TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D1 XC Top 25 Teams (Women): #25 California Baptist Lancers

We are aware that certain conferences and universities will not be competing this fall due to ongoing concerns surrounding COVID-19. However, for the sake of content, we have constructed these rankings as if a regular cross country season will happen.

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There aren't many teams in the NCAA that are as unique as the California Baptist women. A program that is transitioning from the Division II level to the Division I level won't be eligible for NCAA championship competition until the 2022-23 academic calendar, but that doesn't make them any less competitive or talented.

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Top-tier recruiting and a heavy emphasis on finding athletes from overseas has led to the Lancers emerging as a top-ranked cross country squad, specifically last year.

They comfortably took home the win at the 2019 Roy Griak Invitational over national qualifying squads such as Columbia and Minnesota, and later took home a pair of wins at the Arturo Barrios Invitational as well as the WAC Championships.

Last year's team thrived by utilizing outstanding pack running and exceptional depth. Between the WAC Championships, Arturo Barrios Invitational and Roy Griak, the CBU women never had a top-five time spread that exceeded 30 seconds. That's an outstanding example of a squad that can run as a team on a consistent basis.

However, both Anett Somogyi and Fruzsina Ladanyi will no longer be with the team as they have run out of eligibility according to TFRRS. Somogyi was CBU's top scorer on multiple occasions throughout last year (specifically at Roy Griak) while Ladanyi was a key top five contributor for the Lancers throughout last fall.

On the other hand, the team is still retaining Emilie Renaud who showed glimpses of low-stick potential throughout the 2019 season. She could be a great front-runner for this group, but will still need time to develop her fitness.

Renaud will likely be flanked by teammates Anna Mate and Andrea Kolbeinsdottir who were great supporting pieces for CBU's varsity squad throughout last year. Had it not been for the Coronavirus, these three returners would have entered the 2020 cross country season as upperclassmen with a valuable year of experience under their belts.

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However, the obvious question that we have is what will the rest of this cross country lineup look like?

Naturally, you could point to the likes of Erin Blink and Karolina Iznerowicz who stepped in as the team's bottom two varsity runners last year. It's probably safe to assume that they would have returned this fall to compete at the varsity level.

The team also has a plethora of youngsters, such as Marta Afonso and Wiktoria Klebowska, who could be found further down in the results of the meets that we have already mentioned.

Those women are all fine options, but what really gave this California Baptist team enough of a boost to be ranked was their incredible 2020 recruiting class. Instead of breaking down and analyzing each individual, we opted to bring you a full list of their distance recruits and their respective accolades...

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Beatriz Rios (Braga, Portugal)

• 4:36 (1500)

• 9:48 (3k)

• 6:52 (2k steeplechase)

• Represented Portugal at the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival

Greta Karinauskaite (Siauliai, Lithuania)

• 4:37 (1500)

• 17:21 (5k)

• 6:43 (2k steeplechase)

• Represented Lithuania at the 2019 European U20 Cross Country Championships, placing 40th

• Represented Lithuania at the 2018 European U20 Cross Country Championships

• Represented Lithuania at the 2018 European U18 Athletics Championships

• Represented Lithuania at the 2017 European U20 Cross Country Championships

• Represented Lithuania at the 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival

Emilia Mikszuta (Gdansk, Poland)

• 4:33 (1500)

• 9:51 (3k)

• 6:46 (2k steeplechase)

• 10:38 (3k steeplechase)

• Represented Poland at the 2019 European U20 Cross Country Championships, placing 54th

• Represented Poland at the 2019 European U20 Athletics Championships in the 3000m Steeplechase

Helen Pacurariu-Nagy (Sfantu-Gheorghe, Romania)

• 9:54 (3k)

• 17:31 (5k)

• Represented Romania at the 2019 European U20 Cross Country Championships, placing 44th

Klaara Leponiemi (Akaa, Finland)

• 17:04 (5k)

• 35:08 (10k)

• Represented Finland at the 2019 European U23 Athletics Championships in the 10,000m

Kamile Vaidziulyte (Siauliai, Lithuania)

• 4:27 (1500)

• 9:37 (3k)

• Represented Lithuania at the 2019 European U23 Cross Country Championships

• Represented Lithuania at the 2018 European U23 Cross Country Championships

• Represented Lithuania at the 2017 European U20 Cross Country Championships

• Represented Lithuania at the 2016 European U20 Cross Country Championships

• Represented Lithuania at the 2015 European U20 Cross Country Championships

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On paper, none of these women are expected to be immediate superstars, but they do offer a ton of options when it comes to CBU crafting the best possible lineup. These incoming distance talents add even more depth to an already deep team and it would be surprising if they couldn't fill in the two holes left behind by Anett Somogyi and Fruzsina Ladanyi.

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Now, admittedly, we have a few minor criticisms for this team which is what ultimately pushed them back to the #25 spot in our preseason rankings.

Outside of Roy Griak, the level of competition that the CBU women faced last year was relatively unexciting. Sure, wins over Columbia and a Hasz-less Minnesota group was a great indication of their overall talent, but it would have been nice to see them race at a meet like Nuttycombe or Pre-Nationals.

This is also one of the few top teams in the NCAA that doesn't exactly have a star low-stick that they can lean on throughout a season. Emilie Renaud could be a great low-stick one day while other women on this team certainly have breakout potential. Still, the lack of top-tier scoring potency doesn't help CBU standout among other high-level programs.

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With that said, you have to be excited about the future of this team. The coaching staff continues to thrive when it comes to recruiting overseas and they have developed an underrated amount of depth which consistently produces respectable results.

On top of that, their roster is incredibly young and a lot of these women still have sky-high potential. They may not have a clear-cut low-stick or an All-American candidate right now, but they certainly could in the future.

They aren't the flashiest team in the NCAA, but they are a fundamentally sound group which has a far greater chance of being a boom than a bust.

And sometimes, that's all you need to be a nationally competitive program.