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TSR's 2023 Preseason D3 XC Top 20 Rankings: #15-11 (Women)
- Conor Daly
- Jul 29, 2023
- 5 min read
Written by Conor Daly, additional edits and commentary Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
15. Ella Ball, Junior, Williams
You can always count on Williams to produce strong cross country runners. Their latest developmental example? Ella Ball.
Ever since arriving at Williams, Ball has seemingly been on a mission to put herself in the conversation as one of Division Three’s best distance talents. As a true freshman, she finished 63rd at the cross country national meet. Then, last year, she peaked in the postseason and improved to 26th place on that same stage.
That latter result came after a steady regular season where the Williams standout was 13th at the Connecticut College Invite and then 5th at the NESCAC XC Championships.
The rising junior has improved by a significant margin on the track as well. Over the last year, she has dropped her 5k personal best from 17:23 to 16:55 and her 3k time from 10:07 to 9:36.
Both of those marks qualified her for the indoor national meet where she had strong showings in both events. Back in March, Ball walked away from the indoor national meet with her two highest All-American finishes to date, placing 8th over 3000 meters and 6th over 5000 meters.
With her steady upwards trajectory on both the grass and the oval, Ball projects to be a safe pick as a face that we will see towards the front of the NCAA XC Championships come November.
14. Claire Walters, Junior, Franciscan (OH)
In the fall of 2019, then-high school senior Claire Walters placed 4th at the NXN Championships, finishing only 10 seconds behind Katelyn Tuohy. However, quite a bit has changed since then. Upon entering the collegiate realm, Walters spent two years at NC State before transferring to Franciscan where she competed throughout last year.
Walters adjusted to her new environment very well this past fall, placing highly in her first few meets as a Baron. That streak of races included five top-three finishes in September and October before earning a runner-up result at her regional meet and later a 19th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.
Although many of her early-season races were not in the deepest fields, that latter performance tells us that Walters still has the ability to be highly competitive on the grass. After all, her outdoor track season was highlighted by a 4:29 mark over 1500 meters which qualified her for the national meet.
Even if some of her other races on the track were not up to par with her current preseason ranking, Walters thrives on the grass. Her ability to execute on the cross country course when it matters most is invaluable. She has clearly leaned on her experience from racing at the top end of the Division One level.
We feel that the Barons can rely on Tuohy’s former teammate as their focal low-stick star once more in the fall of 2023.
13. Maddie Kelly, Junior, U. of Chicago
It seems like Maddie Kelly experienced a considerable setback early-on during her 2022 cross country campaign, recording a DNF result in early September and then not racing until halfway through October.
In many of those instances, athletes can struggle to return to a competitive level during that academic year, let alone within the same season. Luckily, Kelly made the wait worth it.
After using the Augustana Interregional Invitational and UAA XC Championships as rust-busting meets, Kelly returned to full form to place 5th at her regional meet and later 36th at the cross country national meet.
While that latter effort was a praiseworthy result, Kelly’s track resume was so impressive that it makes her cross country season look mediocre -- which, in actuality, was obviously not the case. The U. Chicago star was one of the few D3 distance talents lucky enough to find herself contemplating which event she should run at the national meet rather than wondering about whether she is going to make it there.
With personal bests of 4:22 for 1500 meters, 9:30 for 3000 meters and 16:44 for 5000 meters, Kelly is a national-caliber talent in all of these events. Oh, and we might as well mention that she has a 2:13 (800) PR to her name.
There’s no debating that Kelly is a star. But she’s also a great runner in terms of understanding the tactics and nuance of races unfolding before her. On top of the numerous wins to her name, Kelly has raced to a runner-up finish between the DMR, the 3000 meters and the 1500 meters over the past year.
With both the fitness and the finishes at the national level to back her up, Kelly appears slated to have her best cross country season yet. If she is firing on all cylinders come this fall, then the Maroon ace could even outperform our lofty preseason ranking.
12. Caroline McMartin, Senior, Central College
It’s not hard to see why we have Caroline McMartin ranked this high. She’s both exceedingly talented and consistent. She simply doesn’t miss a beat.
McMartin performed strongly throughout last fall, winning three of her first four races. She then went on to place 20th at the Augustana Interregional Invitational, 7th at the American Rivers Conference XC Championships and 11th at her regional meet.
Although some of those placements may not seem ideal at first, McMartin mostly finished behind athletes from podium teams. The Central College star later closed out her fall campaign with an excellent 24th place run at the NCAA XC Championships.
On the winter circuit, McMartin raced herself to NCAA Indoor Championships over 3000 meters and the DMR, gaining valuable national-level experience and performing fairly well considering the strain of that double.
When the spring came around, McMartin was ready as ever for the steeplechase. She ran a personal best of 10:24 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, good for 3rd place. Not only was McMartin fantastic over barriers, but she also showed incredible range in the flat events. The Central College ace also stamped performances of 4:32 (1500) and 16:50 (5k) to pair with her flat-track converted 9:45 (3k) mark.
With such a versatile spring season and a history of strong cross country performances, McMartin seems to be trending towards a very exciting fall.
11. Genna Girard, Junior, Williams
Genna Girard is an increasingly difficult athlete to place in our preseason rankings as we enter the fall months. She has a top-tier finish at the NCAA XC Championships (15th place in 2021) that few women can boast. However, the Ephs standout failed to come anywhere close to that result at the 2022 national meet, ending up in 76th place.
Compounding that is the fact that she was the runner-up finisher over 5000 meters at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships with a laudable mark of 16:40. She was also an All-American in the 10k back in 2022, but to our knowledge, Girard didn’t race this past spring.
Ultimately, we’re viewing Girard's 2022 national meet performance as an outlier result compared to the rest of her resume. She did, after all, have a fantastic season leading up to that race with silver medal finishes at both the NESCAC XC Championships and the Connecticut College Invite.
Even so, we’re factoring in a little bit of our uncertainty to temper our excitement with this ranking. Not racing at all during the spring months and a tough national meet performance counterbalances her outstanding 5k effort from the winter and her All-American cross country result from 2021.
And when you look at Girard's 2022 lead up to the national meet, which was nearly identical and equally impressive as what came before her 2021 breakout effort (all top-five finishes), we're led to believe that she’ll return to her same dominant self in 2023.
