TSR's 2024 D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): Update #1

TSR Collaboration
Oct 14, 2024
9 min read

Written by Garrett Zatlin & Marissa Kuik, edits & additional commentary via Gavin Struve

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.

10. Wingate Bulldogs (-3 / 7)

After a few smaller early-season meets and an okay showing at the Paul Short Run, the Bulldogs drop a couple of spots in our rankings, largely because of their lack of a true low-stick thus far.

The first meet where Wingate seemed to run the majority of their lineup was at the Converse Kickoff, which also served as a Southeast regional preview meet. Wingate won the meet and was led by Firdaouss Hriche in 4th place and Tara Migliaccio in 5th. The rest of the Bulldogs' lineup followed close behind, finishing 8th, 11th, 13th, 14th, and 15th, showing some early promise with their depth.

In the Paul Short Run "Gold" race, the Wingate women ended up 18th overall against mostly East Coast Division One schools. Migliaccio (55th place) led the way, Mia Cabrera was 92nd, Sira Bo finished 129th, Laila Abouzaid finished 136th and Grace Burrell finished 139th.

The Bulldogs' team score ballooned in a larger field as their runners were more spread out. While Migliaccio's effort was quite solid, it still hurt the Bulldogs that they didn't have anyone further up in the field.

To be fair, Hriche recorded a DNF result in that setting. Her presence potentially could have saved them about 80 places if she finished near Migliaccio as she did at the regional preview. Ona Alonso, who joined Bo as a top-60 finisher at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, also recorded a DNF at the Paul Short Run. The Bulldogs' third returning top-60 national meet finisher, Mollie Scott, was over a minute behind Wingate's fifth scorer at the Paul Short Run.

Wingate's scorers will almost certainly never be more spread out than they were in that setting. Even so, the Bulldogs are missing national-level firepower at the front of their lineup, and that may limit their upward mobility in this range of our rankings.

9. Lewis Flyers (0 / 9)

The Flyers came into this season with a lot of upperclassmen, which was a big reason why this squad was in our rankings. And wouldn't you know it, the veteran status of many of these women is shining through as they are stepping up and racing well against other prominent D2 teams.

The first official meet where Lewis fielded most of their top runners was at the National Catholic Invitational, where they finished 3rd in the team standings, led by Hannah Smrcka (13th place) and Grand Valley State transfer Sarah May (15th). The Flyers' final three scorers finished close together in 20th, 23rd and 24th, showing off a nice spread.

Their first real test, however, came at the Lewis Crossover this past weekend. With a well-balanced lineup, Lewis finished runner-up behind Colorado Mines. May again finished 15h, but this time she led the way. Abbey Kozak (18th), Caroline Pacer-Ryan (22nd) and Smrcka (29th) finished in relatively short order.

The Flyers' biggest flaw in that setting was their fifth runner finishing a little farther back, as Naylah Allen placed 40th, but Lewis still finished comfortably as the runner-up against a national field at their home meet.

The Lewis Crossover was a showcase of tremendous depth, with different names stepping up and filling in when needed. We'd like to move this team up in our rankings, but we already had high expectations for the Flyers, and there weren't many tangible struggles for the teams ahead of them.

If Smrcka and May turn into full-fledged frontrunners, then Lewis may have even more room for upward mobility as a top-10 team.

8. UC-Colorado Springs Mountain Lions (-2 / 6)

Kate Hedlund's return to racing was a refreshing sight to see, especially because her lineup-bolstering performance at the Louisville Classic made it feel like she was never gone despite a delayed start to this season.

After a dominant win for the Mountain Lions at their home meet without Hedlund, this team ventured to Louisville to see how they would fare against some other Division One and Two teams. Racing in the "Gold" division, lead scorer Anna Fauske ended up 10th overall with Hedlund close by in 13th.

Then came the rest of the scoring brigade with Emma Montoya crossing the line in 49th, Kaya Pillivant finishing 56th, and Molly Breuer and Madison Brosig in 61st and 63rd place, respectively.

That collective performance was definitely better than how UCCS performed last year at the same meet, even if they finished in the exact same place as a team (7th). They defeated some strong Division Two teams, including Lee (Tenn.), but lost to a deceptively good lineup from West Texas A&M (which was the only D2 school they've lost to).

The Mountain Lions have enviable depth, with many different names stepping up to the plate in Louisville who were not in the top-five at the UCCS XC Rust-Buster. Plus, with Hedlund back in action, UCCS has one of the best 1-2 punches of any team in the nation.

Sure, they move down in our rankings, but that's only because of a conference rival's upset result elsewhere and the emergence of the only D2 team to beat the Mountain Lions.

7. Western Colorado Mountaineers (-5 / 2)

The team taking the biggest drop in our first rankings update is Western Colorado. Even though Leah Taylor has been nothing but stellar for this squad, the absence of Allison Beasley (TSR #3 in our preseason individual rankings) and some other veterans has weighed on the Mountaineers.

Western Colorado showed some early promise with a dominant win at their home dual meet, led by Taylor, Peyton Weiss and Lauren Willson sweeping the top-three spots. However, at the Chile Pepper XC Festival, the Mountaineers ended up a slightly disappointing 6th place in the top section. They lost to a very strong team in CSU-Pueblo, but it was still an unexpected loss to another RMAC team.

Once again, Taylor shined, finishing 4th overall. Then came Willson in 17th place, but after that, the scoring started to rack up with Weiss (64th), Haley Wood (73rd) and Emma Kjellsen (83rd) rounding out the top five. Clearly, not having Beasley as a part of the lineup has hurt the Mountaineers. Gretchen Slattum, who has also been a consistent scorer, did not race in Arkansas either after appearing in their opener last month.

The ThunderWolves beat the Mountaineers convincingly, but a better placement from Weiss and the presence of Beasley and Slattum would have had Western Colorado finishing closer to the Division One squads who comprised the top-three teams at the meet.

Without Beasley, a spot in the back half of the top-10 is far more likely for Western Colorado than the podium placement that they enjoyed last year and likely looked forward to this fall. Fortunately, this high-upside veteran team holds a high floor and still has over a month for its full lineup to get right.

6. CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves (+2 / 8)

The Chile Pepper XC Festival is the only meet so far this fall where we've been able to get a somewhat accurate gauge of how good the ThunderWolves are. And for the most part, the CSU-Pueblo women showed us that they are a possible threats for the podium in November.

Helen Braybrook (10th) continues to be one of the more underrated low-sticks in the NCAA while Leah Keisler (18th) had a surprisingly awesome race. Margot Thomas-Gatel (24th) offered highly valuable scoring as expected, but it was Jadyn Herron (34th) and Camille Renou (36th) who closed out this top-five fairly quickly.

All of that led to a 4th place finish behind three Division One teams (Texas, LSU and Arkansas) that each have realistic shots at qualifying for this year's national meet.

The CSU-Pueblo women seemingly have a great balance of firepower and solid backend scoring. Yes, their depth is somewhat limited, but that's to be expected on a roster as small as theirs. At the very least, the ThunderWolves showed us that they have enough talent to at least be outside contenders for a podium spot a month from now.

5. West Texas A&M Buffaloes (Unranked)

After a few strong early-season rust-busters, the West Texas A&M women took to the Louisville XC Classic to test themselves against much larger and stronger fields. On that stage, the Buffaloes emerged with a promising 4th place showing, finishing as the top D2 team in the field.

Naomi Addo (18th) has been a very pleasant surprise as a newfound low-stick while Julie Lafare (22nd) and Kalkidan Vincendeau (27th) have been out-of-nowhere lead scorers as well. But perhaps the wildest part in all of this is that Sarah Koomson didn't score for this team in Louisville. Instead, it was Eliette Chaput (38th) and Elise Leveel (44th) who closed out West Texas A&M's top-five.

Now, admittedly, Koomson recorded a DNF, so it's hard to say where her fitness is actually at. However, our previous TSR #1 runner hasn't exactly blown us away in her early-season rust-busters and her ongoing less-than-encouraging results leave us wanting more.

However, the reason why we've boosted the Buffaloes this high is because they could get even better if Koomson returns in top form. If that happens, then it's very likely that this group will emerge as a podium team in November.

4. Augustana (SD) Vikings (+1 / 5)

At first glance, you may look at this one-spot improvement for the Augustana (SD) women and ask yourself, "Wait, how does that make any sense?"

That's a fair question given that the Vikings just faded to 4th place at the Lewis XC Crossover this past Saturday. However, the Augustana women did not field Aubrey Surage or Amanda Overgaauw. The former is an All-American and the latter was a top-80 finisher at last year's national meet.

If Surage and Overgaauw finished in the middle of Augustana's scoring group in 17th and 18th place (and that's a very realistic scenario), then the Vikings would have scored 80 points and come within somewhat decent range of Colorado Mines.

Yes, we'll admit, we still need to see Amanda Overgaauw actually race this season, but we've already seen Surage compete (and hold her own) at the Roy Griak Invitational a few weeks back. With three women (Ella Bakken, Ashley Overgaauw and Eleni Lovgren) going 12-16-25, respectively, in the overall results this past weekend, we're encouraged about the current standing of this team.

3. Grand Valley State Lakers (0 / 3)

The Grand Valley State women did not field any of their top All-American contenders at the Lewis XC Crossover this past weekend, making it challenging to move the Lakers up or down in our rankings.

The absences of Lauren Kiley, Abby Olson, Abby VanderKooi and Allie Arnsman left other runners such as Maggie O'Malley (20th), Madison Ebright (30th) and Annika Sandman (33rd) to overtake the lead scoring duties on Saturday. And while those ladies aren't expected to be low-sticks moving forward, they should offer decent scoring reinforcements.

Since our preseason rankings, Abby Olson has also emerged as a possible low-stick, securing a big-time runner-up finish at the Spartan Invite at Michigan State. However, at the same time, we have yet to see Lauren Kiley compete at all.

We don't have a perfect understanding of this team right now, but they also haven't given us any reason to move them in our rankings at this point in time.

2. Colorado Mines Orediggers (+2 / 4)

A comfortable team victory at the Lewis XC Crossover this past weekend isn't all that surprising when you realize that neither Grand Valley State nor Augustana (SD) ran full lineups.

Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge looks like a star after her convincing individual win on Saturday. Behind her, Grace Strongman (6th) looks like she's still an All-American-caliber standout. With Margaux Basart (14th) and Lexi Herr (17th) offering great scoring value, it would have taken a true collapse at their fifth scoring spot to lose this race.

Yes, Ashleigh Loe (38th) was a bit further back, but she still held her own. In fact, she was the best fifth scorer in the entire field! The Orediggers may not be quite as potent as they were last fall, but given the limited firepower of other podium contenders, that doesn't seem to matter much.

1. Adams State Grizzlies (0 / 1)

The Adams State women put together a great performance at the Joe Piane Invite at Notre Dame a couple of weeks back. There, they secured a 7th place finish against a large handful of the NCAA's top Division One programs.

Ava O'Connor (18th) further proved that she can be a true low-stick star regardless of the season while Elena Carey (45th), Maggie McCleskey (57th) and Precious Robinson (64th) bolstered the middle portion of this lineup. With Fiona Hawkins (77th) staying within striking distance, we felt pretty good about the Grizzlies' team effort, although it was hard to compare them against a field that featured mostly Division One squads.

It should be noted that neither Tristan Spence nor Vienna Lahner competed in South Bend, Indiana that weekend. If they had competed, then Adams State almost certainly finishes a few spots higher. Their possible returns could/will make the Grizzlies largely untouchable.