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TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): Just Missed & Honorable Mentions
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- Sep 3, 2024
- 6 min read
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.
Just Missed (in no particular order)
Cedarville Yellow Jackets
We'll admit, the Cedarville women were a tricky team to gauge and analyze throughout last fall. The Yellow Jackets had truthfully underwhelmed during the 2023 regular season, placing 17th at the Louisville XC Classic and falling to Tampa at the UAH Chargers XC Invitational.
However, the postseason rally that we saw from this group is what ultimately caught our attention. They easily won the G-MAC title over a solid Walsh squad and they went on to secure a huge 10th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.
Being able to peak for the postseason is something that should be recognized and rewarded. Of course, the average ranking of this team last fall didn't necessarily place them at TSR #10. Now, as the Cedarville women enter the fall of 2024, they'll be without their top veteran low-stick, Hannah Rhem, who is now out of eligibility.
Thankfully, Savannah Ackley is a very strong low-stick talent in her own right and we're confident that she'll be able to replicate the scoring value of Rhem. The return of Corinne Lynch and Abby Drosdak, two highly underrated middle-lineup scorers, are also key names in this lineup.
Not having Rhem or their now-departed backend contributor, Naomi Herman, is not going to be easy to handle. Thankfully, women like Audrianna Enns and Aubrey Harrington showed brief moments of promise last fall. As long as they make decent enough improvements, then the backend of this lineup should at least be serviceable.
Make no mistake, this team can still be a top-10 squad in 2024. However, they'll need to tie up a few loose ends before we feel comfortable enough placing them in that range.
Colorado Christian Cougars
It's the start of a new era at Colorado Christian as Coach Jon Poag has turned over the keys of the program to new coach, Evan Verbal. And while plenty of attention will be on the top-heavy men's group, this year's women's team has a chance to be as equally competitive.
Remember, this is a group that earned a huge 5th place result at last year's Lewis XC Crossover meet and then went on to secure an 8th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships!
Of course, not having their top-two scorers from last year's national meet, Molly Miller (48th) and Paige Tack (96th), is going to put the Cougars in a position where they are better than they were last year. The same goes for losing their fifth scorer, Zanzie Demco, who was 147th at the national meet.
Thankfully, the support pieces that CCU does return -- Lucy Pidek and Alysia Wagner -- were quietly great at last year's national meet. And although the Colorado Christian women do lose plenty of firepower via Miller and Tack, they still return Shannon King. She was the team's top scorer last fall after she placed 10th at the Lewis XC Crossover, but she also recorded a DNF result at the national meet.
It will admittedly be a stretch to imagine that the ladies from Lakewood, Colorado will be just as good as they were last year. However, given the core that they do bring back, their drop-off shouldn't be as severe as last year's results would suggest.
Chico State Wildcats
If someone insisted on ranking the Chico State women inside the top-10 portion of our rankings, then we wouldn't argue with them...too much.
The Wildcat women are almost certainly going to be better than they were last year. Of course, trying to figure out exactly how much better they'll be is the biggest challenge. That's simply because the ladies of Chico State had a relatively unexciting racing schedule throughout last fall.
Sure, they did win the 2023 San Francisco State Invite, but CUI was just two points behind. The CCAA XC Championships resulted in a solid win over Stanislaus State, but it was fairly obvious that the Warriors were having a reloading year.
Settling for 3rd place at the West Regional XC Championships behind Western Washington and Biola was "just okay," although a 13th place result at the national meet was likely Chico State's best team performance of the fall months.
The return of Della Molina and Iresh Molina, two cross country All-Americans, is huge for a team that should have a ton of experienced depth. Unfortunately, not having Jacqueline Cascione to bridge the two ends of this lineup is far from ideal.
Thankfully, the rest of this lineup proved throughout the season that Cascione didn't always need to be a scorer for this team to find success. Although, in the postseason, she was probably the most clutch non-low-stick on Chico State's roster.
Jaclyn Denham, Sophie Pelletier, Hannah Wirth and Grace Dupuis are better backend contributors than some may realize. But given that all of them are long-time collegiate veterans, it's hard to know how much higher their ceilings will reach in 2024.
Like we said earlier, if someone wanted to listed the Chico State women as a top-10 squad, we would completely understand why. But with a limited schedule and questions about the overall ceiling of this group, we opted to place them in our "Just Missed" section...for now.
U-Mary Marauders
The NCAA Division Two cross country landscape has changed a good bit in recent years. Sure, traditional powers are still excellent, but new teams are beginning to find a foothold at the top of the D2 ranks.
The U-Mary women, however, have quietly continued to be a strong, nationally competitive group year-in and year-out -- even when we didn't think that they would be.
The Marauders settled for 19th place at last year's NCAA XC Championships. And while that may not have been their best result of the 2023 season, it was still somewhat on par with the rest of the fall campaign that they had put together.
Prior to the national meet, the only nationally competitive D2 teams that U-Mary had been tested against were Augustana (SD), Winona State and Pittsburg State. You could also argue that Wayne State (MI) belongs in that conversation.
But with the exception of the latter, the U-Mary women fell to each of those programs each time that they faced them. That also includes the national meet.
The Marauders now return all of their scorers from last year's group. And the best part? Four of those returning scorers will be seniors while the other returning scorer will be a junior. In theory, that means that U-Mary's floor is going to be incredibly high this fall -- there shouldn't be too many instances where they truly struggle in 2024.
We know that Alyssa Becker is an All-American-caliber runner when she's firing on all cylinders and U-Mary's two biggest hurdles throughout last fall were two teams who were comfortably among the top-10 ranks in Division Two (Winona State and Augustana).
It feels way more likely than not that the U-Mary women will be a top-15 group this fall. But can the Marauders also raise their ceiling in the same way that they'll seemingly raise their floor? The answer to that question will ultimately determine whether or not this group cracks the top-10 portion of our rankings this fall.
Fort Lewis Skyhawks
The Fort Lewis women only finished in 20th place at last year's cross country national meet. They had only two runners place among the top-160 in that race and they'll lose one of those women (who was an All-American) in 2024.
They also had to settle for an 8th place result at the Lewis XC Crossover. That was a strong effort, but nothing that suggested that this team was going to be a ranked squad by us.
So...how is it that this team barely missed the top-10 portion of our rankings?
Well, this group returns everyone from last year's squad except for Katie Heck, their 22nd place All-American finisher from last year's national meet. Not only that, but five of those six returners were listed as underclassmen last fall on TFRRS, meaning that the natural growth and remaining upside on this team is arguably the best in all of Division Two.
Despite the loss of Heck, the Skyhawks will undoubtedly be better in 2024 than they were in 2023. Their depth is seemingly plentiful and they still retain an All-American low-stick in Linda Weigang who was just a freshman last year.
Of course, natural growth and development can only take a team so far. And to say that Fort Lewis will barely miss cracking our top-10 after losing their top low-stick does seem like a stretch. However, the introduction of Hannah Hartwell, the 5th place D2 All-American over 10,000 meters this past spring, means that the Skyhawks may have their low-stick replacement for Heck.
Knowing that, you can now see why the ladies from Durango, Colorado could emerge as the next under-the-radar D2 distance power in the coming years.
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)
Biola Eagles
Lee (Tenn.) Flames
Dallas Baptist Patriots
Winona State Warriors
Pittsburg State Gorillas
Missouri Southern Lions
West Texas A&M Buffaloes
