Engel, Santos and Kuhn did what they had done all season long with their 2nd, 3rd and 9th place finishes, respectively. The consistency of those three veterans propelled the Buckeyes ahead. However, it was the 10th and 14th place efforts from Schmitt and Von Scherr that gave us reason to be excited.
With a team win under their belt, Ohio State's top-heavy lineup returned to Michigan for the BIG 10 XC Championships.
After finishing 4th at the 2021 iteration of her conference meet, Addie Engel wanted something more in 2022 -- and she got exactly that.
The Buckeye ace used her knowledge of the course to her advantage and won her first conference title on the grass by a solid four seconds. With that win, Engel was setting herself up for something special at the cross country national meet.
Continuing to make statements of their own were Santos and Kuhn. The pair traversed courses together and were the backbone of Ohio State's top-five. Santos crossed the line in 4th place, only two seconds shy of the top-three, while Kuhn snagged a 6th place finish, missing out on the top-five by a half second.
For women who weren’t even in the top-50 at the prior year’s BIG 10 XC Championships, seeing Santos and Kuhn finish where they did was a development that needed to be applauded.
To help the Buckeyes crack the top-three in the team race, Schmitt (68th) would’ve needed to finish within five seconds of Von Scherr (32nd). But when the points were tallied, the women of Ohio State had to settle for a 4th place finish. It was a tough result for a team that, generally speaking, ran fairly well through most of their scoring options.
With a bitter taste in their mouth following the BIG 10 XC Championships, the Buckeyes came out firing at the Great Lakes Regional XC Championships. And if you had told us that the 4th place team at the BIG 10 XC Championships would earn an automatic qualifier to the NCAA XC Championships, we would’ve thought that you were crazy.
But as it turns out, we were the crazy ones.
Facing off against Notre Dame and almost the entire BIG 10, the Engel-Santos-Kuhn trio finished as expected, all inside the top-10.
Von Scherr (32nd) was reliable once again as the team’s fourth scorer, but behind her, we didn’t see Schmitt. In fact, Schmitt wouldn’t toe the line for the remainder of the postseason. But with Audrey DeSantis (61st) doing just enough, the Buckeyes were (surprisingly) heading to the “Big Dance.”
And once they were there, they took full advantage of the opportunity.
Engel earned her first All-American honor by clinching a 10th place finish, only five seconds out of the top-five. Her performance at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships will surely give her confidence in competing for a higher finish in November.
As for the Santos and Kuhn, that duo was once again within sight of each other at the cross country national meet last fall, finishing 61st (Kuhn) and 75th (Kuhn) to validate their breakout fall campaigns.
Von Scherr and DeSantis, who were both competing in their first cross country national meet, performed about as expected with their 180th and 233rd place finishes, respectively. Luckily, the firepower of Engel and the pack scoring of Santos and Kuhn was enough to counter those backend results.
And in the end, the Ohio State women had done enough to finish 15th place overall at the NCAA XC Championships. It capped off an outstanding postseason.
* * *
Dissecting this roster in 2023 is fairly simple: It's basically their same exact team as last year. Except this time, they're far more experienced and another year older.
The firepower of Ohio State's scoring trio proved to be fantastic last year. They essentially carried this team throughout last fall and showcased tremendous consistency. However, depth was clearly a challenge for this squad. In many instances, the Buckeyes could only improve as much as their bottom-two scorers did.
But there still are plenty of positives when it comes to this program.
There are zero losses from last year's team and Morgan Schmitt will hopefully be available for the entirety of this season. And with natural growth from a backend group of women who were very young last year, the sky is the limit for this team in 2023.
* * *
After her All-American honor last fall, veteran Engel will be ready to showcase that her top-10 national meet finish in 2022 wasn’t a fluke. As the reigning BIG 10 individual cross country champion, the redshirt junior will have some external pressure placed upon her to not only repeat as a conference champion, but also lead her team to even greater heights in 2023.
We are big fans of Addie Engel. She is a truly elite low-stick and not just a fringe All-American. But for as much as she could improve this fall, her improved scoring potential is admittedly limited. That's not at all a bad thing, but she can't make that much more of a scoring improvement when you look at the remaining points that she could cover.
As long as she continues to be incredibly reliable like she was last fall, then she will have done more than enough for the Buckeyes.
We then come to the dynamic duo of Daniella Santos and Andrea Kuhn who made great strides in their fitness throughout last year. With consistent top-10 finishes prior to the NCAA XC Championships, this Ohio State pair kept this team afloat and offered great stability.
Santos and Kuhn are great together, no matter the terrain, and have proven themselves to be on the cusp of earning All-American finishes. Both Buckeyes are strength-based runners as evidenced by their 10k personal bests of 33:33 (Santos) and 33:34 (Kuhn) from this past spring.
If that duo builds on last year’s results, then 2023 will be another one for the books. And even if they just replicate their performances from last fall, then that will be fine as well. Their reliability and consistency in 2022 should not be overlooked.
But after those three is where this team could exceed this ranking. That, however, is going to require significant improvements. With both Akemi Von Scherr and Audrey DeSantis returning, Ohio State should have more experienced and (theoretically) improved depth this fall -- all based on natural growth.
Von Scherr, a rising redshirt junior, will need to combine her experience from last fall with her recent 16:34 (5k) PR to push herself past the fifth scoring spot in this lineup. She has some solid leaders to look to for guidance, but Ohio State is going to be heavily relying on her to cut off significantly more points in larger fields.
As for DeSantis, if she can get Gina Napoleon, another returner from the NCAA XC Championships, to finish alongside her, then there will at least be enough passable depth in case someone at the top of the lineup falters.
However, potentially the biggest x-factor for this team is Morgan Schmitt.
The fourth runner for the Ohio State women throughout most of last fall offered improved scoring value as the season progressed. Sure, she wasn't the same kind of talent that Engel, Santos and Kuhn were, but for a team that just needed to assemble a complete top-five, Schmitt was very helpful towards that endeavor.
Unfortunately, her season ended after the BIG 10 XC Championships where she admittedly struggled. But if Schmitt is healthy and racing at 100% this fall, then you're looking at someone who could have realistically cut off around 82 points at the national meet last fall!
That would have been enough for the Buckeyes to catch 13th place Oregon. And if Schmitt gets even better this fall than she was last year, then this ranking may be on the lower end.
We'll begin to wrap up our conversation with Annie Allen, a member of Ohio State's lineup at the cross country national meet. She provides some solid depth for the Buckeyes and could find herself being a contributing member to the team once again after another year of development.
This team is also adding incoming freshman Mia Robillard who boasts both speed and strength with her 4:58 (1600) and 17:48 (5k) personal bests. On paper, Robillard has the best chance of any rookie to make the starting lineup for Ohio State.
* * *
Obviously, there is a ton of talent on this Ohio State roster.
The top-three positions of this lineup was practically decided with Engel, Santos and Kuhn back in 2022. But as we have been saying throughout this article, the depth and backend contributors of this team will need to make improvements. Without any progression, the Buckeyes will be missing out of an opportunity to be a top-10 team this fall.
Even so, Coach Sara Mason Vergote proved last fall that she knows how to develop long distance talents. The progression that both Santos and Kuhn displayed in 2022 was wildly encouraging and that same thing will need to happen to Schmitt and Von Scherr if this team is going to capitalize on their full potential.
At the time, a 15th place finish at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships was a surprising development for the Buckeye women. However, we've come to realize that their national meet performance was just the beginning for what could be a very exciting fall campaign for the ladies of Ohio State.
