TSR's 2023 Preseason D3 XC Top 20 Rankings: Just Missed & Honorable Mentions (Women)

Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Jul 26, 2023
6 min read

Here we go. Our 2023 Division Three men's and women's preseason individual cross country rankings. Let's start with our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.

As a reminder, you can find our rankings rubric here. This week will be our D2 and D3 rankings. You can also check out our D1 rankings on our ARTICLES page from last week!

JUST MISSED (in no particular order)

Amelia Lehman, Junior, UW-Oshkosh

The 2022-2023 academic calendar was a major breakout year for Amelia Lehman who emerged as a nationally competitive name, specifically on the track.

But before she took to the oval, we saw the UW-Oshkosh talent put together a fairly complete fall season full of progression and consistency. After a modest 17th place finish at the Saint Olaf Invite, Lehman went on to earn top-six finishes at the Bluegold Invite (6th), the Jim Drews Invite (4th), and the WIAC XC Championships (3rd).

After placing 12th at the Northeast Regional XC Championships, the Titan ace would end her season with a 46th place finish on the national stage. That, however, was only the beginning of her rise.

Lehman would go on to run times of 4:53 (mile) and 4:26 (1500) during the winter and spring months. Not only that, but she would earn a pair of 8th place All-American finishes between those two events on the national stage.

Overall, this UW-Oshkosh distance talent has shown three-season consistency and an ongoing ability to improve. She rarely has bad races and is only now beginning to find her true potential. She is almost definitely going to be an All-American this fall and a top-30 finish on the national stage wouldn't surprise us.

However, trying to figure out what her ceiling is and how high she can go in the fall of 2023 is the real challenge. That is ultimately why we have her listed in the "Just Missed" portion of our rankings.

Riley Martel-Phillips, Senior, UC-Santa Cruz

When it comes to west coast distance running in Division Three, a handful of top runners don't often get the national attention that they deserve. Generally speaking, many of the best D3 distance programs reside on the east coast or in the midwest.

However, what Riley Martel-Phillips did last year was excellent. And truthfully, you could make an argument that she should be ranked.

Last fall, the UC-Santa Cruz veteran earned a quietly-great 11th place finish at the Augustana Interregional Invite to take down a handful of nationally competitive names. She would then go on to win the C2C XC Championships and earn a silver medal at the West Regional XC Championships.

A 41st place finish on the national stage -- the first spot out from All-American honors -- wasn't indicative of Martel-Phillips' true potential. And truthfully, you could argue that this rising distance talent had the "worst" race of her season on the national stage.

In all likelihood, she was closer to being a top-30 name.

The UC-Santa Cruz ace had a respectable year on the track, but it's clear that she is at her best on the grass. She is one of the premiere names of D3 distance running on the west coast and at the very least, she should be highlighted as a name to watch going into this season.

We still need to see her deliver a better result on the national stage, but another season excellent consistency could have her cracking our top-20 rankings in due time.

Alison Bode, Junior, St. Olaf

Gosh, this was a tough name to leave out of our top-20. In fact, we even had Alison Bode listed inside of our rankings at one point! But these are the tough decisions that have to be made each and every year -- and unfortunately for this St. Olaf runner, she has to settle for our "Just Missed" section.

On paper, Bode has a cross country resume that's "good", but maybe not "top-20" good. A pair of 8th place finishes at the MIAC XC Championships and the Northeast Regional XC Championships were highly respectable, as were a pair of 7th place finishes at the St. Olaf Invite and the Bluegold Invite.

However, on larger stages, Bode wasn't quite as potent. An 18th place finish at the Augustana Interregional Invite and a 66th place finish on the national stage were respectable results, but they left us wanting a bit more from a top-20 rankings perspective.

So why is it that we wanted to put Bode in our rankings over a few others?

Well, the answer can be found in her track performances.

This past spring, the St. Olaf standout ran a 10k PR of 35:03 at the outdoor national meet to earn 8th place All-American honors. And when you look at the names who finished ahead of her, you have to be impressed with how Bode performed on that stage. She also ran a 17:07 (5k) PR earlier that month.

There are a handful of signs that Bode can be a top-20 talent at some point this season, but we just need to see a more complete fall campaign before we put her in that range.

Vivian Kane, Sophomore, NYU

One of Division Three's biggest surprises from last fall was then-freshman Vivian Kane. The NYU star emerged as a nationally competitive name who was a top talent in a handful of loaded meets.

The current sophomore, for instance, finished 12th at Paul Short (Brown race) last fall and later went on to win the Connecticut College Invite, one of the more competitive D3 regular season meets every fall.

But after a somewhat underwhelming 10th place finish at the UAA XC Championships, Kane was absent from racing for the rest of the season. In fact, we wouldn't see her race again until the spring months.

Luckily, on the outdoor oval, Kane rallied. NYU's newest star would end up posting times of 4:29 (1500) and 16:56 (5k), eventually qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the former event.

Kane is undoubtedly an incredible talent. She thrived on major stages despite her youth and took advantage of the seasons where she was able to toe the line. But not being able to race at either her regional meet or the national meet last fall makes it hard to properly gauge this still-young talent.

And given that these are top-20 rankings, rather than top-25 or top-50, it's hard to find room for runners who have never contested those stages before.

That said, Kane is someone who could absolutely crack our top-20 list later this season as long as she is at 100%. If she is, then this spot will look a bit silly given her still-incredible upside that has (likely) not yet been fully tapped into.

Chloe Bullock, Junior, Redlands

For the most part, Chloe Bullock was a solid cross country runner throughout the entirety of the 2022 cross country season. While she never necessarily blew you away, the Redlands ace was still among the more consistent distance talents in Division Three last fall.

At the UCR 41st XC Invite, Bullock recorded an underrated 6th place finish in the "Open" race, taking down a handful of Division One runners from the state of California in the process.

From there, the Redlands standout would pick up momentum, finishing 2nd at The Waves XC Invite before finishing 10th at the SCIAC XC Championships and then 9th at the West Regional XC Championships. Bullock would then cap off her season with a 38th place All-American finish.

Analyzing Bullock's performances from last fall is pretty simple. She rarely had a poor race, but she needed to exhibit greater firepower and up-front scoring potency if she wanted to be listed in our top-20. In theory, she should be able to get to that point in 2023 with natural progression, but we need to see that first.

Katie Rector, Sophomore, Washington U.

It's hard to dislike Katie Rector. As just a freshman, this Washington U. runner showcased tremendous consistency and reliability. She delivered strong results in a handful of competitive stages and even emerged as a marquee scorer on a loaded roster.

Just look at these results: 5th at the Gil Dodds Invite, 7th at the Dan Huston Invite, 26th at the Augustana Interregional Invite, 7th at the UAA XC Championships, 8th at the Midwest Regional XC Championships and 46th at the NCAA XC Championships.

Could her result at the Augustana Interregional Invite have been a bit stronger? Sure, that may be a fair critique. And yes, you could probably have argued that Rector was capable of being an All-American last fall.

Even so, this is someone who was wildly reliable despite not having any collegiate experience before last season. The Washington U. runner competed a total of six times last fall and never fell off in a massively dramatic way.

With a valuable year of experience under her belt and a season of steady success already on her resume, Rector seemingly holds upside that could make her a top-30 runner by the end of the season. And if she follows the trajectory that most top freshmen make when moving to their sophomore years, then Rector will likely be ranked by the time we reach the postseason.