TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D2 XC Top 10 Teams (Women): #10 Edinboro Fighting Scots

If you are trying to find a team that could have had the biggest improvement from 2019 to 2020, then look no further than the Fighting Scots.

Edinboro finds themselves in our preseason Top 10 after finishing 18th at the NCAA Championships last fall. However, unlike a lot of teams, they return their entire top seven which includes their two low-sticks Stefanie Parsons (TSR #5) and Hope Pietrocarlo (TSR #11).

Let’s start with those two.

* * *

The clear 1-2 punch for the Scots were expected to return for their senior seasons and are looking to be even better (whenever they return to competition). Parsons had been Edinboro's front-runner all season long before NCAA's. She won the Doug Watts Invitational and was 6th at Paul Short (Brown race), leading the team to a 12th place finish.

As for Pietrocarlo, she was 2nd at the Doug Watts Invitational. Although she didn’t have quite the same success at Paul Short (where she finished 48th), Pietrocarlo still kept pace with Parsons throughout the entire postseason.

This dynamic duo rattled off consecutive 1-2 finishes at the PSAC Championships and the Atlantic Regional Championships before Pietrocarlo turned the tables and finished 15th at NCAA's while Parson was two spots back in 17th.

It’s safe to say that these two will continue to offer major scoring potency at the top of this lineup whenever they next race. Their front-heavy scoring is a big reason why this team was expected to be competitive in 2020.

Obviously, those two are the most exciting runners on this team, but what's even more encouraging is that this squad brings back their 3-4-5-6-7 runners who will now have championship experience under their belts now.

* * *

Senior Tori Klimowicz is back and she’s been to the last three national meets with Parsons and Pietrocarlo. She made promising improvements on the track, but the veteran is arguably better on the track after finishing 42nd at Paul Short, 5th at the PSAC Championships and then 8th at the Atlantic Regional Championships. Her 135th place finish at NCAA's wasn't totally ideal, but her other performances suggest that she can be even better.

Audrey MacPherson was the only sophomore on the team last year and that was her second time at the NCAA meet. Meanwhile, Megan Wisniewski, Kimberly Goerrs and Aleziah Banks were all just freshmen last fall. In other words, we see a massive amount of exciting upside at the backend of this lineup, something that a team as front-heavy as Edinboro needs.

Goerrs is a key name to watch as she was with the top portion of this group during Edinboro's conference and regional meets last fall (where she finished 10th and 15th, respectively). Her race at NCAA's wasn't great, but we can chalk that up to inexperience.

She also threw down a handful of respectable times on the indoor track this past winter, running 5:11 (mile) and 10:39 (3k). Goerrs doesn't need to be a superstar, she just needs to offer scoring stability in the middle of this lineup -- something that shouldn't be too much of an issue given her proven talent.

Not only that, but this team also has Anna Alberti who is waiting to show off her cross country prowess. She didn't race during the 2019 cross country season, but she was the best freshman that Edinboro had during the 2020 indoor track season as she recorded personal bests of 5:09 (mile), 10:24 (3k) and 18:28 (5k). Those aren't jaw-dropping results, but for a freshman in her first season of collegiate, they indicate that Alberti could be an incredibly valuable scorer for this team in the near future.

* * *

Edinboro is brewing a perfect storm, and it’s a bummer we won’t ever truly find out where they could have finished. However, between their established superstars, additional experience, promising results on the track and the introduction of a top five scorer who didn't race last fall, we certainly believe that the Fighting Scots would've been one of the best teams in the country this year.