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TSR's 2024 Preseason D3 XC Top 20 Rankings: #15-11 (Women)
- Kevin Fischer
- Aug 2, 2024
- 5 min read
Written by Kevin Fischer, additional edits & commentary via Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
15. Haley Schoenegge, Sophomore, Vassar
As a true freshman last year, Haley Schoenegge had a largely excellent cross country campaign.
She was immediately one of the top runners on a national-caliber team, finished 3rd at the Liberty League XC Championships behind St. Lawrence’s Allison Sibold and RPI’s Olivia Pisacano, and became one of just nine freshmen to record a top-100 national meet finish (although only barely given she placed 100th).
But even though Schoenegge showed immense promise in the fall, that was nothing compared to what she did on the outdoor oval.
After finishing one spot outside of All-American honors in the mile at the indoor national meet, she posted a regular season in which she ran 4:25 (1500) and 16:32 (5k) in the spring. From there, she took to the 1500-meter final at the outdoor national meet and simply blew everyone away with a 4:19 PR for a nine-second victory! Coming back in the 5k, she finished a highly impressive 4th place.
Schoenegge is clearly the best returning miler in Division Three when you factor-in recent success, proven fitness, tactical poise and remaining upside. However, there are still some questions as to how well that turnover-based event will translate to the grass where she is not as proven.
Even so, the all-around fitness of this Vassar star has improved considerably since last fall, and her 5000-meter performance from the spring suggests that her aerobic ability is right there with many of the best distance runners in the country. Yes, this ranking does require some projection, but we think it's plenty justified.
14. McKayla Felton, Senior, UW-Stout
After a somewhat uninspiring month in September of 2023, McKayla Felton chose the right time to really start clicking: the Augustana Interregional. There, she finished 16th place against an incredibly stacked field.
Felton went on to record two highly promising 4th-place finishes at the WIAC XC Championships and the North Regional XC Championships. Those results set her up well for the national meet where she was comfortably an All-American and nearly cracked the top-20.
Coming into this fall, Felton will likely have a ton of confidence knowing how competitive she was in October and November of last year. She also has a reasonable amount of momentum from her efforts on the track.
Felton qualified for the indoor national meet in the 3k. And while she failed to reach that stage on the outdoor oval, she still dipped under the 17-minute mark over 5000 meters and under the 11-minute mark in the 3000-meter steeplechase. Those represented noticeable improvements from previous years.
We know that cross country is ultimately where Felton is most dangerous and that's what these rankings are gauging. She peaked beautifully last fall and we have reason to believe that her lead up to this year's national meet could be even better. The UW-Stout runner is in a great position to eventually come away from this season in the top-half of the All-American ranks, especially if she replicates her postseason excellence from 2023.
13. Kayla Aalpoel, Junior, George Fox
Even though she only raced once on the track this year, we still have reason to be very high on Kayla Aalpoel.
Her resume on the grass is one of the most formidable of any returner in the country this year. Coming into her third collegiate cross country season, she has already earned All-American honors twice, boasting a 32nd-place national meet finish in 2022 and a 25th-place finish on the same stage in 2023.
While that's only a marginal year-over-year improvement on paper, the improvement throughout Aalpoel's complete body of work between her freshman and sophomore seasons was more substantial. Last year, she placed 9th at D3 Pre-Nationals, was 2nd at the Northwest Conference Championships only behind Riley Buese and settled for 5th place at a tough West Regional XC Championships.
There may be some concerns about Aalpoel's availability given that she missed out on most of the 2024 track seasons. Even so, if you give her the benefit of the doubt there, then her talent and ability on the cross country course are undeniable.
Aalpoel already has one of the higher baselines for success among women in this lofty range of our rankings and we believe that she can make improve further upon her national meet finishes in 2024.
12. Elizabeth Csikai, Sophomore, Emory
As a true freshman last year, Elizabeth Csikai did not race until the postseason. That decision seemingly paid off, however, as she recorded a big 3rd-place finish at the South Regional XC Championships and followed that up with a downright stunning 22nd-place NCAA XC Championships finish!
The way that we saw Csikai immediately burst onto the scene was indicative of her great deal of pure potential to become a future superstar.
In the winter, Csikai put together a solid 17:12 mark over 5000 meters, but that wasn’t enough for an indoor national meet berth. Her outdoor track campaign was a little underwhelming relative to expectations, but we still have full faith that she can be something special.
We're admittedly ranking Csikai based on a (very) small amount of results, but it's hard not to be high on her given what she achieved with so little runway into her collegiate career. She seems healthy and primed for a sophomore-season statement.
We know what we saw from this Eagles ace last fall and if she is able to race throughout the season, then the pieces are all there for her to potentially flirt with a top-10 finish on the national stage as part of one of the best one-two punches in the nation along with Brigid Hanley.
11. Elle Marsyla, Junior, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
If the Hanley-Csikai 1-2 punch isn’t the best D3 duo in the country right now, then that’s because of Elle Marsyla and Riley Capuano. Even after the departure of Natalie Bitetti, the Athenas still look excellent from a team perspective.
Marsyla will be a big part of that as she returns from a campaign where she finished a highly impressive 5th place at D3 Pre-Nationals, was 2nd at both the SCIAC XC Championships and the West Regional XC Championships and took a very strong 27th place finish at the cross country national meet.
That was a complete season without any bad races and she has just completed an excellent season on the track where she put together marks of 17:09 (5k) and 35:30 (10k), competing at the outdoor national meet in the 10k.
Given her consistency last fall and her progress this spring, it would be surprising not to see Marsyla take another step forward to cement herself as one of the elite distance talents in Division Three this fall.
Among women who were already comfortable cross country All-Americans in 2023, we think that Marsyla is in line for one of the biggest improvements. After all, her regular season efforts suggested that she was already better than the 27th-fastest cross country runner in D3 a year ago.
