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TSR's 2023 Preseason D2 XC Top 25 Rankings: #20-16 (Women)
- Marissa Kuik
- Jul 28, 2023
- 6 min read
Written by Marissa Kuik, additional edits by Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
20. MaKenna Thurston, Senior, Minnesota State
MaKenna Thurston had the race of her life at the cross country national meet last fall, placing 17th overall. And while the rest of her season was very good with high placement finishes throughout, those efforts paled in comparison to her incredible finish on the biggest stage.
A breakout result in that vein could be viewed as a positive or a negative in that regard. And because of the expectations it built, we were admittedly a little underwhelmed with Thurston’s indoor and outdoor track performances in 2023. She did go on to the indoor national meet as a part of the Mavericks’ DMR team, and snuck in an 8th place result, but her seasonal bests were not quite to the level we expected.
Of course, to be very clear, times of 2:13 for 800 meters and 4:55 for the mile are hardly poor. In fact, they're plenty strong.
During the spring months, Thurston made more subtle improvements, running 2:10 for the half-mile distance and then 4:29 for 1500 meters.
While we do like to look at momentum from the track season going into the next cross country season, these rankings are still focused on the grass, meaning that Thurston’s 17th place finish from the NCAA XC Championships cannot be ignored. Plus, all the times that she did run during the indoor and outdoor track seasons were PRs, so the progression is still evident.
Even though TSR #20 may seem a little high for this Maverick given how she finished the past academic year, it feels fair to put her at least within range of where she finished at last year’s NCAA XC Championships.
We also have to recognize that there were a handful of strong results throughout her 2022 regular season, including top finishes at the both the Lucian Rosa Invitational and the Bob Waxlax Invite. And as we venture in 2023, we believe that Thurston can back up her All-American result and build on the already-solid season that she put together in 2022.
19. Kate Hedlund, Junior, UC-Colorado Springs
Kate Hedlund first established herself as a nationally competitive name at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships where she finished an excellent 6th place in the mile finals. It was her first time on the indoor national stage.
The middle distance ace later built upon her great track season and translated that success to the grass. After her promising results on the oval, it seemed as though Hedlund was more geared for the middle distances. But then she finished an incredible 20th place at the NCAA XC Championships in Seattle!
To be honest, her 20th finish was unexpected. Hedlund recorded a DNF result at the RMAC XC Championships and then a solid, but unamazing, 21st place finish at the South Central Regional XC Championships.
However, that top-half All-American result corroborated Hedlund’s racing skills at the meets with the highest stakes. The Mountain Lion ace continued to improve in the ensuing months, running major PRs across multiple distances and finishing with an All-American honor in the 1500 meters at the outdoor national meet.
Hedlund has made impressive leaps in fitness each season, so we wouldn’t be surprised if she continues that trend this fall. Plus, we can't forget that she finished 24th overall at the Louisville XC Classic last fall -- that is a massively impressive result in a predominantly D1 field. It also shows us that her national meet result from December wasn't a fluke.
As far as her all-around resume is concerned, this seems like the right spot for the UCCS standout. While certain postseason efforts of hers from last fall need to improve, it was the larger and more competitive stages where she thrived.
18. Kylie Anicic, Rs. Senior, Edinboro
It's hard to dislike Kylie Anicic's resume. It's also somewhat difficult to properly balance certain aspects of her resume into a ranking spot that is truly fair.
The Edinboro ace was fantastic last fall. She won every single race except one leading up to the cross country national meet and that lone loss was a runner-up finish at the Lewis XC Crossover. At that meet, Anicic lost only to Lindsay Cunningham and took down talented women such as McKenna Taylor, Cailee Peterson and Paige Tack.
At the NCAA XC Championships, Anicic would end her season with a solid 31st place All-American finish, although the projection for this Pennsylvania-based talent was that she would be a top-20 or top-25 finisher.
And then she went to the oval.
During the winter months, Anicic was excellent. She peaked perfectly for the indoor national meet, running new personal bests of 9:27 (3k) and 16:25 (5k), ultimately earning 5th place All-American honors in the latter event. The Division Two veteran would go on to have a respectable spring campaign, but it wasn't anywhere close to what she did during the winter months.
Throughout last fall, Anicic was incredible. She was clearly one of the best distance runners in Division Two, but her schedule leading up to the cross country national meet was admittedly weak. And on the national stage, she ran well, but not up to the standard that we had set for her.
Even so, there's nothing to legitimately criticize Anicic about. She's incredibly consistent and has shown flashes of upper-tier firepower on numerous occasions. But with some of her performances being better than others, we needed to find an appropriate middle ground for her in our rankings. And at TSR #18, we think this is the spot for her...at least for now.
17. Elise Leveel, Junior, West Texas A&M
Another name who had a stellar cross country season, but did seem to be a bit quieter compared to her ensuing track seasons, is Elise Leveel.
After producing a fantastic 18th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships last fall, Leveel was unable to make it to either of the national meets on the track. She did, however, run a very solid 5k PR of 16:49 during the winter months.
It also seemed as if Leveel’s outdoor track season was cut short as her last race was at Bryan Clay over 10,000 meters. There, she ran a decent time of 35:59.
But regardless what happened during her outdoor track season, we do know that Leveel is a major talent to be reckoned with. She was incredibly consistent throughout last fall and stepped up on numerous big-time stages. While some may have been surprised by her top-20 national meet finish in December, that effort was somewhat in line with what she had done that season.
Leveel finished in the top-10 of every single cross country race that she toed the line for (besides the national meet) last fall and won the title at the Mountain East Conference XC Championships. Placing 9th at Paul Short (Brown race) and runner-up at the D2 Festival Year Showcase are results that deserve major respect.
With a cross country resume like that, it is difficult not to expect Leveel to improve on her performances from last fall, even if she was already excellent. She simply knows how to compete at the highest level and she is one of the biggest "sure things" in this range of our preseason rankings.
16. Emily Schoellkopf, Junior, Adams State
Emily Schoellkopf often feels like an underrated name who should not be forgotten given the role that she played in Adams State winning the national title at last year’s cross country national meet.
Schoellkopf was the fourth scorer for the Grizzlies last December and finished an incredible 25th place overall at the national meet. She also finished 4th overall (as Adams State’s fourth scorer) at the RMAC XC Championships.
But when she reached the outdoor oval, this rising junior seemingly found a new level of fitness. Schoellkopf scored a good chunk of the Grizzlies’ points at the outdoor national meet, finishing a highly impressive 3rd place in the steeplechase finals and then doubling back to finish 6th overall over 5000 meters.
She ended the season with a 5k personal best of 16:16 and a steeplechase mark of 10:28 from altitude which (very roughly) converts to 10:11 for the event (per Final Surge's altitude conversion calculator).
Coming into this past year, there was no denying that Schoellkopf was talented. However, we had questions about whether or not she could truly reach that next top-tier low-stick level that Adams State was going to eventually need.
But this past year, Schoellkopf silenced the non-believers and proved to us, as well as the rest of the Division Two world, that she can not only perform at a very high level, but do so when it counts. With a few departures from the Grizzlies’ title-winning lineup, Schoellkopf will have her chance to shine this fall and to step up for her team.
Either way, she has proven to be capable of rising to the challenge.
