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TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): #2 Western Colorado Mountaineers
- Marissa Kuik
- Sep 12, 2024
- 7 min read
Written by Marissa Kuik, edits & additional commentary via Gavin Struve & 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 certain occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
A team returning every scorer from their national meet lineup is always an exciting development. And when that lineup previously finished on the podium, it creates even more excitement for what they can do a year later.
That's the situation that Western Colorado finds themselves in after securing the final podium spot at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. They enter the 2024 fall campaign with a squad full of veterans as well as some younger talent, all of whom had impressive track campaigns earlier this year.
As such, this team looks poised to not only return to the podium, but perhaps to shoot for their first top-half podium finish in program history.
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Western Colorado always starts their season with their home meet, the Mountaineer/Cowboy Invite. This year, they competed against Colorado Mesa and Fort Lewis, coming away with an easy win.
Allison Beasley won the race, with then-freshman Peyton Weiss coming in 3rd, Gretchen Slattum placing 5th, Emma Kjellsen finishing 6th and Lauren Willson (another redshirt rookie) closing out the scoring in 7th. Even without Leah Taylor, one of the low-sticks for this squad, the Mountaineers fared just fine in their rust-buster debut.
Western Colorado then headed down to Arkansas to race at the Chile Pepper XC Festival, a meet which featured a much more top-heavy field. There, they competed in hot and humid conditions, but still prevailed for a 3rd-place finish behind only Arkansas and SMU.
Beasley led the way with an 8th-place finish and Taylor made her seasonal debut with a nice 14th-place result. The back-half of the lineup was comprised of Willson (30th), Slattum (35th) and Jayda Nix (40th). Sure, the final three scorers were further back, but they finished close to each other as Western Colorado easily beat every D2 team in the field and most D1 teams.
It wouldn't be fair to say the Mountaineers were untested entering the RMAC XC Championships (among D2 competition), but that first meet of the postseason was by far their biggest up and to that point.
Yet, the Mountaineers looked composed against their conference rivals, finishing 3rd overall once again. Beasley finished an impressive 2nd overall, Taylor came in 11th and then the rest of the squad finished close together. Nix (26th), Weiss (28th) and Willson (32nd) closed out the scoring.
Once again, their pack of third through fifth runners was tight, ensuring that the Mountaineers’ score stayed low. They were well behind Adams State and Colorado Mines, teams which held far more extensive firepower, but were comfortably ahead of CSU-Pueblo and UC-Colorado Springs.
The South Central Regional XC Championships almost felt like a repeat of the conference meet, with this team once again finishing 3rd with very similar placements for their top-five runners. Although, the names changed for the third through fifth scorers.
Beasley crossed the line in 3rd, Taylor finished 14th and Willson, Weiss and Slattum went 25-29-40, respectively. Slattum was a little further back than usual, but Western Colorado's depth shone through with different names stepping up when needed.
The Mountaineers finished their season with a similar scoring pattern that led to perhaps their best result of the year.
Beasley squeezed into the top-10 at the cross country national meet, and Taylor was not too far behind her in an impressive 13th place. Weiss, the redshirt freshman, was even more impressive relative to expectations by earned a huge 26th place finish to become an All-American. Slattum (54th) and Willson (78th) performed admirably to round out the scoring.
With two low-stick stars, an elite middle-lineup result and respectable backend support, the Mountaineers snagged a podium spot with relative ease as they finished nearly 70 points ahead of the 5th-place team.
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Considering that every name who we mentioned above returns with more experience, there is little reason to believe that this squad won't improve in 2024.
The only departure from Western Colorado's 2023 NCAA XC Championships lineup is Julie Van De Walle, who was their seventh runner as a freshman last fall. While the 182nd-place national meet finisher would have been a nice long-term developmental piece, her absence is unlikely to hurt the Mountaineers in the short term.
Allison Beasley has been the headliner for this program in recent years and is coming off of another great track season. She ran a PR of 10:12 in the 3000-meter steeplechase and won the RMAC title in that event. While she had an unfortunate incident at the outdoor national meet and was unable to finish, Beasley should be in top form this fall.
Simply put, we know what to expect from this three-time cross country All-American who has improved at each passing NCAA XC Championships. We anticipate that progression will continue given that Beasley is TSR #3 in our preseason individual rankings.
Leah Taylor, meanwhile, has always been more of a middle distance specialist on the track, scoring many of her All-American finishes in the metric mile. However, her biggest improvements on the oval in 2023-24 came in the longer events. She ran a head-turning time of 16:17 (5k), contested five events between the 2024 indoor and outdoor national meets and picked up two individual All-American honors already this year.
Her consistency as an elite miler, as well as her improvement in the longer events, suggests that Taylor (TSR #11) will close the gap even more on Beasley and could make a run for a top-10 finish herself. That, in turn, would theoretically give Western Colorado one of the most formidable 1-2 punches in all of Division Two this fall.
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Beyond their two focal stars, the rest of the squad’s future looks quite bright as well.
That starts with Peyton Weiss, who had a very strong finish to her first collegiate cross country campaign last fall. Weiss was solid throughout the season, but didn't look like an All-American until she comfortably became one on the national stage.
However, the fact that Weiss continued her momentum onto the track bodes well for her prospects of replicating her NCAA XC Championships effort. She qualified for the indoor national meet in the mile and ran 2:10 for the 800 meters and 4:30 in the 1500 meters.
Weiss was a bit up and down on the track as well, but she was an underclassman and still flashed the talent needed to help prop up a podium hopeful. At the very least, we know that she has enough raw talent to be an upper-echelon talent and that's going to be necessary if this team is going to live up to this preseason ranking.
Lauren Willson ran similar PRs to Weiss this year, including 2:12 (800) and 4:30 (1500), and was able to qualify for her first outdoor national meet in the metric mile. If she can close the gap on Weiss and become a top-50 runner this fall, then the Mountaineers' team score will continue to shrink. Thankfully, her progression on the oval leaves us more optimistic than not that she'll be able to do exactly that.
Emma Kjellsen also found high-level track success in the middle distance events earlier this year. Her recent PRs of 2:10 in the half-mile and 4:28 in the metric mile put her right on par with Weiss and Willson. She qualified for the latter event at the outdoor national meet.
Kjellsen didn't race often on the grass last fall, but she was the Mountaineers' fourth scorer at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships (finishing 99th). We could certainly envision her filling the varsity spot left open by Van De Walle's absence. In fact, there's a good chance that she can be (and maybe even will be) better than Van De Walle in 2024.
The veteran of the group, Gretchen Slattum, also saw improvements on the oval. Her 54th-place finish at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships was a big step forward in her third cross country national meet appearance. She has improved in the season finale each of the last three years and could be an All-American if she continues at that rate.
A new 5k PR of 17:19 indicates that, at the very least, Slattum should be favored to once again be a scorer over the coming months. She seemingly has a high floor and offers great stability as a possible low-stick if all goes well for her this fall.
Jayda Nix wasn't as flashy as her teammates on the track, but she was the Mountaineers' sixth runner at last year's cross country national meet as a redshirt freshman. She's another promising piece for this team who can build further experience in the back-half of the lineup and help collectively make up for Beasley's and Taylor's looming absences in 2025.
Like Kjellsen, Emma Berg raced in Western Colorado's 2022 cross country national meet lineup (placing 165th). She's a "break glass in case of emergency" option, especially if she is able to naturally improve like we think she can.
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The Mountaineers' tightly packed backend scoring and depth were a real strength last fall, and they'll again be buoyed by a pair of multi-time All-American low-stick stars.
Frankly, it's hard to find any holes or flaws in this lineup.
With an ideal combination of veterans and youngsters, the Mountaineers look to have an optimal balance for both immediate and long-term success. Make no mistake, though, this season appears to be Coach Jen Michel's team's best chance for the foreseeable future at earning a top-half podium result.
