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TSR's 2023 Preseason D1 XC Top 50 Rankings: #50-41 (Women)
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- Jul 19, 2023
- 11 min read
50. Mia Barnett, Junior, UCLA
I'm not exaggerating when I say that we had roughly six to seven women in contention for the final spot in our rankings. And truthfully, the arguments for each of those runners, if yelled loud enough over our phone calls, could have been all the convincing that we needed.
But for our 2023 preseason rankings, Mia Barnett was our lucky winner.
Last fall was an interesting season for Barnett who was still at the University of Virginia at the time. A 13th place finish at the Battle in Beantown was underwhelming, but a 4th place finish at the Panorama Farms XC Invitational was much better than some people realize.
In the postseason, Barnett posted a slightly underwhelming 17th place result at the ACC XC Championships and had a quiet performance on the regional stage. She did, however, secure an excellent 44th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships, just four spots out from All-American honors.
When you look at Barnett's three most important meets from last year -- Panorama Farms, the ACC Championships and the national meet -- you get a very strong result, a slightly underwhelming performance and a near All-American effort, respectively.
And while that's not necessarily a perfect cross country season for a top-50 runner, it's still a very strong fall campaign.
After transferring to UCLA in the winter, Barnett continued to extend her incredible track success from her freshman year. The former Cavalier ran 4:10 or faster for 1500 meters a total of four times last spring and eventually earned a 4:08 PR. Barnett was controversially tripped in the 1500 meter prelims of the outdoor national meet and did not advance to the finals.
Yes, it's true, Barnett is undoubtedly at her best when she's racing on the oval. No one here at The Stride Report is going to argue against that.
However, Barnett (usually) showed up when it matter the most last fall. And on the track, she showed far greater maturity, improved fitness and better control of her talent. When you put all of those aspects of her resume together, we feel like the Bruins' newest distance star is a top-50 talent.
49. Annika Reiss, Senior, Northern Arizona
There weren't many women last fall who had stronger breakout cross country seasons than Northern Arizona's Annika Reiss. There also weren't many women who produced such a wide-variety of results at that level.
At the beginning of the 2022 cross country season, the Northern Arizona women ventured to the Cowboy Jamboree. There, they made a massive statement, upsetting a handful of teams to finish runner-up. And one of the biggest reasons why the Lumberjacks had so much success was because of the race that Annika Reiss had.
That day, Reiss secured a monster 6th place finish on the rolling hills of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Women such as Maia Ramsden, Perri Bockrath, Savannah Roark, Isabel Van Camp and Bailey Hertenstein all finished behind this little-known distance runner.
After that stunning performance, Reiss toed the line for the Nuttycombe Invitational. And while she would post a respectable 40th place finish, her race simply wasn't as magical as what we saw from her three weeks prior.
Following a strong, but unsurprising, 2nd place finish at the BIG Sky XC Championships, Reiss would wrap up her season at the cross country national meet. A 49th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships is how Annika Reiss would end her 2022 cross country season -- and for those at The Stride Report, there were mixed feelings.
Overall, Reiss' fall campaign was a massive success. She took a monumental leap in fitness and showed a flash of being a true top-tier low-stick. However, that moment only happened once at the Cowboy Jamboree. And as the season went on, Reiss never truly replicated that result.
Luckily, Reiss was able to find greater national-caliber success on the track. The Lumberjack star ran a converted 4:33 mile time this past winter and earned 8th place All-American honors in that event. She would also run 15:49 for 5000 meters in the spring.
At her absolute best, Reiss is someone who is closer to our top-30. However, that kind of fitness will need to be on display more consistently this fall before we can make any major changes.
48. Siona Chisholm, Junior, Notre Dame
We'll fully admit, this is more of an "upside" ranking for Siona Chisholm rather than a "what have you done" ranking. And despite that, this rising Notre Dame talent may be our most sure-fire bet in this portion of our rankings.
Last fall, Chisholm had a fairly slow start to the 2022 cross country season. The then-sophomore distance talent placed 86th at the Joe Piane Invitational and later settled for an 81st place finish at the Nuttycombe Invitational.
Truthfully, as Notre Dame went into the postseason, Chisholm wasn't even on our radar.
But then the transfer from Boston U. toed the line for the ACC XC Championships. And in a stunning development, the Nova Scotia distance talent earned an incredible 7th place finish! That was nearly enough for the Fighting Irish to upset the NC State women (although they came up just four points short).
After a 4th place finish at the Great Lakes Regional XC Championships, Chisholm ended her 2022 fall campaign with a solid 81st place finish on the national stage. Sure, it wasn't quite as strong as her performance at the ACC Championships, but it did validate the idea that she could be a competitive distance talent.
However, what really has us so high on this possible Fighting Irish low-stick is the fact that she ran 9:04 (3k) and, more importantly, 15:37 (5k) on the track. Chisholm qualified for the outdoor national meet in the latter event and finished 10th place overall.
The version of Siona Chisholm that we saw at the beginning of the 2022 cross country season isn't even remotely close to the version of her that we'll see in September. The Notre Dame ace clearly has a ton of upside and momentum on her side, now she just needs to put it altogether.
It is tempting to list Chisholm even higher in our rankings. But until she is able to convincingly showcase her improved fitness on the grass, she'll remain at TSR #48.
47. Karrie Baloga, Freshman, Colorado
Ah yes, the first freshman of our top-50 rankings.
In recent years, high school distance running fans have been spoiled by headline stars such as Katelyn Tuohy, Natalie Cook and Jenna Hutchins. And while Karrie Baloga wasn't quite in that same tier as those women during her prep days, she wasn't that far off, either.
The personal bests for this New York are, simply put, incredible. With personal best times of 4:37 (mile), 9:20 (3k), 10:27 (3k steeple), 10:07 (two miles) and 16:49 (5k XC), it's hard to say that Baloga can't be a top-50 distance runner this fall.
Of course, "can be" and "will be" mean two very different things. And while her times are wildly impressive, the aspect of her resume which suggests that she "will be" a top-50 talent is her cross country success.
Yes, Baloga did win the Champs Sports XC National Championships last fall. And don't get us wrong, her race was wildly impressive.
But what we found more interesting was the fact that she placed 5th at the 2023 USATF U20 XC National Championships and later posted an incredible 13th place finish at the U20 World XC Championships.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what made it impossible to omit someone as talented as Karrie Baloga from our preseason rankings. In fact, you could probably argue in favor of her to be a few spots higher and we wouldn't totally disagree.
46. Emily Covert, Rs. Junior, Colorado
Gosh...where do we even start?
As Emily Covert entered the 2022 cross country season, we had high expectations for her. In the eyes of The Stride Report, we thought she could be a top-10 runner on the grass. After all, she could do no wrong during the 2021-2022 academic year.
But as the fall of 2022 unfolded, Covert clearly wasn't at 100%. The Colorado ace finished 16th place at the Cowboy Jamboree and then 29th at Nuttycombe. Those certainly weren't bad performances, but they weren't all that close to her full potential.
Covert did rebound at the PAC-12 XC Championships, ultimately securing a highly impressive bronze medal. However, her season would end with a disappointing 105th place finish on the national stage.
And after one modest 3k race in January, we didn't see Covert for the rest of the year.
Over the last year, the Minnesota native shared that she had been battling a "minor injury" and later Mononucleosis (mono). That, in retrospect, makes her 2022 fall campaign a bit more impressive than we once realized.
It has now been six months since we last saw Covert toe the line in a Colorado singlet. Naturally, we have questions as to how she'll fare this fall.
At her best, this long distance specialist can be a top-20 talent, nationally. But until we see her return at 100%, we have opted to cautiously rank her at TSR #46.
45. Victoria Patterson, Junior, Columbia
If you weren't watching last year's weekly cross country results closely enough, then you may not have seen the rise of Victoria Patterson throughout last fall.
Following two unexciting results at the Coaching Tree XC Invitational (11th) and Paul Short (19th), this Columbia distance standout began to find some serious momentum in smaller races.
At the Penn State National Open, Patterson finished runner-up, losing only to Ceili McCabe. It was a similar story at the Ivy League XC Championships where Patterson earned silver while Maia Ramsden took home gold.
After placing 5th at the Northeast Regional XC Championships, Patterson would have a chance to validate her promising season at the national meet. And for the most part, she did! The Columbia runner secured the bittersweet placement of 41st at the NCAA XC Championships, just one spot off of All-American honors.
Despite the narrow top-40 miss, Patterson had a fantastic cross country season.
She started slow, but caught fire at the right time and rode her momentum into Stillwater, Oklahoma. Not only that, but Patterson would find success on the track by running 9:51 in the steeplechase and qualifying for the outdoor national meet.
There's truthfully not a ton to dislike about Patterson's resume. If you argued hard enough, we could have found her a spot in our top-40. Still, there are a few more things that we want to see from this Lion distance runner before we move her any higher.
Can Patterson earn a marquee win later this season? Can she get off to a better start this fall than she did last year? On bigger stages like Paul Short, how much improvement will we see?
But let's not be mistaken -- just because we have questions about Patterson does not mean that we aren't incredibly high on her potential going into the fall months.
44. Jane Buckley, Sophomore, Providence
Strong, consistent and steady. Those are the best ways to describe Jane Buckley's rookie year with the Providence women.
Last fall, this Irish distance talent entered the NCAA and had an instant impact. The 20-year distance talent started her season with a promising 7th place finish at Paul Short before securing another solid result at Nuttycombe, this time placing 38th.
Both of those efforts were encouraging starts for Buckley, but what really took her to the next level was her race at the BIG East XC Championships. On that stage, Buckley took home the win (in slight upset fashion) over Georgetown's All-American duo of Maggie Donahue and Grace Jensen.
That victory, however, would remain as Buckley's main highlight of her season. While her 49th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships deserved major kudos, her earlier racing suggested that she could have been an All-American.
Luckily, this rising Friar didn't let momentum fade after the fall. This past spring, Buckley recorded an excellent 15:41 (5k) personal best and advanced to the outdoor national meet in that event.
There isn't really much more to say about Buckley -- but that's not a bad thing. She was more reliable than most freshman (albeit, she is older than most) and never had a truly poor race. And after seeing her race this past spring, it feels like she has even more upside within her.
We still need to see that, but TSR #44 feels like the right spot for her.
43. Tori Herman, Junior, Washington
In a year where numerous distance running superstars have transferred to other schools, it feels like Tori Herman's move from Kentucky to Washington has flown under the radar.
Herman is a tricky name to rank. She almost never runs poorly on the grass, but trying to balance her 2021 cross country season with her 2022 season makes for an interesting challenge.
Two years ago, Herman was electric, specifically in the postseason. She placed 5th at the SEC XC Championships and later earned a stunning 17th place finish at the national meet. But throughout the fall of 2022, the distance veteran produced results with a decent amount of variability.
Herman had a decent 21st place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree, but later secured a very strong runner-up finish at the Panorama Farms XC Invitational. A 9th place finish at the SEC XC Championships was respectable, but her 56th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships certainly left us wanting more.
As she ventures to Seattle this fall, Herman will bring with her the potential to be a true low-stick for a team that desperately needs it. And while we may not always know how she's going to run on the grass, the potential to be an top-half All-American, as shown in 2021, is very clearly there.
Of course, even if Herman doesn't return to that level this fall, then she'll at least give the Washington women plenty of high-level scoring stability come October and November.
42. Brynn Brown, Junior, North Carolina
Going into the 2022 cross country season, we expected Brynn Brown to make the, usually large, freshman-to-sophomore jump in her fitness. And in most races, she did!
The Texas native had her first true test at the Coaching Tree XC Invitational where she secured the overall win. And when you look back at the field, Brown's victory looks much more impressive when you realize how good the women behind her ended up being.
A 6th place finish at Paul Short was slightly behind our expectations, but it was still fairly solid. Luckily, the North Carolina standout recorded an outstanding 19th place finish at Nuttycombe, validating the idea that Brown was going to make a leap in her fitness. However, more importantly, it showed the country that she could thrive in larger, nationally competitive fields.
But as the postseason progressed, Brynn Brown just never found that same edge again.
She didn't race at the ACC XC Championships, she settled for 11th place at the Southeast Regional XC Championships and she finished 42nd at the national meet, two spots out from All-American honors.
On the track, Brown threw down a strong 15:43 (5k) PR back in December. She also ran 9:04 (unconverted) for 3000 meters on a flat-track. But outside of those two races, the Tar Heel low-stick didn't seem as sharp as we thought she would be.
Much like Jane Buckley and Tori Herman, Brown never had a poor performance last fall. And her 19th place finish at Nuttycombe showed us how talented she is. Her recent performances on the track do leave us wondering about her upside this fall, but her 2022 fall campaign was too good to move her any lower than TSR #42.
41. Elise Thorner, Junior, Florida
One of the names who made major headlines in the transfer portal this summer was former New Mexico standout, Elise Thorner. Following the departure of Coach Joe Franklin to Louisville, the steeplechase ace and cross country All-American opted to join the Florida women this fall.
Thorner is one of those rare cross country talents who you know exactly what you are getting out of each and every race. Last fall, the British distance runner placed 20th at the Joe Piane Invitational, 25th at Nuttycombe and then 40th at the NCAA XC Championships, emerging as the final All-American of the national meet.
And for the most part, all three of those performances seem to be on par with each other.
In fact, when you look back at TSR's 2022 top-50 rankings throughout last fall, it seemed fairly predictable as to where Thorner would place on the national stage. The former Lobo entered the season at TSR #44, was briefly moved out, returned at TSR #48, moved back to TSR #44, slid to TSR #47 and ended her season at TSR #43.
Admittedly, moving to an entirely different environment such as Florida creates an element of uncertainty for Thorner. She could be far better under Coach Will Palmer or she may need a few races to get acclimated.
Regardless, another All-American finish seems more likely than not for the newest Gator distance transfer later this fall.
