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TSR's 2024 Preseason D3 XC Top 20 Rankings: #10-6 (Women)
- Gavin Struve
- Aug 3, 2024
- 6 min read
10. Lauren Iagnemma, Junior, Case Western
Lauren Iagnemma showed flashes of significant potential in her rookie campaign two years ago, placing 11th at the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational and 16th at the UAA XC Championships. Still, that wasn't a proper warning of what was to come.
After a relatively quiet 2023 track season, Iagnemma ramped up through the fall. It was tough to gauge her efforts in smaller meets throughout September, but she clearly stepped up her game as the meets grew in importance closer to the postseason.
This Spartan star placed 11th at the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational and 8th at the UAA XC Championships, but what really signaled her emergence was a runner-up result at the Great Lakes Regional XC Championships.
Teams put different levels of effort into regional meets, so it was tough to gauge the true merit of that performance. Still, along with her previous two runs, it signaled that Iagnemma had strong All-American odds.
Not only did Iagnemma live up to that expectation, but she blew it out of the water with an 18th-place effort at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships despite being the only Case Western representative at the national meet.
She went on to post some competitive marks and finishes on the oval earlier this year, but it's clear that she's at her best in the fall months. We expect Iagnemma will be a force earlier and more often throughout this upcoming season. And while she might not be as battle-tested as some of her ranked peers, there's little to suggest that she won't improve upon her finish from last fall.
9. Morgan Uhlhorn, Sophomore, NYU
Whether Morgan Uhlhorn's small sample size is helping or hurting her placement in these rankings is difficult to say. What we do know is that she was excellent as a freshman throughout last fall, peaking at the NCAA XC Championships with a result that wowed us, but didn't necessarily shock us to the point where it seemed unbelievable (which is a good thing).
Uhlhorn was likely sharpened by facing Division One competition in her first couple of outings and training alongside another burgeoning D3 star in teammate Grace Richardson.
So by the time she faced her first true test at the Connecticut College Invitational, she was more than ready to respond with an eye-opening 8th-place finish to beat out women like Allison Sibold, Claire Semerod and Paige Phillips. Every woman who placed ahead of her in that setting went on to become a top-50 finisher at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, and the only one in that group who wasn't an All-American was a more experienced teammate.
Uhlhorn was even better at the UAA XC Championships, placing 4th, before cruising through the regional stage and finishing 15th at her first cross country national meet! That landing spot placed her as the nation's second-best true freshman and the second scorer on a top-half podium team.
Here's where this gets complicated. Uhlhorn has raced just once since last November, running a solid but hardly awe-inspiring mark of 17:27 over 5000 meters. It feels somewhat reassuring that her lone track effort came in mid-April, rather than early in the indoor track season, and we don't necessarily have reason to believe she's injured.
With some of the highest upside in the nation, in part because we've seen so little of her, it will be fascinating to see how Uhlhorn runs in her return this season. Nonetheless, she was frankly too great throughout last fall (not just in the regular season or at the national meet, but both) to not move into our top-10.
8. Faith Duncan, Junior, Wilmington (OH)
Go ahead and pencil Faith Duncan in as our pick for the highest-finishing first-time cross country All-American three months from now.
It's hard to imagine that there's anyone who hasn't yet achieved those honors who will bring more firepower to the table than Duncan this fall. After an extended break from competition, this former Mississippi State Bulldog was elite in her first two track seasons at the Division Three level.
Duncan ran a considerable amount of middle distance races this past winter, running nothing longer than 3000 meters, which is the distance she ran at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She came away with a 7th-place All-American finish in that event -- and we didn't have to wait long to find out where her spring focus would lie.
Duncan ran a 16:34 (5k) PR in her first race on the outdoor oval last spring, won a pair of conference titles and then proceeded to win NCAA gold over 5000 meters in May. Sure, she was an All-American candidate going into that latter race, but few saw Duncan as a viable pick to be a national champion. What's more, she took down all-time D3 talents Grace Hadley and Fiona Smith en route to her NCAA title victory.
Now, we have to re-evaluate where Duncan should be entering this fall considering that she has only run two collegiate cross country races (both three years ago) to our knowledge. Fortunately for this Wilmington ace, the championship racing distance in the fall is just 1000 meters (or 20%) longer than the event she just won an NCAA title in. Needless to say, we're confident that Duncan will quickly carry over her long distance track success to the grass.
7. Hannah Preisser, Junior, Carleton
Hannah Preisser's story as a collegian really began, more or less, with her 15th-place All-American finish at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships. At that meet, she also emerged as the second scorer on a podium team.
Simply put, Preisser had thrust herself onto the D3 map almost instantly.
The Carleton ace matched that latter finish over a similar distance (5k) at the NCAA Indoor Championships a few months later and fared similarly over 10,000 meters (17th) at the 2023 outdoor national meet. All told, Preisser had a wildly successful freshman year and she followed it with a strong encore.
Preisser competed early and often last fall, notably placing 4th at the Running of the Cows, 2nd at the Blugold Invitational, 6th at the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational, 2nd at the MIAC XC Championships and 3rd at the North Regional XC Championships.
Those were all comparable results and a small step up from what she produced in 2022. However, Preisser again raised her game on the national stage. In her season finale, Preisser finished 14th at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, running nearly a minute faster than she did on the same stage a year prior.
No, Preisser didn't become an individual title contender or improve considerably from her freshman to sophomore year (she placed 17th over 10,000 meters at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships as well), but she has established a very high floor for herself.
Even if Preisser doesn't improve, we can take solace in knowing that this ranking should still be within 10 spots of her eventual 2024 NCAA XC Championships finish (which it's not necessarily intended to project). With her rare combination of relative youth and high-end reliability, we're not sure how many D3 women you would select over Hannah Preisser if you were starting a program.
6. Riley Buese, Senior, Lewis & Clark
Last fall was Riley Buese's coming out party in terms of announcing herself as a top national talent. She differs from Hannah Preisser and Morgan Uhlhorn in the sense that she had a mostly quiet first two years of collegiate competition.
But Buese's relative obscurity disappeared when she finished 2023 as a top-half cross country All-American. We didn't receive much indication that kind of rise was coming even as recently as last September or October as she raced mostly in smaller meets before finishing 17th at the NCAA XC Championships.
Buese was arguably even better once 2024 began, placing 7th over 5000 meters at the indoor national meet and then taking bronze in the 10k at the outdoor national meet. She also took advantage of her school's Pacific Northwest location and relative proximity to big meets to run PRs of 16:34 (5k) and 35:05 (10k).
Whatever your opinion was of Buese at this time last year, she's completely redefined her standing in the national picture. Her rapid progression gives her an argument to be the most likely first-time entrant into the top-10 at the 2024 NCAA XC Championships.
