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TSR's 2023 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Rankings (Women): #8 St. Olaf Oles
- Kevin Fischer
- Sep 7, 2023
- 6 min read
Written by Kevin Fischer, edits and additional commentary by Gavin Struve and 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.
While they weren’t necessarily lacking for scoring potency last fall, the St. Olaf women weren’t exactly reliant on it, either. Instead, their depth was seemingly the bigger reason for their success in 2022.
That was why, despite fielding just one All-American, the Oles actually packed quite a bit of scoring value into their lineup. And with six of those seven women from last year’s NCAA XC Championships returning, there figures to be a bevy of names on this roster who are qualified to be lead scorers or better.
With all of that in mind, it seems fitting that our preseason rankings have St. Olaf exactly where they landed at last year’s national meet -- even if we aren't necessarily implying that’s where we expect them to finish this year -- by slotting them at TSR #8.
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Last fall, St. Olaf made some noise in late September with a 24-point win over Carleton at the Blugold Invite. In fairness, Carleton was without low-stick star Hannah Preisser that day and it would have been a much closer race if she was there.
Even so, that victory felt like a noticeable step forward for the Oles beat their in-state rival two weeks after a tight loss at their home meet to the same team.
At that meet, the Oles proved that there was power in numbers as their top-four women packed the top-10 spots. Sofia Carlson (3rd) and Christine Albrecht (4th) offered very strong firepower while Alison Bode (7th) and Lauren Walda (9th) limited any excessive point scoring.
Yes, Katie Gebert (17th) and Bella Call (18th) were a bit further back, but that largely didn't matter. The Oles' top-four was simply too formidable for their opponents to overcome.
St. Olaf then ventured out to Connecticut College for a taste of interregional competition. There, the Oles put together an archetypal pack-running performance. And by doing so, they beat out top-tier programs such as Williams and Amherst to finish runner-up behind MIT.
Despite not having anybody finish in the top-15, the Oles’ first and seventh runners crossed the line separated by just fifteen seconds apart. The scoring combination of Bode, Walda, Albrecht, Call and Carlson went 18-20-21-27-29, respectively, in the overall results.
And with Grace Moeller and Katie Gebert finishing 30th and 31 as well, the depth of this team was incredibly impressive. On paper, it would have been hard for them to have a poor outing.
St. Olaf would ultimately replicate their pack-heavy lineup structure at the MIAC XC Championships with a 16-second time spread scattered across finishes of 6-7-810-11. However, the Oles were ultimately hurt by their lack of a low-stick when Carleton managed to put four women ahead of their top scorer.
It was a similar story at the North Regional XC Championships as the Oles had a solid day to finish 3rd behind Carleton and UW-La Crosse despite boasting the best spread in the field. That race, of course, was secondary to their final test.
With tough conditions at the national meet, St. Olaf's patented scoring pack became a bit more spread out as evidenced by Sofia Carlson, an All-American over 5000 meters in the winter, falling back to 224th place.
Even so, St. Olaf’s spread remained as one of the best in the field. Christine Albrecht provided enough individual firepower with a 27th place run to help give the Oles an edge. Her emergence as a low-stick was paired with a great 50th place result from Bella Call while Allison Bode was solid yet again in 66th place.
With Katie Gebert (82nd) and Lauren Walda (87th) offering phenomenal backend stability, the Oles were able to produce a very respectable 8th place finish at the national meet, a result that was arguably their best of the season. And the best part? They did it with a potential top-three runner not even factoring into their final score.
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In the introduction to this article, we detailed the nearly unrivaled retention that this team boasts entering the 2023 cross country season. However, we were withholding a major element in that quick description — the fact that St. Olaf's lone departure was low-stick star, Christine Albrecht.
The California native is transferring to the University of San Francisco. The Oles may very well field an All-American or two this fall, but none were as reliable or capable as Albrecht was.
The loss of their top scorer will hurt quite a bit. And while we certainly think that this team has room for improvement, it's going to take a collective effort for the Oles to make up for Albrecht's lost scoring value.
Of course, if there’s any team in the country built to stem the tide of an All-American departure, it’s the St. Olaf women. Not only do they have enough depth to stay within the range that they occupied last year, but they also have a chance to be more dynamic through their top few scorers.
Alison Bode, who was in the midst of that pack all season long, has made incredible strides on the track, ultimately finishing 8th over 10,000 meters at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships after running a massive personal best of 35:03.
The returning veteran was the team’s third scorer at the cross country national meet last fall, placing 66th as an underclassman, and is listed as an “Honorable Mention” section of our preseason top-20 individual rankings.
Right behind her should be Sofia Carlson. Despite an up-and-down 2022 cross country season that certainly didn’t end the way that she would have liked, Carlson came through in a definitive manner on the oval, especially during the indoor track season.
Her most notable performance came at the indoor national meet where she finished 7th in the 5000 meters with a lifetime-best mark of 16:57. She was also 65th at the cross country national meet in 2021, showing us that she’s plenty capable of being a highly valuable scorer on the grass.
If those two women can translate their track success from this past winter and spring to the cross country course, then the Oles could have two women inside the top-40 names, nationally, by the time the 2023 NCAA XC Championships roll around.
And from there, you can see the potential for this team to (possibly) be even better than they were last fall. On top of that, this Minnesota-based program figures to have just as much depth from their backend scorers as they did last year, which will be immense.
The Oles' supporting cast of returners from last year’s cross country national meet includes Bella Call, Katie Gebert, Lauren Walda and Julia Everest. Those runners all finished in the top-half of the national field last fall with Call in 50th, Gebert in 82nd, Walda in 87th and Everest in 126th. In fact, Call may be closer to a low-stick than a middle-lineup piece.
If you look at their times on the track, none of those women really indicate that a massive improvement is in the cards. But that shouldn’t be taken as a negative sign, either. When an athlete has a breakout year on the track, we are always a little bit cautious and include a caveat that there is a chance it won’t translate.
However, most of these women are already proven commodities during the fall months and simply need to hold steady -- or make expected year-over-year improvements to help their team make up for the loss Albrecht.
Sure, some greater consistency in the regular season would be valuable, but this squad also proved to be highly interchangeable last year. More upfront scoring potency is necessary, but it's hard to see this team struggling.
Truthfully we don’t feel like we need to list all of the potential final lineup pieces or additions beyond the aforementioned returnees. That's mainly due to the amount of depth that this squad returns in 2023.
Even so, it would be foolish to entirely rule out the possibility of another contributor emerging.
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All told, this is a strong team that should operate similarly to how they did last year. And even without their lone All-American from 2022, the Oles have an opportunity to be better at the frontend.
Their depth offers them a fairly high floor, and it appears unlikely that they'll finish outside of the top-10 this fall. At their best, they could potentially even contend for a podium spot and battle with Carleton.
But for now, another year near the upper-echelon of the women's Division Three landscape feels like a solid baseline as we enter the fall months.
