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TSR's 2024 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Women): #8 Emory Eagles
- Gavin Struve
- Sep 6, 2024
- 7 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.
Emory enters the 2024 cross country season with enviable continuity from what was a top-10 team last year. The Eagles return two veritable low-sticks and two other top-80 finishers from the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.
Armed with that information, you may be surprised that we opted to place them in the same spot where they finished at last year's cross country national meet.
That being said, this program is new to this high level of success, at least relative to their top-10 peers.
Keep in mind, our team rankings aren't necessarily intended to be a projection or reflection of national meet success, but rather a wholistic assessment of where the team is at that juncture of the season (or before or after it).
Emory wasn't in the top-10 picture entering the national meet last fall. The Eagles deserve praise for putting it all together when it mattered most, but they finished the 2023 season at TSR #10 rather than TSR #8 (where they finished at the national meet) because we weigh more than one result.
With that in mind, this ranking is a small boost from the lofty perch upon which they finished last season.
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Emory's 2023 season opener was an opportunity to unveil their new low-stick star: University of Arizona transfer Brigid Hanley. At the Kennesaw State Stan Sims XC Opener, Hanley looked predictably comfortable racing against Division One competition as she led the way for her team with an 8th-place result.
None of her teammates' performances from that meet are particularly relevant because they came against larger in-state schools like Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State and Georgia State. The Eagles placed 4th in that setting, beating the latter, and moved up the East Coast for the Converse Kick-Off in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
It was there that Emory first gained some winning experience last fall, narrowly edging out Anderson (SC) atop the team standings. Hanley looked like a genuine low-stick at the Division Three level, finishing runner-up, and the depth behind her was solid as Luna McCauley and Katherine Kennedy joined her in the (backend of) the top-10.
Cameron Gupta and Natalie Sandlow landing in the top-15 was enough for the Eagles to pull out a four-point victory.
Next, Emory ventured further north to again compete against Division One teams in the Paul Short "Brown" race. Hanley held her own, placing 5th. That proved to be an invaluable low-stick effort, as the Eagles' second scorer (Jenna Daly) finished in 66th place.
Freshmen Madison Tiaffay (86th) and Gupta (114th) took on middle-lineup scoring roles while Sandlow (141st) closing their team scoring fairly quickly. Those respectable backend efforts were enough to help Emory finish a strong 10th place in a 43-team field.
Emory's seesaw between wildly competitive and modest meets continued as they won the Rowan Interregional Border Battle. Hanley went 1-2 with teammate Liesl Scherrer. With Daly, Gupta and Sandlow going 7-12-16, respectively. The Eagles were the class of the field and their lineup in that setting appeared to be fairly complete.
Their robust racing schedule really rounded into form from there once they took to the UAA XC Championships. Hanley (3rd) and Scherrer (10th) were once again the lead scorers, as the latter emerged as a fringe low-stick.
Without anyone else in the top-20, however, Tiaffay, Gupta and Lily Taylor landing in the top-30 didn't give the Eagles enough scoring potency to contend with the likes of NYU, U. of Chicago or Washington U. As a result, they finished a somewhat distant 4th place at their always-deep conference meet.
Thankfully, Emory's fortunes changed from there. We don't think it's hyperbole to call the South Regional XC Championships a revelatory race for the Eagles. That's when they introduced star rookie Elizabeth Csikai to the front of their lineup.
Hanley, Csikai and Scherrer went 2-3-4 in that order. With Tiaffay and Sandlow joining them in the top-20, Emory tied with Lynchburg for the team title, emerging at a level above the rest of the region.
They only got better at the NCAA XC Championships. Hanley was excellent, placing 8th, but it was Csikai (22nd) who was actually the most impressive relative to expectations. She gave her team a second high-octane lead scorer.
Scherrer was among the better third scorers in the field, finishing one spot shy of cracking the top-50. Tiaffay's inexperience didn't hold her back from an excellent result either; she finished 77th.
The bad news for Emory was that their final three runners finished outside of the top-200. The good news is that didn't send them plummeting down the team standings too far, as they went from 6th place through four scorers to 8th place when the final results were tabulated.
All told, the Eagles enjoyed a wildly successful end to their season.
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This team was pretty reliant on freshmen beyond Hanley last season, so it seems a near-certainty that Emory will improve given that they return five of their top six runners from the national meet (all but fifth scorer Natalie Sandlow and seventh runner Lily Taylor).
Even so, it's not a lock that Elizabeth Csikai and Madison Tiaffay will continue to run well beyond their years on the national stage.
We've only seen the former race twice on the grass as a collegian, but she showed few if any flaws on either occasion. Csikai didn't blow anyone away on the oval, but PRs of 4:49 (1500), 10:04 (3k) and especially 17:12 (5k) were respectable for a first-year talent.
We placed her at TSR #12 in our individual preseason rankings, which signals that we expect her to improve with a freshman-to-sophomore leap. Even so, we still need to see a bit more from Csikai to stamp her as a bonafide superstar.
Tiaffay is a bit of a different case since she has a larger portfolio of cross country races. However, she also really raised her game in the postseason and saved her best result for last. Tiaffay's springtime PRs of 2:13 (800) and 4:57 (mile) don't necessarily validate her aerobic prowess, but they indicate her talent is certainly that of a top-100 name entering this fall.
There's not much more we can say about Brigid Hanley, who had an altogether excellent first season at the D3 level. Sure, she wasn't quite as elite on the oval and finished competing before April, but we saw enough positives to list her at TSR #4 for this fall.
Assuming Hanley operates at a similar level to how she did last year, her scoring will have minimal impact (in a good way) on Emory's team score and there's not much more room for her to improve.
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It's conceivable that Liesl Scherrer could be a backend scorer for this team in 2024, and what a luxury that would be considering that she's listed in the "Honorable Mentions" section of our individual preseason rankings and ran 17:08 over 5000 meters earlier this year.
It's not exactly ideal to lose program veterans like Sandlow and Taylor. But given how far back Emory's fifth runner was from the rest of their top-four last year, they should be able to replicate that scoring presence in the months ahead.
Cameron Gupta is the most likely candidate to be this team's fifth runner in 2024. She was in the team's top-five more often than not a year ago and is someone who we expect to finish comfortably inside the top-200 at the upcoming NCAA XC Championships after placing 236th as a freshman last fall.
Fortunately, the lineup options don't end there. Jenna Daly returns for her senior year after serving as a top-five runner multiple times before sitting out the postseason. She still has November racing experience, too, from competing at the 2022 cross country national meet.
Luna McCauley also competed for the Eagles at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships and served as a scorer in one of her two efforts last fall. She and Daly offer veteran backend depth for this team and may be the final two women in the varsity lineup.
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Emory was a top-25 team at the cross country national meet in back-to-back years before last season. However, Hanley's move from the PAC-12 to the UAA effectively moved this group and their exciting freshmen from 16th place (where they would have finished if you had removed Hanley's scoring) to 8th place on the national stage.
She figures to be their driving force again this fall, but it's the rest of the scorers who will dictate whether the Eagles can replicate or build upon that surprise top-10 finish.
We're banking on Gupta (or one of Daly or McCauley) offering more value in that fifth spot this fall, but it would also be a boon if Csikai and Tiaffay can validate (or even better) their breakout rookie results from the national meet.
Considering how much continuity they have, we weren't exactly thrilled about slotting Coach Linh Nguyen's team in the same spot that they finished at last year's NCAA XC Championships. Even so, other top teams around the country returned just as much production, so it may be hard for the Eagles to see much improvement.
Reaching the podium is a realistic best-case scenario for this team, but the Eagles will likely be relying on three somewhat unproven underclassmen scorers to drive them there. Even relative to other preseason top-10 squads, however, it feels like the early success that those women enjoyed last year gives Emory simultaneously a high floor and a high ceiling entering 2024.
