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TSR's 2023 Preseason D1 XC Top 25 Rankings (Women): #17 Washington Huskies
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- Aug 17, 2023
- 7 min read
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.
The version of Washington's cross country team that you saw last year is expected to look very different by comparison in 2023. And yet, at the same time, this is a program that should be just as good as far as expectations and talent level are concerned.
The Huskies are going to have a unique mix of veteran newcomers and rising youngsters going into the fall months. Some names offer a valuable level of scoring certainty while others seemingly hold exciting upside.
At the end of the day, there's no "correct" spot to rank this team. However, when balancing their departures, returners and incoming names, it feels fair to list the Huskies at the same spot of where they finished at last year's national meet.
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Washington's 2022 cross country season began at the Cowboy Jamboree, a major early-season test that would put a still-forming Husky squad under pressure from top-tier programs.
In that race, Anna Gibson ran very well, placing 19th overall to give the Seattle-based women a borderline low-stick. She was then complemented by Sophie O'Sullivan who snagged 37th place while rookies Sophia Nordenholz (43rd) and Chloe Foerster (52nd) were quietly great in their own right.
From there, the Washington women saw a gap form, but Andrea Markezich was still strong enough to close out the team scoring with a 79th place effort.
It wasn't a perfect showing, but it was hard to be upset with the Huskies who didn't have many scoring flaws. An 8th place team finish to take down Arkansas, but being well behind Utah Valley and Syracuse, was respectable, but it also left us wanting more.
At the Nuttycombe Invitational, the Washington women largely matched expectations.
Gibson (39th) was great once again and Nordenholz (94th) fared well on a massive stage despite her inexperience. However, from there, the rest of this lineup slowly began to form gaps. Markezich and Borsheim finished 119th and 120th, respectively, while O'Sullivan had a bit of an "off" day to place 144th overall.
It was a mixed bag of results for the Huskies and the expectations for each of those women was vastly different. Even so, a 16th place team finish at a major invitational deserved a nod of respect.
Unfortunately, Washington would struggle a bit at the PAC-12 XC Championships.
The Huskies simply didn't have enough firepower to keep up with their high-octane conference counterparts. Markezich (8th) had the best race of her career and O'Sullivan (13th) rebounded nicely. But with no one else finishing in the top-20, this team just didn't have enough compact scoring potency.
As a result, the Huskies finished 5th overall, one point behind a Stanford team (that also struggled), but comfortably ahead of Oregon State.
Fast forward to the national meet and the final result largely emulated Washington's season as a whole. They were good, but maybe not necessarily great. Some runners had strong efforts while others faded more than we were expecting.
Gibson (63rd) returned to her lead scoring ways while O'Sullivan (73rd) wrapped up a fairly underrated season. However, with no one else cracking the top-130, and the freshmen struggling with inexperience on such an overwhelming stage, the Washington settled for a 17th place team finish.
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The departures that we spoke about with the Georgetown women are roughly on par with the runners who are out of cross country eligibility for Washington. Anna Gibson has since turned pro, Andrea Markezich has ventured to Notre Dame as a graduate transfer and Madison Heisterman had wrapped up her Masters degree.
Haley Herberg, a former low-stick standout who was more of a backend lineup contributor last fall, is also out of eligibility.
At first glance, this team is going to be highly limited on scoring options. Not having Anna Gibson is far from great and there is far less stability at the backend of this lineup now that numerous veterans are gone.
And yet, at the same time, Coach Maurica Powell was able to bring in numerous transfers, including a true low-stick. She'll also have a (potential) lead scorer returning in Sophie O'Sullivan as well as numerous high-upside underclassmen. When you put all of those roster aspects together, you get a fairly complete lineup.
Of course, this is also a team that will be relying on a lot of different things going right this fall, specifically with their rising sophomores. If those women deliver on their full potential, then this group could very easily be ranked better than TSR #17.
* * *
The name who largely allows the Huskies to be ranked at TSR #17 (despite all of their losses), is Tori Herman, the graduate transfer from Kentucky. Despite a slightly less exciting fall campaign in 2022 compared to 2021, this former Wildcat could be a massive low-stick for this team in the coming months.
Nearly two years ago, Herman placed 21st at the Joe Piane XC Invitational, 22nd at Pre-Nationals, 5th at the SEC XC Championships and then a stunning 17th place finish on the national stage.
One year later, she was 21st at the Cowboy Jamboree, runner-up at the Panorama Farms XC Invitational, 9th at the SEC XC Championships and 56th on the national stage.
The year is 2023 and Herman is now with Washington. She is also listed at TSR #43 in our preseason individual cross country rankings. If she replicates her efforts from last fall, then you're looking at someone who can be the perfect replacement for Anna Gibson.
But if Herman returns to her 2021 form, then this is a team that will almost certainly crack the top-15 portion of our rankings, specifically after racing in larger fields where low-sticks have a greater relative impact.
It should also be noted that Perri Bockrath, Herman's teammate at Kentucky, is joining the Washington women as a graduate transfer. However, she is out of cross country eligibility.
Pairing Herman with a top returner in Sophie O'Sullivan is what gives this team a nice spark. O'Sullivan, an Australia native who also holds Irish citizenship, was very solid throughout last fall in most of her meets except the Nuttycombe Invite.
And after a strong year on the track where she ran times of 4:08 (1500) and 9:03 (3k), it's fair to wonder if those marks are translatable to an even better year on the grass. Admittedly, the longer distances are often better indicators of fitness for the cross country season, but the consistency that O'Sullivan produced last year at such a high level is super encouraging.
After finishing 37th at the Cowboy Jamboree and then placing 73rd on the national stage, the recent success that we've seen from O'Sullivan suggests that her ceiling, in a perfect season, is that of a backend All-American.
Of course, that's something that we'll have to see first before we rank Washington any higher.
* * *
For as solid as Herman and O'Sullivan can/will be for the Huskies this fall, it's the rest of this lineup that will determine how far this team goes in 2023.
The rising sophomore returners of this program -- Sophia Nordenholz, Chloe Foerster and Ella Borsheim -- will ultimately be the x-factors of this program. After gaining an extremely valuable year of experience, all eyes will be on this group to take a collective step up and replace the lost scoring of Gibson, Heisterman, Markezich and Herberg.
Last fall, Nordenholz placed 43rd at the Cowboy Jamboree and 94th at Nuttycombe. Foerster finished 52nd at the Cowboy Jamboree while Borsheim took 82nd place at the Cowboy Jamboree and 25th at the PAC-12 XC Championships.
Admittedly, many of those women struggled in the postseason -- Foerster didn't even race after the PAC-12 XC Championships. But it was also incredibly clear that this trio of former freshmen held tremendous value and potential. Nordenholz, in particular, looks like a great option for the third spot in this lineup if she's able to be more consistent.
And truthfully, a lot of these women had scattered moments where they looked like they could be legitimate impact scorers as soon as last fall. Those instances, however, were rare. But with natural growth, this group should be significantly more reliable in 2023...right?
We then come to the incoming graduate transfer duo of India Weir (via Princeton) and Kosana Weir (via Yale). The Ivy League sisters are likely venturing to the west coast with hopes that they can offer valuable depth to a team that needs to support a young core of varsity contributors.
Both of these women are expected to bring different value prospects to the Huskies in 2023.
India Weir has had a few decent cross country finishes in the postseason, but nothing that really blows you away. She did, however, run times of 9:27 (3k), 16:13 (5k) and 10:22 (steeple) on the track this past year.
As for Kosana Weir, her track times are a bit quieter. She was, however, the 15th place finisher at the Ivy League XC Championships last fall as well as the 8th place finisher at the Northeast Regional XC Championships.
We're not necessarily expecting either of these women to heavily carry the scoring burden of this team come September, October and November. However, it's still very possible that one of these women will need to step in for one of the rising sophomores should one of them continue to show some youth-based inconsistency.
Be sure to also keep an eye on Naomi Smith. If none of the above women are able to make a significant impact on this team in 2023, then she may be able to help Washington salvage a respectable cross country season.
Admittedly, Smith's cross country resume doesn't necessarily blow you away, but she did run times of 15:58 (5k) and 33:22 (10k) back in the spring of 2021. At the very least, she's nice scoring insurance to have.
* * *
It feels fair to say that this program is currently built for the future. Whether that's three months from now or 15 months from now is still unclear.
Regardless, the Washington women are now entering a new era of their cross country roster, one that will heavily rely on numerous new faces and the improved fitness of their high-upside youngsters.
There are still plenty of questions surrounding this team as we go into 2023. Admittedly, a heavy portion of this ranking hinges on favorable projections -- and as we all know, natural improvement is never guaranteed.
But if each of those women -- or at least 80% of these women -- deliver on their growth and expectations later this fall, then this could be an incredibly dangerous squad. And if that happens, then the fall of 2024 could be the season when you have to truly fear the Huskies.
