TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D2 XC Top 10 Teams (Women): #7 Colorado Mines Orediggers

The Orediggers come into our rankings just a few of spots back of where they finished in 2019. However, when you consider that they lost Chloe Cook (their low-stick from last season) as well as strong backend scorers such as Madeleine Geesen and Brook Eberle, it's understandable as to why we didn't give them a top five spot this fall.

Last year's 3rd place result at the NCAA Championships was the best finish in their women’s program history and that’s reason enough to believe that those who are coming back will ensure that this team stays competitive.

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Leading the charge will be the dynamic duo of Zoe Baker (TSR #9) and Morgan Molesworth (TSR #10). Both will be juniors and they each finished inside the top-20 at NCAA's last season. Molesworth never finished worse than 14th at a meet until NCAA's (where she was 16th) and Baker was never worse than 9th until NCAA's (where she was 19th). They don’t race often, but when they do, they have been outstanding.

It's not easy for any team to deal with the loss of a top scorer. However, the exciting scoring potency of these two women makes things interesting and it ensures that the Colorado Mines women will have a spark in their lineup, no matter how large the meets are.

We then come to the middle-lineup duo of Molly Maksin and Brin Strouse who were both freshmen last year, but provided another layer of depth which helped the Orediggers reach their best national meet finish in program history.

When you look at their resumes as a whole, it’s a bit uncanny how similar their 2019 cross country seasons were. Both women finished in the 90's at the Capital Cross Challenge, placed 4th and 5th at the FHSU Tiger Open and followed up that race with two top-25 performances at the RMAC Championships and the South Central Regional Championships.

Although their finishes at the national meet weren't particularly great, both Maksin and Strouse have set themselves up for successful sophomore campaigns now that they have the necessary experience of racing at high-level championship meets.

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We’ve only mentioned four runners for Mines and they obviously need a fifth scorer. However, when looking at their roster, it’s not entirely clear on where that final scorer will come from.

Mackenzie Duck was a participant in the Oreidggers' cross country lineup last season as she was 13th at the FHSU Tiger Open and 58th at the RMAC Championships. She didn’t make the postseason roster, but as a sophomore, she will likely find her way into this varsity lineup whenever the Orediggers return to competition.

Melina Endsley could be another contributor on this team as she ran 18:42 for 5000 meters this past winter at the RMAC Championships (which was held at 6200 feet). If she is able to translate that kind of performance to the grass on a consistent basis, she could end up being a top five scorer.

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With that said, the women from Colorado Mines have enough scoring potency at the top of this lineup to lessen the burden placed at the latter-half of this varsity group. We like the development that we have seen from this team over the past few years and they have built a history of success in a conference loaded with powerhouse programs.

Although we certainly have concerns regarding their depth, we're willing to bet that they'll be able to overcome that challenge and emerge as a top-ranked team yet again.