TSR's 2024 D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings (Women): Update #3

Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Nov 4, 2024
15 min read

NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at a singular meet or (eventually) at the 2024 NCAA XC Championships. Click here to learn more about our ranking criteria (which was published in 2023).

KEY

(Unranked):

Was not ranked in our last update.

(#/#):

First number indicates how much the team has moved in the rankings.

The second number indicates where the team was ranked in our last update.

25. Florida State Seminoles (-8 / 17)

It was a tough outing for the Florida State women on Friday as the Seminoles faded to an unexciting 7th place at the ACC XC Championships.

Agnes McTighe (9th) ran very well while Bieke Schipperen (16th) had a respectable day of her own. Of course, we knew that FSU had a great 1-2 punch going into this past weekend.

It was their supporting cast, however, that was going to ultimately dictate where this team placed in the final standings. And while Elizabeth Barlow (32nd) had a quietly solid effort, the team's final two scorers faded to 52nd place and a brutal 85th place.

The 'Noles have done enough this season to remain as a nationally ranked team. The ACC could also be argued as the deepest conference in the NCAA this fall. Even so, the backend portion of this team has given us very mixed results this season and it feels like we don't always know what we're going to get out of Florida State each time that they toe the line.

24. Boston College Golden Eagles (Unranked)

The Boston College women had a rough outing at Pre-Nationals a few weeks back. There, they settled for 20th place overall behind a handful of teams that still reside in our "Just Missed" section.

However, at the ACC XC Championships, the Golden Eagles put together a nice rebound performance. That comeback effort was led by Abby Loveys (20th) who was fine earlier this fall, but clearly had her best race of the season on Friday.

Admittedly, the rest of this team was a good ways back, although their remaining scorers all packed together to limit an excessive point scoring. The combination of Roshni Singh, Aoife Dunne, Abby Lewis and Yasmine Abbes went 35-41-43-46, respectively, with Molly Hudson taking 49th place for good measure.

The limited firepower of this team is a somewhat glaring issue. Loveys is solid, but she hasn't necessarily been a low-stick for this team in 2024. Even so, the rest of this scoring group at their very best gives Boston College a fairly high floor. We also think Singh can be better in the future.

Although this has been far from a pretty season, it's important to remember that BC is now 2-1 against Florida State this season after beating them at the Nuttycombe Invite as well.

23. Florida Gators (-5 / 18)

A 3rd place finish at the SEC XC Championships wasn't what we thought the Florida women were capable of. While the Alabama were the clear favorites, we felt that the Gators should have finished ahead of everyone else, including the runner-up team, Tennessee.

No one is surprised that Hilda Olemomoi earned silver on the individual side, but seeing the scoring contingent of Bethan Morley, Tia Wilson, Allison Wilson and Gabrielle Schmidt all finish within three seconds of each other (going 28-29-31-32, respectively) was very odd.

We're fairly confident that women like Tia Wilson and Allison Wilson can be better in the future. And given how close all of those runners were, we can't help but wonder if this was an intentionally conservative effort.

The Florida women have yet to have their best race of the season. That could still happen, but until then, we had to move the Gators back in our rankings.

22. Tennessee Volunteers (Unranked)

This has truthfully been a tough season for the Tennessee women. They faded back to a brutal 25th place finish at Pre-Nationals after a shrug-inducing runner-up effort at the Gans Creek Classic.

However, it should be noted that the Volunteers didn't have a couple of their best women for Pre-Nationals. Those absent from their lineup were Rachel Sutliff and Caroline Lyerly, two crucial high-impact scorers.

Thankfully, those two women returned to racing this past Friday, giving Tennessee a far more complete lineup. Ashley Jones (6th) had what was arguably her best race of the season while Jillian Candelino (18th), Sutliff (20th) and Lyerly (21st) offered tremendous scoring stability.

Admittedly, the Vols' final scorer faded to 38th place, although that's likely a backend gap that can be closed deeper into the postseason. And remember, this is a team that knows how to perfectly peak for the regional and national meets (as shown by last year's performances). Right now, they seem to be picking up momentum at just the right time.

21. Minnesota Golden Gophers (+1 / 22)

A 5th place run for Minnesota at the BIG 10 XC Championships may not seem ideal, but it's hard to fault them for losing to Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and Penn State. Those first three teams had all proven to be better than the Golden Gophers this season while the latter squad was roughly on par with Minnesota as far as talent is concerned.

Ali Weimer (3rd) continues to have an incredible breakout season, giving her team electric low-stick performances each time she toes the line. We did think that Emma Atkinson (24th) would have been a little closer to Weimer, but she still held her own.

However, with the latter three scorers in this lineup all fading to outside of the top-35 (but all staying within the top-42), Minnesota was unable to keep up with a Penn State team that had essentially matched the Golden Gophers at each of their scoring spots.

We truthfully didn't learn anything new about Minnesota. We're confident that they'll be better in a larger field, although their backend contingent will need to close the gap between them and Atkinson.

20. Penn State Nittany Lions (+3 / 23)

The overall scoring structure of Penn State at the BIG 10 XC Championships was very predictable. Florence Caron (5th) was a great low-stick, Hayley Kitching (22nd) continues to be an underrated secondary scorer and the rest of their top-five did enough to get by with each woman cracking the top-41.

We figured that the Penn State women were just as talented as Minnesota and they proved us right, defeating the Golden Gophers by 12 points.

We have a pretty good understanding of how good Penn State is as a team. However, a TSR #20 ranking may be their ceiling. The Nittany Lions clearly need more firepower. But unless someone behind Caron has a huge breakout race, it's tricky to see who will provide that kind of scoring potency on the regional and national stages.

19. Furman Paladins (+1 / 20)

As expected, the Furman women easily cruised to the win at the Southern Conference XC Championships. The Paladins went 1-2-3-5-8 in what was actually one of their less dominant conference title victories.

Bethany Graham still isn't back, but at this point, we don't expect to see her in this lineup for the remainder of the season.

18. Oklahoma State Cowgirls (+3 / 21)

It was no surprise to see the Oklahoma State women take 4th place at the BIG 12 XC Championships this past weekend. However, being only 17 points off of a very good Utah team, while also finishing ahead of Texas Tech and Colorado, felt like a step in the right direction for the Cowgirls.

The lead scoring trio of Josphine Mwaura, Sivan Auerbach and Victoria Lagat went 15-16-17, respectively, in the overall results. And while none of those women offered tons of firepower, they did provide collectively great scoring value.

Colleen Stegmann (27th) was pretty solid and although Jinane Mahi (34th) was a bit further back, we were pretty happy with how complete Oklahoma State's lineup was. That, paired with the fact that a few other teams in our rankings dropped a few spots, gives the Cowgirls a nice boost into our top-20.

17. Wisconsin Badgers (-5 / 12)

The Wisconsin women finished in 3rd place at the BIG 10 XC Championships just like we had predicted. However, they barely fended off 4th place Penn State by a single point.

We knew that this team was depth-centric, but having just one runner crack the top-25 (Leane Willemse in 15th place) was truthfully concerning. Sure, the rest of their lineup packed together and quickly closed out their scoring, but the Badgers were expected to do that higher up in the results.

This team is built for larger fields, but that doesn't make up for their lack of an upfront identity. We're confident that Ruhly and Cunningham can be better in the future, but Wisconsin could have been better than what they showed us on Friday.

16. NC State Wolfpack (-5 / 11)

We'll admit, a 5th place finish at the ACC XC Championships after putting two women in the top-three of the individual results is a brutal outcome for NC State.

Unfortunately, this team no longer looks like they're in the podium conversation this season. Grace Hartman's individual victory was huge and Hannah Gapes' bronze medal effort was monumental in terms of validating her talent. Together, the Wolfpack seemingly have one of the best 1-2 punches in the country.

Sure, Ellie Shea (29th) had a sneaky-good day given her inexperience, but no other woman crack the top-58 spots is concerning. And while this was an uncharacteristically poor day for NC State, an improved version of them at the national meet still doesn't put them on the podium and their chances of a top-10 result seem low.

We're not willing to write off a Henes-led group from that latter possibility just yet, but this was certainly not the result that the Wolfpack wanted on Friday.

15. Gonzaga Bulldogs (0 / 15)

The Gonzaga women comfortably secured the title at the West Coast Conference XC Championships with Rosina Machu leading the way (and earning individual gold). Their fifth runner was a bit further out than we thought they'd be, but not by enough for that to be a major point of concern.

Defeating a sneaky-good Portland team as easily as they did has to feel good, but we didn't learn much about the Bulldogs this past weekend.

14. Virginia Cavaliers (+2 / 16)

All of the sudden, the Virginia women look like a much more exciting and interesting team. Sure, their 4th place finish at the ACC XC Championships was somewhat expected, but having star veteran Margot Appleton return to action (via a 7th place finish) is huge for the prospects of this team.

Behind Appleton was Jenny Schilling (14th) who gave this team a great 1-2 punch. Then there was Camryn Menninger (33rd) had one of her better races of the season, offering decent stability at the middle point of this lineup.

Admittedly, seeing UVA's final two scorers fade to 47th place and 51st wasn't ideal. Even so, those backend efforts were just enough to pull ahead of an NC State team that struggled even more with their depth.

But what leaves us encouraged about this result is that sophomore Gillian Bushee didn't run. She was the 26th place finisher at the Nuttycombe Invite earlier this fall. If she returns, then she can be a fringe low-stick who can cut-off a heavy chunk of points for UVA at the national meet.

13. North Carolina Tar Heels (+1 / 14)

The North Carolina women actually tied with Stanford for silver, but took 3rd after losing to the Cardinal on the tie-breaker. Even so, the Tar Heels should be plenty happy with their performance.

Fatima Alanis (5th) had one of the best races of her career while Brynn Brown (8th) continues to show off her reliability as a low-stick. Together, UNC had an excellent 1-2 punch. The backend scoring trio of Eva Klingbeil (28th), Taryn Parks (36th) and Sydney Masciarelli (44th) didn't necessarily set the course on fire, but they did a nice job ensuring that the firepower of Alanis and Brown wasn't diluted.

The UNC women are quietly picking up momentum. Matching Stanford on a championship stage has to give them a nice boost in confidence as they move into the final two meets of their season. They still need more scoring help at the backend of this lineup, but the pedigree and experience of the women on their roster has us feeling optimistic about their upcoming postseason endeavors.

12. Stanford Cardinal (+7 / 19)

After a fairly underwhelming showing at Pre-Nationals, the Stanford women rebounded nicely at the ACC XC Championships, snagging silver by defeating North Carolina on a tie-breaker.

Both Zofia Dudek (10th) and Sophia Kennedy (11th) mostly delivered on their low-stick expectations. However, it was their backend group that was noticeably better compared to their last race.

Riley Stewart (27th) offered great scoring stability than last time while Julia Flynn (34th) and Nicola Hogg (39th) actually had sneaky-good efforts relative to expectations. Those latter two women are the real heroes of this lineup.

The ongoing absence of Amy Bunnage is brutal. With her, this team would have easily won the ACC title and put themselves back in the podium conversation. However, without a third true low-stick, the backend of this lineup has been given a ton of responsibility.

11. New Mexico Lobos (-2 / 9)

To no one's surprise, the New Mexico women secured gold at the Mountain West XC Championships this past weekend. On that stage, they defeated a quietly-solid Boise State team by 22 points.

Admittedly, we thought that the Lobos could have won their conference title by an even larger margin. Even so, nothing about their result as a team or as individual scorers surprised us. The New Mexico women mostly move back in our rankings due to the performances of others rather than anything that they've done.

10. Utah Utes (-3 / 7)

We truthfully though that, despite West Virginia boasting better low-sticks, the Utah women would come out ahead of the Mountaineers at the BIG 12 XC Championships. But instead, WVU was flat-out better than the Utes at every point of their scoring group.

Erin Vringer (8th) and Mckaylie Caesar (11th) held their own, but their low-stick scoring wasn't enough in a field where firepower mattered (a lot). Annastasia Peters (18th) had a decent race given the season that she's had while Katarzyna Nowakowska (22nd) was fine as well.

Morgan Jensen (29th) truthfully faded further back than we were expecting her to, but this team as a whole needed to be better if they wanted to defeat West Virginia.

By comparison, the Utes likely have a greater margin for error given their depth and experience. However, the Mountaineers were just flat-out better and the Utah women just didn't have their best race on Friday. They'll be stronger in the future, but for now, they'll be placed at TSR #10 in our rankings.

9. Alabama Crimson Tide (-4 / 5)

The Alabama women did their job at the SEC XC Championships, securing a somewhat comfortable win over Tennessee and Florida. Doris Lemngole's individual victory was hardly surprising and it was great to see Brenda Tuwei (4th) further validate herself as a low-stick star.

However, Pheline Cheruto (15th) was further back than we thought she would be. It also didn't help that the Crimson Tide's fifth scorer faded all the way back to 33rd place. That backend gap, paired with the ongoing absence of Joy Gill, makes the idea of Alabama being a podium team seem less realistic.

Make no mistake, it's certainly still possible for the Crimson Tide to land on the podium in a few weeks time. However, that will require Cheruto emerging as a star-caliber low-stick and Franziska Drexler closing down on the scoring gap that opened up in front of her on Friday.

8. Providence Friars (+2 / 10)

7. Georgetown Hoyas (-1 / 6)

If you haven't already, be sure to read Part Two of our "First Thoughts" article. For the sake of avoiding repetition, here is how we broke down the results of these two teams...

"For the most part, the Providence low-sticks and the Georgetown low-sticks matched our expectations on Friday. Alex Millard (2nd) was outstanding, having the best race of her still-young NCAA career. That firepower was paired with respectable outings from Kimberley May (6th) and Shannon Flockhart (8th). The Hoyas, meanwhile, were led by Chloe Scrimgeour (3rd), Lucy Jenks (5th) and Melissa Riggins (7th), a top-three that continues to be fantastic this fall.

Coming into this race, Georgetown was narrowly favored. However, a quietly great effort from Providence's Laura Mooney (10th) put the Friars in a very strong position to compete for the win.

But then Georgetown's depth came through.

The quintet of Barrett Justema, Charlotte Tomkinson, Olivia Morganti, Fiona Max and Almi Nerurkar packed together to take spots 13-14-15-16-17, respectively. And while the performances of those latter three women may not have produced a scoring result, they DID push back Niamh O'Mahony (18th), the final scorer for Providence -- and that's a bigger deal than you may think.

If O'Mahoney had defeated Max and Nerurkar, then Providence and Georgetown would have tied (with the tie-breaker going to the Hoyas). And if she had beaten Morganti, then Providence would have won the title.

In other words, the Hoyas won BIG East gold not necessarily because of their ultra-talented low-sticks, but because of their non-scorers. That is not something that you see every day."

6. West Virginia Mountaineers (+2 / 8)

We were admittedly shocked to see the West Virginia women place 4th at Pre-Nationals a few weeks ago. As such, we wanted to see them in one more nationally competitive race before we ranked them any higher than TSR #8.

We figured that the Utah women would make things tricky at the BIG 12 XC Championships in their battle for 2nd place.However, that wasn't the case.

Instead, the Mountaineers thrived this past Friday. Ceili McCabe (1st) and Joy Naukot (3rd) have an argument of being the best 1-2 punch in the country right now. Their elite firepower was complemented by strong results from Sarah Tait, Madison Trippett and Emily Bryce who went 12-15-20, respectively.

While WVU's low-sticks may capture all of the attention, it's their backend group who are the real MVPs of this team. Tait was fantastic as a high-impact middle-lineup scorer. Meanwhile, Trippett and Bryce have raised the floor of this team considerably.

At the end of the day, West Virginia secured a comfortable runner-up effort to defeat Utah by 26 points. They truthfully don't have any margin for error when looking beyond their top-five, but as currently constructed, this team can absolutely make it onto the podium this fall.

5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (-1 / 4)

Despite low-stick ace Emily Covert having an "off" day and fading outside of Notre Dame's top-five, the Fighting Irish were still able to emerge victorious at the ACC XC Championships by six points.

Siona Chisholm (6th) was great as expected, but it was the rest of this lineup that offered excellent stability and value at each of their respective scoring spots.

The combination of Mary Bonner Dalton, Erin Strzelecki, Gretchen Farley and Isabel Allori went 22-26-30-31, respectively, to give Notre Dame the win. And while none of those efforts individually stood out (with the possible exception of Dalton), the collective scoring prowess of that group was simply unmatched by other title-contending teams.

Despite winning the ACC title by a narrower margin than expected, I actually thought this was an encouraging race for Notre Dame. We're confident that Emily Covert will be better in the future and seeing their depth come together as effectively as they have has also been subtly huge for the women of South Bend.

4. Washington Huskies (-1 / 3)

The Washington women lost to Oregon at the BIG 10 XC Championships this past Friday...and truthfully, the final team scores weren't all that close.

The Huskies' top-three of Chloe Foerster, Julia David-Smith and India Weir ran fairly well, going 6-9-10, respectively. And while that scoring potency wasn't as strong as Oregon's top-three, the Huskies' depth seemingly had a good chance of keeping things tight in the team battle.

However, Washington's next three runners crossed the line in spots 17-18-20. And frankly, even if they did run up to their full potential, it was still unlikely that they would have beaten Oregon.

The Washington women are almost definitely better than what they showed us on Friday, but this was arguably their "worst" performance of the season. Their depth will likely show up in bigger fields, but the need for greater firepower feels apparent if this squad wants to land on the podium.

3. Oregon Ducks (+10 / 13)

There are likely a number of people saying, "I told you so," after seeing the Oregon women trounce Washington and company en route to the BIG 10 team title this past Friday. We did, after all, have Oregon ranked outside of our top-10 this season and we had them finishing runner-up for this race in our predictions.

Of course, our intentionally conservative projections with the Ducks was due to the lack of certainty that we've had with this team for the last few months. We entered this season with A TON of questions about Oregon, all of which needed to be answered favorably if they were going to be a podium team.

But throughout these fall months, the Ducks have done just that. And the only question remaining before we could rank them at a podium position was, "What is the status of Silan Ayyildiz?" She had not raced up until this past Friday.

Thankfully, Ayyildiz proved to us this past weekend that she is fit and in top form as she went 1-2 at the BIG 10 XC Championships with teammate Maddy Elmore close behind. That lethal firepower was paired with a fringe low-stick result from Mia Barnett (7th) who continues to have a sneaky-good season.

However, what really stunned us was seeing Klaudia Kazimierska (11th) and Anika Thompson (12th) have the best cross country races of their lives. Their phenomenal backend scoring efforts easily gave Oregon the BIG 10 crown and a 27-point margin of victory over Washington.

Coach Shalane Flanagan clearly wanted to wait until the postseason before she showed all of her cards. Now, in a year where the podium conversation has been incredibly crowded, we have no choice but to introduce a new favorite into the fold.

Of course, Oregon's chances of landing on the podium will largely depend on whether or not Kazimierska and Thompson can replicate their recent performances on the national stage.

2. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (0 / 2)

Northern Arizona swept the BIG Sky XC Championships despite resting a few key women. None of that is surprising, but the return of Elise Stearns is huge! She seemed fit enough to produce a strong time and earn a runner-up finish. Her reintroduction to this lineup could very easily put the Lumberjacks back in front of the BYU women come the national meet.

1. BYU Cougars (0 / 1)

The BYU women didn't have a great outing at the BIG 12 XC Championships, but they still easily defeated a podium contender in West Virginia en route to the title.

Lexy Halladay-Lowry (5th) had a fine day, but we thought that she could have competed for the win (or at least runner-up honors). Thankfully, both Riley Chamberlain (6th) and Taylor Rohatinsky (7th) had huge days, each offering excellent scoring potency that we didn't expect them to produce (especially the latter).

Carmen Alder (10th) had a fine outing while Destiny Everett (13th) closed out the scoring with an underrated effort. Both her and Rohatinsky likely had the best performances on this team relative to expectations.

Jenna Hutchins had an "off" day, but it's best to get that rough performance out of the way at her conference meet rather than on the national stage. The same can be said for Taylor Lovell (24th) and Nelah Roberts (28th), two women who we also thought could have been better on Friday.