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TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 25 Rankings: #25-21 (Women)
- Marissa Kuik
- Jul 31, 2024
- 5 min read
Written by Marissa Kuik, edits and additional commentary via Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
25. Ashley Reeck, Junior, Western Washington
You could hardly tell that Ashley Reeck was racing in her first national meet on the grass last year as she powered to a 30th-place All-American finish.
Reeck was nowhere near the national meet two years ago, let alone close to being an All-American. Her improvement just between those two seasons makes us confident that she deserves the small bump in projection up to our top-25 rankings.
A complete fall 2023 campaign featured a win in her opener, an 18th-place run at the Lewis Crossover, a 4th-place effort at the GNAC XC Championships and a 5th-place finish at the West Regional XC Championships. Those results suggested that Reeck had All-American potential, but she saved her best result for last to leave nothing to question.
Reeck continued to improve going into the track season, running massive PRs in the 5k, 10k, and the 3000-meter steeplechase. In the latter event, Reeck ran a personal best time of 10:34, qualifying her for the outdoor national meet.
Though her 17th-place finish in the preliminaries was not totally ideal, Reeck should be able to build on that momentum. She has improved with each season and was consistent at a high level last fall, making her a hard name to pass up for our preseason rankings.
24. Savannah Ackley, Senior, Cedarville
A consistent competitor and performer for Cedarville, Savannah Ackley has had her fair share of races on the national stage.
She's been consistent in her improvement at the NCAA Championships, placing 111th at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships, jumping into the ever-devastating 41st position at the 2022 national meet and then finishing 38th last year.
She gained further NCAA Championships experience by racing at both the indoor national meet and the outdoor national meet in 2023, but didn't find the same luck in 2024 despite winning the G-MAC 5k and 10k titles this spring. However, Ackley also wasn't as strong on the grass for much of her junior year (placing 3rd at the G-MAC XC Championships after winning the conference title in 2022) before improving at the national meet.
Even if the regular season does not go as planned, Ackley seemingly finds a way to put herself in the mix for an All-American finish. This could be her year in terms of really making a splash in Division Two by placing in the top-25. We need to see it first before boosting her in our rankings, but Ackley feels like she has one of the higher floors among women in this range of our rankings because we know that she'll show up and deliver when it matters most.
23. Aubrey Surage, Senior, Augustana (SD)
One of the more pleasant surprises of the 2023 cross country season for the Augustana (SD) women was the emergence of Aubrey Surage as the team’s low-stick. She helped lead the squad in pretty much every race, culminating with a 34th-place finish at the cross country national meet.
In a season that felt like a rebuilding year, the Augies still placed 7th as a team -- and Surage was a major part of that!
She didn't necessarily race above her skis at the NCAA XC Championships, but saved her best race for last. Consider that she placed 4th at the Augustana Twilight XC Meet, 6th at the Griak Invitational, 6th at the NSIC XC Championships and 12th at the Central Regional XC Championships. Throughout that streak, she looked like a solid lead scorer, but maybe not an All-American favorite. That feels like a more replicable formula than emerging from total obscurity in the final race of the season.
Surage continued to improve her stock on the track, running two PRs, including 16:51 in the 5k (indoor) and 35:00 for 10k. She also nearly made the podium in the 10k at the outdoor national meet, finishing 10th overall. That helps give credence to our belief that her breakout cross country campaign was no fluke.
Surage’s improvement throughout her time in Division Two definitely points to her grit and determination, but it also leaves us with ample reason to believe that she will continue to progress this fall. She may even help her team inch up towards the podium once again.
22. Peyton Weiss, Rs. Sophomore, Western Colorado
One of the biggest reasons why Western Colorado reached the podium at the 2023 cross country national meet was Peyton Weiss’s impressive performance when she came out of nowhere to finish 26th overall.
Weiss had been a solid varsity runner for the Mountaineers throughout the season, an achievement unto itself for a freshman, but that postseason performance was wholly unexpected. Leading up to that point, she was 28th at the RMAC XC Championships and 29th at the South Central Regional XC Championships before taking down many of the women who beat her in those settings.
Her track season may not have gone quite as well depending on who you ask, but she showed enough flashes of stardom to make us confident that she may well improve upon that 26th-place national meet finish from last fall. Weiss reached the indoor national meet and ran a 4:57 mile PR in the preliminaries while also helping Western Colorado to a 4th-place DMR finish.
We know that Weiss is a gamer when it comes to the biggest meets of the season and she has a lot to build on from the 2023-24 academic year. Given that she's still just a sophomore, Weiss' upside appears to be as great as virtually any woman in our rankings.
21. Rosie Fordham, Senior, Alaska Fairbanks
As the fall month come around, we always look forward to the return of Rosie Fordham given that the University of Alaska Fairbanks does not compete in indoor or outdoor track and field.
While these are cross country rankings, momentum from the previous track season can help gauge where an athlete may be coming into the new fall season. That, of course, makes it somewhat difficult to decide upon a ranking for Fordham given that she lacks 2024 results.
However, what we do know is Fordham knows how to compete regardless of the venue and she finds herself in the top-five of most races. Last fall, she won her season opener and the San Francisco State Invitational while also placing 3rd at the WWU Bill Roe Classic and runner-up at the GNAC XC Championships.
Those results were quite similar to what she produced in the lead-up to the NCAA XC Championships in both 2021 and 2022. To that point, it felt that Fordham's one drawback was that she lacked an All-American accolade despite coming relatively close in her first two tries.
She reversed that trend last fall, finishing 36th at the 2023 cross country national meet with a 20:40 (6k) PR. That was the last we saw of Fordham and we have no reason to think she's not starting to put it all together in the postseason.
As a senior, her ceiling may not be as great as some of her contemporaries, but we know that at the very least, she's almost guaranteed a top-50ish finish on the national stage. That's not a given even among ranked individuals. That, and the fact that her postseason progression has been linear at the NCAA XC Championships -- 61st in 2021, 43rd in 2022 and 36th last year -- lends credence to the idea that this Aussie is among the most consistent D2 stars.
