Click here to read our rankings rubric Click here to read our Just Missed & Honorable Mention names 50. Gable Sieperda, Senior, Iowa State In many ways, Gable Sieperda reminds me of former Iowa State runner, Thomas Pollard. The two men found early success on the grass, especially on the national stage, but they were never the lead name for a Cyclone group that has been nationally competitive in both eras. It also wasn't until their latter years in the NCAA when both men truly began to realize their full potential as national-caliber talents. When it comes to Sieperda, it's truthfully hard to look past his regular season inconsistency in recent years. In the fall of 2021, the Iowa State standout was the 21st place finisher at the Nuttycombe Invite. But just last fall, Sieperda faded to 72nd at the Virginia Invite and 87th at the Nuttycombe Invite. The year before that, he placed 56th at Nuttycombe, a decent effort, but not necessarily a "great" result, either. There is, of course, a catch: Sieperda is often at his best on the national stage. Over the last three years, this Iowa State veteran has finished 43rd (2023), 74th (2022) and 41st (2021) at the NCAA XC Championships. That is really strong reliability on a stage that can often be wildly chaotic and volatile. Even so, we felt like we needed a bit more of a spark from Siperda if he was going to crack our top-50 rankings. Thankfully, we got exactly that at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the steeplechase finals where Sieperda placed 3rd overall and ran an 8:25 PR! We'll admit, we don't necessarily put as much stock in steeplechase success as others might when attempting to project cross country success. And yet, there is no denying that Sieperda took a leap up in his fitness, something that he just happened to showcase over the water pits and barriers. Plus, with a handful of great cross country national meet results on his resume, we felt like he had enough to return to our top-50. 49. Dismas Korir, Freshman, Alabama Alabama's newest addition made headlines upon signing with the Crimson Tide. That's because he has run times of 13:56 (5k) and 28:36 (10k)...and yes, I know what you're thinking. "Wait, those times are hardly competitive in today's day-and-age of NCAA distance running. Why on Earth should we be excited about that?" Well, what if I told you that both of those marks that I just listed for Korir were actually run at altitude? Specifically, 5600 feet of altitude? Now, when you factor in conversions, Korir has times of 13:22 (5k) and 27:19 (10k)...and that last mark is incredibly hard to ignore. There have only been a few instances where Korir has toed the line for a cross country race. However, his only performance on the grass in 2024 came at the Kenyan XC Championships where he placed 40th -- and we'll admit, we're not entirely sure how to put that result into perspective. On one hand, finishing 40th at a national championship in a country known for their distance stars seems pretty impressive. On the other hand, Middle Tennessee State's Brian Kiptoo soundly defeated Korir by 20 spots. And while Kiptoo is a very solid cross country talent in his own right, he wasn't someone who we viewed as a top-50 name. We want to find the middle ground of respecting Korir's incredible converted times (especially his 10k) while also understanding that many international athletes occasionally need an adjustment period when they enter the NCAA. For now, we think this is a fair spot, although it's impossible to know if this is the "correct" spot. 48. Victor Kibiego, Senior, Texas A&M Victor Kibiego first made a name for himself in the spring of 2023. That year, he finished 3rd at the outdoor national meet, running a then-PR of 8:26 over the barriers and water pits. Naturally, that left us with high expectations for his 2023 cross country season. While he was still with UTEP, Kibiego proved to be a strong cross country talent, although his admittedly light racing schedule left us wanting more. Come the national meet, Kibiego settled for a 44th place finish, a result roughly on par with his successful, but somewhat unexciting, cross country season. Since then, Kibiego has transferred to Texas A&M, run a new steeplechase PR of 8:25 and dropped out of the outdoor national meet in the steeplechase prelims. This is going to be a very big fall campaign for Kibiego, mainly because he will no longer be able to thrive in smaller meets for the entirety of the season. Texas A&M's 2024 cross country schedule indicates that the Aggies will venture to the Nuttycombe Invite this fall. That meet, along with the SEC XC Championships, will give Kibiego far greater tests than what he experienced last year. That, in turn, should give us a better idea as to just how good Texas A&M's newest low-stick truly is. 47. Matt Strangio, Senior, Portland We believe in Matt Strangio -- and we have for quite some time. But when it has come to performances on the grass, the Portland veteran has often left us scratching our heads and thinking, "He's probably better than that." Last fall is a good example. Two poor regular season showings at the Griak Invitational and the Nuttycombe Invite were a bit surprising for someone who had finished 38th at the Nuttycombe Invite the year prior. Those challenges, however, were due to an illness. Strangio later rebounded in the postseason to win the West Coast Conference title over Nicholas Russel and Wil Smith before going on to place 76th at the national meet. Strangio's indoor track season was arguably even more perplexing. The Pilot star had a massive breakout season, running incredible times of 3:55 (mile) and 7:39 (3k). But despite having all of the momentum in the world, Strangio struggled mightily at the indoor national meet, finishing last. He would then compete just twice on the outdoor oval this past spring. It feels like we're still waiting for Strangio to truly have his moment. The talent is so overwhelmingly apparent and he's had enough success on the grass for us to believe that he can translate his 3k success. The only question is, can he put it all together for a full season? 46. Corey Gorgas, Senior, Northern Arizona Consistency. Reliability. Steadiness. Those are probably the best words to describe Northern Arizona veteran, Corey Gorgas. The Lumberjack talent proved last fall that he has an incredibly high floor, meaning that he very rarely has poor outings. Last fall, Gorgas placed 25th at the Virginia Invitational, 33rd at the Nuttycombe Invite and 62nd at the NCAA XC Championships. If you were to look at each of those performances independent of each other, then you would likely say, "He's good, but he's probably not top-50 good." Of course, it's the entirety of Gorgas' resume that truly makes him a ranked talent in our eyes. He proved to be an extremely reliable name who always offered strong scoring in loaded fields. His Nuttycombe result is also better than some people may realize. We'll admit, we're not quite sure what Gorgas' ceiling is. Can he be a top-20 name this fall? What about top-30? Would cracking the top-40 of our rankings be considered a success? We also have to note that he hasn't raced since February. That's not exactly a super encouraging sign as NAU prepares to fight for another podium spot. Even so, there is way more to like about Gorgas than there is to dislike. And for that reason we felt plenty comfortable listing him inside of our top-50. 45. Yasin Sado, Senior, Transfer Portal There's no way to dance around it: This ranking requires some projection. Yasin Sado had proven to be a nationally competitive name in prior seasons, but he has never truly been viewed as a top name on the grass. Yes, he did finish a promising 73rd place at the NCAA XC Championships last fall after placing 13th at the ACC XC Championships. However, his two races prior to that -- 39th at Pre-Nationals and 109th at the Virginia Invitational -- were simply not good. Of course, what we saw from Sado after last winter and spring was too much to ignore. The Virginia veteran (who is in the transfer portal right now) ran 3:55 (mile) and 13:31 (5k) on the indoor oval. He would then venture to the outdoor oval where he ran a then-PR of 8:27 in the steeplechase and placed 7th at the national meet. Now, typically, those results would still not be enough to crack our rankings. Make no mistake, Sado certainly improved his fitness this past spring and 8:27 is an excellent mark. Even so, it's been proven before that top steeplechasers are not always guaranteed to be top cross country runners. And yet, we're willing to look past that. Why? Because Sado ran a jaw-dropping steeplechase PR of 8:17 at the University of Pennsylvania (after the Olympic Trials) in the same race where James Corrigan ran 8:13. That, ladies and gentlemen, sparked a handful of debates at The Stride Report. And when all was said and done, we gave Sado a nod for a top-50 spot. 44. Will Anthony, Junior, Virginia Throughout last year, Will Anthony showed signs of potentially being a true low-stick for the Virginia men. Now, as we prepare to enter the fall of 2024, we're expecting Anthony to be a legitimate threat for All-American honors. Last fall, Anthony finished 29th at the Virginia Invite and 13th at Pre-Nationals. Those were both solid results -- maybe even good results -- but they weren't quite enough for us to say that he was a top-50 name. That, of course, changed when Anthony secured an excellent 7th place effort at the ACC XC Championships. The Kiwi distance ace would end his season with a commendable 62nd place finish. However, it did feel like there was room for him to be better. Thankfully, we began to see the full extent of Anthony's improved fitness on the track. After running mile and 3k PRs on the indoor oval, the Virginia underclassman secured a win at the Raleigh Relays with a 28:21 (10k) PR. He would later win the 5k at the Virginia Invite in 13:35 and advance to the national meet in the 10k where he placed 18th. Anyone who follows this sport closely enough can see that Anthony has all of the tools to be a national-caliber low-stick and a multi-time All-American. The raw talent is borderline palpable. However, in order to truly cement himself as the guy that we know he can be, Anthony will need to take down more All-Americans this fall than he did last year. 43. Timothy Chesondin, Sophomore, Arkansas Arkansas' newest weapon comes into our rankings at our TSR #43 spot. The Akron transfer, who was followed by fellow teammate Brian Masai to Fayetteville, will join a Razorback group that seems like a near lock for the podium this fall. There's admittedly not as much to talk about with Chesondin as there is with a few others. His track times are largely negligible and he only had one regular season meet that was truly notable. That meet, of course, was the Joe Piane Invitational where the now-former Zip runner produced a promising 7th place finish. We wouldn't see Chesondin again until the postseason where he earned a shrug-inducing runner-up finish at the MAC XC Championships. And after qualifying for the national meet out of the Great Lakes region, Chesondin put together a pleasantly surprising 36th place All-American finish to cap his season. This spot may be a bit low for someone who didn't truly have a poor race last fall. However, you could argue that, prior to the national meet, the best names that Chesondin took down were Charlotte's Nickolas Scudder, Montana State's Matthew Richtman and Furman's Dylan Schubert, the latter of whom was recovering from having mono. As we enter 2024, we'll likely be lucky enough to see Arkansas go to bigger and better meets. That, in turn, will give Chesondin more opportunities to prove himself against top competition. And yet, if the only real critique that we have for this Arkansas runner is that he only beat three eventual All-Americans prior to the national meet, then that's a good problem to have. 42. Florian Le Pallec, Rs. Senior, Butler The best way to describe the profile of Florian Le Pallec is by saying that he has the reliability of Corey Gorgas, but the upside of Will Anthony. After spending time at California Baptist, Florian Le Pallec transferred to Butler. But before he did that, he ventured overseas and ran two 5k races. One race produced a 13:29 PR and the other race was close to doing the same via a 13:30 mark. Naturally, we were high on the Bulldogs' newest low-stick going into last fall. Le Pallec made us look very good at the Virginia Invitational last fall, placing 9th overall in what was arguably the best race of his career. From there, our already-high expectations got even higher. But the rest of Le Pallec's season, while strong, didn't quite match our hopes for him. A 47th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite was fine and a bronze medal performance at the BIG East XC Championships left us shrugging our shoulders and thinking, "Yeah, that's about right." A 65th place finish at last year's national meet was yet another result that deserved a nod of respect, but not much more. On one hand, it feels like Le Pallec has left a good bit of scoring on the table and we think he can be even better than he's shown. The latter part is where the Will Anthony comp comes in. On the other hand, it's not like he had a truly poor race last fall. If anything, he is one of the more consistent and reliable low-sticks in the country. That's where the Corey Gorgas comp comes in. If Le Pallec can remain just as consistent as he has been while also elevating his fitness one more tier up, then you can expect this Butler standout to skyrocket up our rankings. 41. Colin Sahlman, Junior, Northern Arizona I'm sure you were all wondering if Colin Sahlman would be ranked inside of our top-50. Well, you no longer have to wonder. The resume of Colin Sahlman goes against pretty much every aspect of our rankings rubric that we so heavily lean on. He has proven to be more of a middle distance runner on the track, his 5k PR of 13:38 doesn't stand out in any major way and there isn't any singular cross country result that catches our attention. So...why do we have him ranked at TSR #41? To put it simply, we are basing this ranking entirely on projection. The high school pedigree of Sahlman still rings loudly in our ears and so does the developmental aerobic mastery of Coach Mike Smith. None of this is to say that Sahlman has been bad in cross country. However, with his main highlights on the grass being a 60th place finish at the 2022 Nuttycombe Invite and a 33rd place finish at the 2023 Virginia Invite, he is not usually a name who would find his way into our top-50 rankings. Of course, it's not like there a ton of guys in the NCAA who can run 3:33 for 1500 meters. And yes, it's true, middle distance performance rarely translate to the 8k or 10k on the grass. But Sahlman's raw fitness that he showed this past spring paired with his fantastic range should, in theory, lead to him being a top cross country name in 2024...we think.

Click here to read our rankings rubric Click here to read our Just Missed & Honorable Mention names 50. Lydia Miller, Senior, Lipscomb We will admit, we struggled mightily to find the right spot for Lydia Miller in our rankings. Miller's 2023 cross country season was filled with ups, downs and everything in between. Take for instance her effort at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational. A 5th place result in one of the more underrated meets of the year was impressive. And yet, no one whom she beat would go on to be an All-American. A 68th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite was the slightest bit underwhelming. And after cruising through the ASUN XC Championships with her teammates, an 18th place finish at the South regional meet felt like it could have been better, too. And yet, in the grand scheme of things, none of that mattered. That's because Miller would put together an insanely clutch 38th place All-American performance on the national stage. That result gave her team a true low-stick which led the Bison to an 11th place team finish in their season finale. The goal for Miller this fall is fairly straightforward: Be more consistent at the highest levels of her fitness. That, however, isn't to say that she was running poorly last fall. Outside of maybe the South regional meet (which we rarely review anyway), this Lipscomb ace never had a truly poor effort. And sometimes, that's half the battle when it comes to our rankings. Now, with a valuable year of high-level experience under her belt, the sky is the limit for the Bison's focal lead scorer. 49. Ashley Jones, Junior, Tennessee Throughout last fall, you could see that Ashley Jones was on the verge of a major breakout. Since transferring over from High Point, the now-junior has evolved into a lead scorer for a fast-rising Volunteer team. A 12th place finish at Pre-Nationals, which led to wins over Jenny Schilling and Izzy Thornton-Bott, was a very encouraging result for Jones. However, a 10th place result at the SEC XC Championships, while great, also had the potential to be the slightest bit better. But Jones' true breakout race came at the national meet where she secured a huge 42nd place finish. And although she was two spots out from All-American honors, she still led the Volunteers to an incredible 6th place finish. Of course, things have gotten quite crazy since then. If you (somehow) didn't hear, Tennessee coach Sean Carlson has been hired as Colorado's next Director of Track & Field and Cross Country. And naturally, speculation has shifted to whether or not certain Volunteer athletes (like Ashley Jones) will join him in Boulder. But regardless of whether Jones stays or leaves, the momentum and consistency she has shown throughout last fall has been very promising. As long as she is able to maintain this ongoing progression, then she'll end up as an All-American favorite in November. 48. Emily Covert, Rs. Senior, Notre Dame The journey of Emily Covert through the NCAA has been anything but boring. After joining the Colorado women as a star recruit from the high school ranks, Covert picked up momentum and found great success as a collegian. The former Buffalo earned a 31st place cross country All-American honor in the fall of 2021 and later earned a 10k All-American honor the following spring. Simply put, Covert could do no wrong. Covert's 2022 fall campaign was arguably just as good after she placed 16th at the Cowboy Jamboree, 29th at the Nuttycombe Invite and 3rd at the PAC-12 XC Championships. Unfortunately, she would struggle for the remainder of the postseason. After battling through injuries and illness, Covert returned to the grass last fall and captured plenty of attention with her strong 5th place result at the Virginia Invitational. That, however, would be her main highlight of the season as she went on to place 42nd at Nuttycombe, 12th at the PAC-12 XC Championships and 50th at the NCAA XC Championships. Since then, Covert has transferred to Tennessee for the indoor and outdoor track seasons before transferring yet again this summer to attend Notre Dame. At her best, Covert is an All-American talent who can lead a team and take down top-tier names. Yes, her consistency in recent seasons needs improvement, especially on the national stage. But if the floor for Covert's performances leads to a 50th place finish at the national meet, then her ceiling is theoretically that of a top-30 runner. We may not always know what version of Covert we're getting, but we do know that any version of Covert is good enough for her to be a high-impact scorer. Side note: I thought it was pretty ironic that Covert went from Colorado to Tennessee to Notre Dame while her now-former coach Sean Carlson went from Notre Dame to Tennessee to Colorado. 47. Erin Strzelecki, Senior, Notre Dame You will not find many women who are as clutch as Erin Strzelecki is in the postseason. If you don't believe me, then just look at her TFRRS resume and compare her regular season results to her postseason results. Sure, we could go through each race of Strzelecki's 2023 season and talk about whether or not certain results were good or not. But when it comes to this Fighting Irish veteran, the larger picture is what truly matters. In her three cross country national meet showings, Strzelecki has placed 80th (2021), 54th (2022) and 37th (2023) with the latter result earning an All-American honor. Not only that, but she was also a surprise 2023 outdoor national meet qualifier in the 10k as well as the ACC indoor 5k champion this past winter. Make no mistake, Strzelecki's regular season performances have also improved. However, if you were to take last year's national meet result out of her resume, then I'm not confident that she would have made our "Honorable Mentions" list. As a website that values someone's entire body of work, we're still hoping that Strzelecki will replicate her postseason magic before the championship portion of the upcoming season. But even if she doesn't, it's hard to be too critical of someone who always shows up for the single-most important meet of the year. 46. Maggi Congdon, Junior, Northern Arizona I imagine that a lot of people are reading this article and thinking, "They just ranked Maggi Congdon at this spot because she ran 4:02 (1500) at the Olympic Trials." And to some extent, yes! That's true! But as we all know, one race cannot make up someone's entire athletic identity. And given how different cross country usually is from the middle distances on the track, it would be silly lean on that lone PR and only that PR. That's why it's important to also highlight the fact that Congdon was strong across the board last fall, showcasing promising consistency. Her 16th place result at the Virginia Invite was arguably the best result of her season, but a 47th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite was also a really solid performance as well. Congdon then capped her season with a 60th place result at the national meet. If you were strictly looking at Congdon's 2023 cross country season (and only that season), then that wouldn't be enough for her to be ranked. Similarly, if you only looked at Congdon's fantastic success on the track this past year, specifically her 4:02 (1500) mark, then we wouldn't see enough aerobic-centric results for her to be ranked. Of course, when you combine her already-strong cross country prowess with an obvious jump in fitness from the track, one has to think that Congdon is at least capable of threatening for an All-American honor this fall. Yes, this ranking does require a bit of projection, but we feel like we've seen enough to comfortably justify putting Congdon at TSR #46. 45. Sophia Kennedy, Sophomore, Stanford Sophia Kennedy's best result last year was either a 33rd place finish at the Virginia Invitational or a 95th place effort at the NCAA XC Championships. And yes, I can already hear what you're about to ask. "But Garrett, those results aren't anywhere close to others who are being ranked! Why did you guys rank this relatively unproven sophomore?" Well, for a variety of reasons. Kennedy was a true star at the prep level and probably had one of the best rookie years of anyone in her national high school class. Sure, a few of her cross country results were respectable, but it was the jumps that she made on the track that caught our attention. The Stanford runner posted a 15:43 (5k) mark on the indoor oval and then advanced to the outdoor oval where she ran a new 5k PR of 15:33 to place 11th at the outdoor national meet. Between the pedigree, the flashes of cross country promise and the statement 5k performances made on the oval, Kennedy is 100% primed to have a monster year on the grass. The Cardinal athlete is brimming with tons of upside and has the potential to exceed this ranking if her freshman-to-sophomore-year jump is as effective as we think it will be. Sure, Kennedy is still unproven and she will most likely have at least one hiccup this fall. But if the end result comes anywhere close to matching this ranking, then that should be considered a highly successful season. 44. Sadie Sigfstead, Rs. Junior, Villanova I would argue that Sadie Sigfstead is one of the more underrated women's cross country runners in the NCAA. The Villanova talent was so incredibly steady throughout last fall and earned some quietly great finishes. She even got better on the track! Here's a fun fact: Sigfstead never finished outside of the top-10 of any cross country meet last year until the NCAA XC Championships. She won the Main Line Invitational (rust-buster), was 2nd at the Battle in Beantown (encouraging), placed 8th at Pre-Nationals (very strong), settled for 4th at the BIG East XC Championships (which was expected), was victorious at the Mid-Atlantic Regional XC Championships (great) and then took 71st place at the NCAA XC Championships (not ideal, but not awful). The Wildcat veteran later went on to run 32:45 for 10,000 meters and qualify for the outdoor national meet this past spring. Just like we go on to mention with Yasna Petrova below, Sigfstead is a super reliable name who is going to deliver impactful scoring value at pretty much any meet she toes the line for. Yes, we would agree that her national meet results needs to be better. That, however, shouldn't take away from her entire body of work. 43. Silan Ayyildiz, Sophomore, Oregon We'll admit, this is a bit of a controversial ranking. Silan Ayyildiz transferred from South Carolina to Oregon last winter -- and the move has (for the most part) been a success. During the winter months, Ayyildiz posted times of 4:30 (mile) and 8:54 (3k). She also helped the Ducks earn All-American honors in the DMR. Of course, it was the outdoor oval where Ayyildiz caught everyone's attention. At the Bryan Clay Invitational, Ayyildiz moved up to the 5000-meter distance. And yet, despite that being only her second-ever 5k on the track, the newest Oregon runner threw down a jaw-dropping time of 15:15! That mark put her at NCAA #14 all-time for the outdoor track season. The problem, however, is that Ayyildiz struggled (a lot) in that event throughout the postseason. She failed to score a point in the 5k at the PAC-12 Outdoor Championships and she barely qualified for the outdoor national meet in that event (she was the final woman in). On the national stage, Ayyildiz faded to 16th place. Historically, Ayyildiz has built her reputation over 1500 meters and she has proven to be far more comfortable with that distance than the 5k. Sure, her Bryan Clay Invitational performance was absolutely brilliant and she even placed 7th at the SEC XC Championships last year (one of her two cross country races). Even so, the comfort with the longer distances still feels like a work in progress. And yet, despite all of that, there was zero chance that we were going to leave Ayyildiz out of these rankings. Being among the top-15 outdoor 5k runners in NCAA history and not being ranked in our top-50 cross country rankings seems pretty ridiculous. We still need to see her prove herself on the grass, but we at least know that the talent is very much there for her. 42. Yasna Petrova, Senior, California Baptist When people think of California Baptist, they likely think of Greta Karinauskaite, the team's steeplechase star. But the woman who has offered so much valuable scoring and support behind Karinauskaite has been Yasna Petrova. Sure, Petrova's upside doesn't seem to be as high as a few others in this section. That, however, shouldn't really matter. The CBU veteran has been fairly consistent and very reliable throughout her career. Last fall, for instance, Petrova placed 6th at the Griak Invitational (solid), 35th at the Nuttycombe Invitational (really encouraging) and 45th at the NCAA XC Championships (on par with expectations). Yes, she did have an odd flukey day at the WAC XC Championships, but for the most part, Petrova was incredibly steady last fall. And if you need more evidence of Petrova's scoring value, then just look back at the fall of 2022 when she placed runner-up at the Weis-Crockett Invitational (Pre-Nationals) and was 77th at the national meet. It was also promising to see Petrova throw down a strong 10k PR of 32:36 at the Stanford Invite in the spring. Petrova is probably not going to spark many major headlines this fall. In fact, I would argue that she is going to be overlooked by many. But thankfully, you read The Stride Report, so you won't surprised if you look at the national meet results in November and find her in the top-40. 41. Carmen Alder, Senior, BYU No one left us scratching our heads last fall more than Carmen Alder did. The BYU runner showcased multiple moments of incredible fitness in 2023. But on the stage that mattered the most, her performance was...well, bad. Alder was one of last year's more pleasant surprises when she took down women like Maddy Elmore, Paityn Noe, Margot Appleton, Sadie Sigfstead, Sydney Thorvaldson and all of her teammates to win gold at Pre-Nationals. And for those who needed to see more from Alder, the Cougar low-stick mostly validated her effort with a 7th place finish at the BIG 12 XC Championships. Unfortunately, Alder fell victim to an old-fashioned bad day (well, awful day) at the national meet, finishing second-to-last among finishers. But in a weird way, it was almost better that Alder finished in 246th place rather than 100th place. At least with the former result, no one is going to look at that performance and think that it was anything other than a fluke -- because it was. We're not going to overreact to a clear outlier performance and suddenly suggest that Alder doesn't deserve a ranking inside of our top-50. We do, admittedly, need to pull her back on our list and find a good middle ground which rewards her Pre-Nationals win, but also requires a stronger national meet performance in the future. Thankfully, we're not too worried about that last part.

Earlier today, Josh Grenade reported that Kenyan superstar Justine Kipkoech was joining the Eastern Kentucky men for the upcoming cross country season. Kipkoech was previously enrolled at the College of the Sequoias in California. The Stride Report has independently verified the report that Kipkoech has signed his National Letter of Intent with EKU. To say that Kipkoech is "elite" may actually be underselling him. That's because the 25-year old from Kenya has produced jaw-dropping times of 3:32.93 (1500) and 7:38.19 (3k) on the track. That former mark would have broken the NCAA 1500-meter record if it was run in-season. World Athletics also notes that Kipkoech has produced an 8:13 mark for two miles as well as a 13:22 result for 5000 meters on the roads. But what truly makes Kipkoech such an unreal prospect is the fact that he is running ultra-fast times while still defeating upper-echelon stars at the pro level. At the Sound Running Sunset Tour in California this past weekend was where the future EKU runner ran his 1500-meter PR (he also won the race). And if you think that his recent success is just a fluke, then I'd implore you to review his 1500-meter performance at the Ed Murphey Classic from July 12th of this year. On that stage, Kipkoech produced a mark of 3:33 (1500) where he finished runner-up. His 3000-meter performance of 7:38 came overseas last summer in France. When it comes to his track prowess, one thing is clear: Kipkoech is going to be a legitimate national title threat on both the indoor and outdoor ovals. That is going to be an interesting storyline to monitor as Colin Sahlman is still seeking his first NCAA title and Nathan Green is looking to further establish himself as an all-time great collegiate miler as well. And don't forget, Oregon's Elliott Cook ran 3:33 for 1500 meters at the USA Olympic Trials in June. From a cross country perspective, it's only fair to assume that the Eastern Kentucky men are overjoyed with their newest addition. While it's still unclear how Kipkoech will handle the cross country scene and the longer racing distances of 8k and 10k, it still seems safe to assume that he will make some sort of significant impact as soon as this fall. Last year, the Colonels were certainly better than what their 2023 cross country national meet performance would suggest (they finished last). That season, EKU placed 10th at the Virginia Invitational and 17th at the Nuttycombe Invite. With a large handful of top men set to return from last year -- including a potential low-stick in Taha El Raouy as well as promising track talents such as Mohammed Jouhari and Kristian Imroth -- Kipkoech makes this team look far more complete. Of course, we'll still have to see how much of his recent success can be translated to a very different setting and a very different series of racing distances.

The Stride Report has confirmed that Tennessee's head cross country coach, Sean Carlson, has been hired as Colorado's next Director of Track & Field and Cross Country. The Volunteer men and women were informed of the move earlier today. The hiring comes a little over a month after it was reported that long-time CU coaches Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs were not having their contracts renewed by the university. Carlson's Tenure at Tennessee Carlson's decision to join the Colorado men and women admittedly comes as a bit of a surprise. Just two years ago, the now-former Tennessee coach joined the Volunteers in a move that shook the NCAA track and field and cross country world.  During his time at Tennessee, Carlson revitalized a women's distance program that had largely been a non-factor in the distance events, nationally. After entering the 2023 cross country season unranked in The Stride Report's top-25 preseason teams list, the Lady Vols stunned the nation with a near-unbelievable 6th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. The rise of Ashley Jones as the team's newest low-stick on the grass has been complemented by the better-than-expected output seen from current sophomores such as Jillian Candelino, Caroline Lyerly and Jessie Secor. Returing veterans Rachel Sutliff and Kayla Gholar proved to be critical lineup members as well. With all but one runner returning from last year's national meet lineup, and a small handful of transfers also entering the program, the ladies of Rocky Top were potentially in store for a historic fall campaign (and they maybe still are). The Tennessee men have also seen a rise to national competitiveness since Carlson came to Knoxville, although not to the same level as the women's team. The introduction of star-caliber transfers such as Dylan Jacob and Yaseen Abdalla in the summer of 2022, paired with the return of Volunteer veteran Karl Thiessen, allowed the Tennessee men to reach the NCAA XC Championships for the first time since 2002. They placed 20th that year at the national meet. The following year, the Volunteer men remained as a nationally competitive program, but they also struggled to replace the lost firepower of Dylan Jacobs. The men in orange would go on to finish a truthfully underwhelming 26th place at the national meet. Under the direction of Carlson, Dylan Jacobs would become one of the top NCAA distance runners of the post-COVID era, running times of 7:36 (3k) and 13:11 (5k). Jacobs also won the 2023 NCAA indoor 3k title, giving him his second national title after winning the 2022 10k national title during his time at Notre Dame. Rise to National Acclaim at Notre Dame Prior to joining Tennessee, Carlson first rose to national prominence for his coaching efforts at Notre Dame where he was the head men's distance coach. When Carlson began coaching Notre Dame's men's cross country team in 2016, the Fighting Irish earned an unexciting 14th place at the Great Lakes XC Regional Championships. The next year, they placed 9th at the same meet. Fast forward to 2018 and Notre Dame had won the ACC XC Championships, earned a top-two automatic national qualifying spot at their regional meet and placed 14th at the NCAA XC Championships. In 2019, the Irish placed 9th at the NCAA XC Championships. And finally, at the 2021 NCAA Winter XC Championships, the South Bend men secured a runner-up team finish with six individual All-Americans. In addition to Dylan Jacobs, Carlson was also responsible for developing Yared Nuguse as a collegian, someone who is debatably the best distance runner in America right now. And on the recruiting trail, Carlson set a new standard for excellence, twice securing our TSR #1 freshman distance class ranking with the Fighting Irish men (as well as TSR #2 ranking after he left for Tennessee). What Happens Now? Carlson's unexpected jump to Colorado will almost certainly set off a chain reaction of significant coaching moves within the NCAA. With a high-paying SEC head coaching role now open for the taking (Carlson was technically the "Director of Cross Country" while Duane Ross is the "Director of Track & Field"), the nationwide speculation as to who would land with the Buffaloes will now shift to Rocky Top. It's also likely that a handful of athletes follow Carlson from Tennessee to Colorado. Of course, figuring out who those athletes are and how many of them do transfer are the biggest uncertainties that have stemmed from the recent news. But if there is any cross country program in the NCAA that needs an injection of scoring, it is almost certainly the Buffalo men and women. Last year, both teams struggled mightily throughout the fall months. The Colorado women finished 19th at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships while the men faded to 25th place.  Now, as we prepare for the 2024 season, the Colorado men have an incoming class that is nearly non-existent (among distance runners) while the Colorado women have lost their top-four runners from a lineup that was already struggling to find scoring. Coach Sean Carlson has developed a reputation for taking unexciting cross country programs and turning them into national powers. However, it may be his upcoming move to Boulder that poses his most challenging project yet.

Here we go. Our 2024 men's and women's preseason individual cross country rankings. Let's start with our "Just Missed" and "Honorable Mention" names. As a reminder, you can find our rankings rubric here . This week will be our D1 rankings while next week will be our D2 and D3 rankings. Let's begin... JUST MISSED (in no particular order) Cael Grotenhuis, Rs. Sophomore, Northern Arizona I am sorry, Cael Grotenhuis. I feel terrible. We tried everything we could to fit Cael Grotenhuis into our rankings. For 30 minutes, myself and three other writers tried to pose arguments and find logic that would be able to squeeze this fast-rising NAU talent into our top-50. But for as much as we like the Lumberjack runner, we simply couldn't find the room. As a result, Grotenhuis takes this year's not-so-coveted honor of being the "first guy out of our rankings." If you followed Grotenhuis this past spring, then you probably understand why we like him so much. After largely being an afterthought on Northern Arizona's roster, this Wisconsin native emerged as one of the best breakout names during the 2024 outdoor track season. This past season, Grotenhuis won his 5k heat at the Bryan Clay Invitational with a time of 13:38. He then took down the Montana State duo of Matthew Richtman and Ben Perrin over 10,000 meters at the BIG Sky Outdoor Championships. Grotenhuis would later qualify for the outdoor national meet in both the 10k AND the 5k, something that only three other D1 men accomplished last spring. He would go on to finish 14th and 9th, respectively, at the national meet. On paper, that's a pretty impressive resume that would make the average person think, "Wait, so then what's the issue? Why is he not ranked?" Well, the biggest challenge that we had with Grotenhuis is that he has a grand total of one cross country race on his TFRRS resume. That result was a 9th place finish at the 2023 BIG Sky XC Championships. Simply put, we have ZERO idea what he is capable of doing on the grass. And while his outdoor track season was incredibly promising, it also didn't yield any other-worldly times or an All-American result. Pair that with a non-existent cross country resume and you can begin to see how certain men had better arguments to be ranked. Regardless, we're dreading putting Grotenhuis at this spot. His recent momentum paired with the juggernaut factory that is Northern Arizona leaves him with a ceiling that could make him an All-American. I suppose we'll just have to wait and find out if that's actually the case. Ben Rosa, Senior, Harvard I will admit, Ben Rosa is not necessarily a guy who is going to jump off the page in any dramatic way when you look at his resume. The best mark on Rosa's TFRRS profile is most likely his 28:43 (10k) PR from this past spring. His 5k personal best sits at a modest 13:57 and he was 60th at the Nuttycombe Invite. So...why is he a "Just Missed" name? Well, believe it or not, Rosa's 60th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite was arguably his "worst" result of the 2023 cross country season (among meets that truly mattered). After that race, the Harvard veteran would go on to earn bronze at the Ivy League XC Championships (taking down an eventual All-American in the process) and place 8th at the Northeast regional meet. But the cherry on top of Rosa's season was a 47th place effort at the NCAA XC Championships, just seven spots out from an All-American honor. And when you step back to look at his season as a whole, it feels fairly complete and void of any poor efforts. Peaking for the postseason certainly helped as well. Yes, it's true: Rosa needs to be a more potent low-stick at meets like the Nuttycombe Invite (and maybe also the national meet) to be considered a top-50 name. Even so, he felt like a fairly reliable name who offered very underrated scoring value. Toby Gillen, Senior, Ole Miss In the spring of 2023, Toby Gillen was arguably the biggest breakout star in the NCAA. The former St. Louis runner suddenly became a national-caliber distance talent, winning the Raleigh Relays 5k, running a then-PR of 13:30 over that same distance and qualifying for the outdoor national meet. Gillen would later transfer to Ole Miss where the expectation was that he would become a standout ace and among the very best cross country runners in the NCAA. But, uh...that didn't happen. At all. Gillen's 2023 cross country season was underwhelming to say the least. He 7th at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational, 175th at the Nuttycombe Invite, 14th at the SEC XC Championships and 15th at the South regional meet. He would not advance to the NCAA XC Championships. Now, in Gillen's defense, the Rebels were a team rumored to be plagued with injuries, illnesses and old fashioned bad luck. And while we don't exactly know if any of that applied to Gillen last fall, his recent efforts on the track suggest that he most certainly had more to offer on the grass. The newest Rebel star ran a new 5k PR of 13:28 on the indoor oval and eventually qualified for the outdoor national meet where he was a 7th place All-American in the 5k. No one is denying that Gillen is talented enough to be in our top-50 rankings. His ceiling could make him one of the 30-best men in the country this fall. And yet, despite the fantastic success that he has found on the oval, there is simply not enough evidence on the grass to suggest that he is a national-caliber cross country runner right now. Make no mistake, that could definitely change, but the fall of 2023 was supposed to the season where he proved how dangerous he could be in October and November. We still believe in his potential, but for now, he'll reside in our "Just Missed" section. Ben Perrin, Rs. Senior, Montana State When I first started this website, I never once expected to put a 13:30 (5k) and 28:04 (10k) runner in the "Just Missed" section of our preseason cross country rankings. And yet, here we are. On paper, Perrin may have an argument to be listed among our top-50 names. His blazing fast times on the track showcase his excellent aerobic talent and his cross country results from last fall were really solid across the board. Even so, Perrin's 2023 fall campaign can largely be described as "good," (or maybe even "really good") but it wasn't exactly "amazing," either. An 11th place finish at the Joe Piane Invitational demanded respect. However, a 16th place finish at Pre-Nationals left us wanting more. Fast forward to the national meet and Perrin placed 53rd overall, a commendable result. Much like we mentioned with Ben Rosa, there isn't necessarily one truly poor result on Perrin's resume from the 2023 cross country season. Sure, he could have been better at Pre-Nationals, but he didn't exactly blow up in that race, either. But in the eyes of The Stride Report, not having a poor race isn't enough to crack our top-50. We're still waiting for Perrin to have a marquee race where he takes down multiple All-Americans and earns a top finish in a major field. And yet, what you can't knock is his consistency and reliability as a lead scorer. That's not something that all low-sticks can tout. Ethan Coleman, Rs. Sophomore, Notre Dame CJ Singleton, Rs. Sophomore, Notre Dame We're going to lump these two men together for their analysis. Partially because they're on the same team and partially because they have often mimicked each other in certain cross country results. Last fall, when both men we're redshirt freshmen, Notre Dame hosted the Joe Piane Invitational. There, both CJ Singleton (13th) and Ethan Coleman (16th) held their own. Their performances weren't anything jaw-dropping, but the redshirt rookies showed promise. From there, Coleman continued to show promise at the Nuttycombe Invite (59th) while Singleton (111th) faded a bit. Thankfully, both men got back on the same page at the ACC XC Championships where Coleman placed 15th and Singleton placed 19th. And in their season finale, Coleman once again delivered, finishing 48th place overall. Singleton, however, struggled once more, dropping to a brutal 219th place. On paper, Coleman proved to be the better cross country runner. He was surprisingly consistent despite his inexperience and he continued to thrive over the 10k distance by running a 28:29 PR this past spring. Singleton, meanwhile, clearly struggled on the larger, nationally-competitive cross country stages. That, however, wasn't the case on the track. During the spring months, Singleton had the poise of a veteran, running a fantastic 8:27 steeplechase PR and earning 5th place All-American honors in that event. In the grand scheme of things, both Coleman and Singleton are similar-caliber runners. The former proved to be more consistent on the grass, but the latter clearly reached a new tier of fitness on the track which put him in a nationally competitive echelon. As we move into the fall months, the objectives for both of these men are clear. Coleman simply needs to replicate the consistency that we saw from him last fall and further build on his always-solid finishes. If he does that, then he'll be an All-American. Singleton, meanwhile, needs to be far better at high-level cross country meets. That, of course, shouldn't be an issue if he is able to translate his steeplechase success to the grass. Drew Griffith, Freshman, Notre Dame Ah, yes. Drew Griffith. Our first (and only) American true freshman who we will be discussing in these rankings. If you follow the high school scene, then you know just how good this guy is. He ran 3:57 in the mile, posted a jaw-dropping time of 8:31 for two miles and was brilliant throughout last fall, ultimately winning the Foot Locker XC National Championships. So...why is Griffith, one of the single-fastest prep runners ever, not even ranked? Let's take a look at last year's cross country national meet results and attempt to find where the top American true freshman finished. In total, there were eight men who were rookies by eligibility who cracked the top-50 at the 2023 national meet. But the only American of that group, Ethan Coleman (48th), was actually a redshirt freshman. Instead, you have to go all the way back to 74th place to find the top American true freshman. That, of course, was Stanford's Leo Young. And while Young's 2023 fall campaign was very solid, it wasn't all that close to making him a top-50 talent in the country. Need another example? Let's look at the 2022 cross country national meet. That year, there was only ONE runner with freshman eligibility who cracked the top-50 at the national meet. That athlete was Oklahoma State's Fouad Messaoudi, a Moroccan who had already been in the NCAA for the winter and spring track seasons before then. That year, the top American true freshman was Izaiah Steury who placed 63rd overall. He too was a freshman at Notre Dame. And yes, even though Steury was born in Ethiopia, he was adopted at the age of 11 by an American family, therefore granting him USA citizenship. But if you're an especially picky person, then the top American-born true freshman at the 2022 national meet was Villanova's Marco Langon. His finish? 121st place. Now, admittedly, there's a fairly strong argument to be had that Griffith was flat-out better than both Leo Young and Izaiah Steury when they were high schoolers. Across all three seasons, Griffith was absolutely dominant. Only Danny Simmons, who is completing a mission before attending BYU, had an argument of being the better high school talent this past year. Even so, history suggests that American youngsters need time to develop. While it's certainly not impossible for an American true freshman to be a top-50 name or even an All-American, the odds are simply stacked against them. Griffith also seemed to lean more towards to the mile and two-mile as his ideal racing distances rather than the 5000 meters. And in a sport where the championship racing distances extend to 10,000 meters, the more aerobic-centric you are, the better. Are we scared of listing Drew Griffith in our "Just Missed" section? Yes, I'm terrified, actually. There is a very strong chance that he enters the NCAA and makes us look silly by thriving alongside his former high school teammate, CJ Singleton. But for now, we'll lean on the more cautious side of things and settle for placing Griffith just outside of our top-50 rankings. Vincent Chirchir, Freshman, New Mexico We had an incredibly tricky time trying to rank Vincent Chirchir. The raw talent of this New Mexico rookie is evident. This past spring, he ran blistering times of 13:34 (5k) and 28:19 (10k) at the Bryan Clay Invitational and the Stanford Invite. And by just looking at those two efforts alone, Chirchir clearly thrives in fast-paced, aerobic-centric efforts. But when it came time for the championship meets, Chirchir wasn't able to match his more experienced contemporaries. He faltered to 8th place over 5000 meters at the Mountain West Outdoor Championships (although he did earn silver in the 10k earlier that weekend) and was then unable to qualify for the outdoor national meet in either event (although he was close in both). The narrative around Chirchir is pretty straightforward: He is exceptionally talented and has tons of upside, but he's still learning the nuances of NCAA competition. We do love that he gained collegiate experience racing on the track before he was thrust into NCAA cross country racing. In theory, that should at least allow for an easier transition into a new (and very different) season. Rodgers Kiplimo, Junior, Iowa State I know what everyone is thinking. "What? How on Earth can a 37th place All-American from last fall not even be ranked the following year? That makes no sense!" Well, the story with Rodgers Kiplimo isn't as straightforward as one may believe. Yes, it's true, Kiplimo was brilliant at the NCAA XC Championships last year, peaking perfectly alongside his teammates and cracking the top-40 to earn All-American honors. But prior to that race, you likely wouldn't have said that this Cyclone runner was a top-50 runner in the NCAA. In fact, I'm not sure that you would have said that he was a top-150 runner! In his lead up to last year's national meet, Kiplimo placed 128th at the Virginia Invitational and 134th place at the Nuttycombe Invite. And to be blunt, those would be considered bad results for anyone in our top-50 rankings. If you thought Kiplimo's performance would improve in the postseason, then you probably wouldn't have been encouraged after seeing him place 30th at the BIG 12 XC Championships. Although, in his defense, I'm not confident that Iowa State ran all-out for that meet -- just go back and look at the final results. By now, you can likely see why we were so shocked by Kiplimo's All-American result. There wasn't much on his resume which suggested that he had that kind of effort in him. The national meet was, without question, the single-best race of his life. We absolutely love that Kiplimo peaked so perfectly for the national meet last year. It was applause-worthy, really. Even so, we need to see far greater consistency from the Iowa State talent in order for him to be a ranked name. We obviously know what his ceiling is, but being able to replicate that result across the entirety of his 2024 fall campaign will be his next challenge. Marco Langon, Junior, Villanova As a collective group of writers, we really like Marco Langon. The Villanova junior has been an impactful contributor for the Wildcats since he first came to campus. His fast assimilation to the collegiate scene and ongoing rise has made him a high-value name. That's especially true after seeing how well he ran this past winter and spring. On the oval, Langon ran eyebrow-raising times of 7:43 (3k) and 13:28 (5k). He would qualify for the indoor and outdoor national meets in those two events, respectively. But for as strong as those marks are, it's cross country performances that hold the most weight in our rankings. And if you look back at Langon's 2023 fall campaign, then you'll see why we're opting to place him in this section. Finishing 12th at the Virginia Invitational was a huge result for Langon. He looked like a true low-stick who was going to give the fringe-Philly school a three-headed scoring monster alongside Liam Murphy and Haftu Strintzos. But from there, Langon wasn't quite able to replicate that kind of performance. A 110th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite was a truthfully tough result. And while his 7th place finish at the BIG East XC Championships certainly wasn't bad, it also didn't raise his stock in any significant way. Once he reached the national meet, Langon would settle for an underwhelming 146th place effort. Our hope for Langon this season is pretty obvious: Be more consistent. We feel extremely confident that he's talented enough to be a top-50 name this fall. His track times suggest that he's at least worthy of a ranking and his Virginia Invite performance proves that he can be a national-caliber name on the grass. Now, we just need to see it all come together. HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no order) Will Muirhead (Oklahoma State) Valentin Soca (California Baptist) Simon Kelati (Tennessee) Dean Casey (Tennessee) Brian Masai (Arkansas) Brett Gardner (NC State) Carter Solomon (Notre Dame) Jesse Hamlin (Butler) Aidan Troutner (BYU) Gary Martin (Virginia) Quick Note(s) & Key Omissions Northern Arizona's 2024 cross country roster shows that Brodey Hasty is still a member of their team. However, The Stride Report has counted four cross country seasons on Hasty's resume (excluding the COVID year) which means that he should be out of fall eligibility. For that reason, he will not be included in our rankings. BYU freshman Danny Simmons has been omitted from these rankings. Simmons will be completing a mission prior to joining the Cougars.

Here we go. Our 2024 men's and women's preseason individual cross country rankings. Let's start with our "Just Missed" and "Honorable Mention" names. As a reminder, you can find our rankings rubric here . This week will be our D1 rankings while next week will be our D2 and D3 rankings. Let's begin... JUST MISSED (in no particular order) Sophie O'Sullivan, Senior, Washington Despite me being the one to write this section, I actually disagree with Sophie O'Sullivan being listed as a "Just Missed" name. Personally, I was pushing to have her inside of our top-50 rankings, but was ultimately overruled by the group. Last fall, O'Sullivan showed up to every cross country meet and offered great scoring value, albeit to varying extents. Her 15th place finish at the very competitive Virginia Invite was a pleasant surprise, although a 65th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invitational felt like a fairly tepid result. Thankfully, her 6th place finish at the PAC-12 XC Championships was a superb low-stick effort. That would eventually lead to the Husky veteran placing a solid, but shrug-inducing, 56th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. Of course, O'Sullivan's real bread and butter comes on the track. She did, after all, run 4:02 for 1500 meters in the summer of 2023 and just ran 4:05 for the same distance earlier this month. She also recently posted a 2:00 PR for 800 meters overseas. I don't know if there is necessarily one glaring flaw on O'Sullivan's resume. Sure, she didn't always fare as well in larger meets compared to smaller meets, but it's not like she ever had a truly poor race last fall. And yes, O'Sullivan did have an injury that she was recovering from earlier this year, but she rallied enough to make it to the 1500-meter finals at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. If someone wanted to rank O'Sullivan in their own top-50 rankings, I certainly wouldn't argue with you. In the meantime, look for the Washington standout to prove us wrong in her first major race of the season. Keira Moore, Rs. Sophomore, Northern Arizona The Northern Arizona women were a problem last year. Part of that is because they had fantastic low-stick stars, but the other reason why was because their depth was a nightmare to line up against. Lost in that pile of upper-tier scoring was Keira Moore, a rising redshirt sophomore was who absolutely brilliant during the regular season. Last year, Moore made a statement by placing 14th at the Virginia Invitational. That was a very strong result, but we wanted to see if she could validate that effort at another large meet like the Nuttycombe Invite. Well, not only did Moore validate her Virginia Invite performance, she exceeded expectations! That's because the Lumberjack redshirt rookie threw down a monster 16th place finish in Madison! For nearly any team in the country, Moore would be a true low-stick ace capable of leading a national-caliber team. And yes, we're willing to say that based on just two cross country results. So naturally, you may ask yourself, "Then why is she not ranked?" The biggest issue is that we never saw Moore race after the Nuttycombe Invite. An injury would sideline her for the remainder of the cross country season. In fact, Moore would also miss the entire indoor track season. It wouldn't be until the spring months when we would see her race again. Thankfully, Moore was able to put together a full season of racing to close out her second year. But truthfully, she wasn't all that close to the level that we saw from her during the 2023 cross country season (although a 16:10 clocking for 5k is respectable). Moore is more than talented enough to be listed in our rankings. In fact, we nearly put her inside of our top-50 based solely on her two main cross country results from last fall! But the still-rising Aussie needs to prove that she can stay healthy throughout the entirety of a season. Despite being with NAU for two years now, she has only been able to complete one full season of competition. If the Lumberjacks can get her to the starting line in November, then Moore could end up being the reason why the NAU women win a national team title this fall. Allie Zealand, Freshman, Liberty When it comes to men's cross country in the NCAA, it is rare that we see an American true freshman emerge as an All-American. Frankly, it's rare if they emerge as a top-50 finisher. The women, however, are a slightly different story. Last fall, Utah's Annastasia Peters was the NCAA's top American true freshman with her 33rd place finish at the national meet. NC State's Leah Stephens was the next-best behind Peters with a 43rd place finish. The year before that, Natalie Cook claimed top American true freshman honors with her outstanding 7th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. The year before that, if you're willing to count the 2021 NCAA Winter XC Championships despite it's timeline change, then the top American true freshman was Katelyn Tuohy who placed 24th overall. In other words, it is far more likely for the women than it is for the men to produce an individual All-American in the athlete's first year out of high school. That should bode well for Liberty freshman, Allie Zealand, someone who finished her prep career as our TSR #1 recruit. Zealand was beyond outstanding during her senior year of high school, especially at the end. The Virginia native, who was homeschooled, posted a jaw-dropping 4:30 mile PR at the HOKA Festival of Miles before running an arguably more impressive time of 9:41 for two miles! Of course, Zealand was plenty productive on the grass as well. Not only did she earn a strong 13th place finish at Nike Cross Nationals, but she also secured a 2nd place finish at the Foot Locker XC National Championships a week after that! Zealand was already earning top finishes against the nation's very best cross country runners...and then she somehow got even better after that. I'll admit, I'm not quite as high on this women's incoming freshman class as I have been in prior years, specifically when it comes to cross country. Even so, Zealand has a shot to be an All-American this fall. That, however, will come down to whether or not she can translate and sustain her recent success from the track to the grass. Brenda Tuwei, Freshman, Alabama I'm not sure that this write-up requires a ton of detail like I've provided for the above-listed women. I say that simply because this feels like a fairly simple conversation. We know that Brenda Tuwei is talented. In fact, many of us at The Stride Report believe that she is talented enough to be a top-50 name. We know that because she ran an incredible 10k time of 31:20 on the roads back in 2023. However, when it has come to racing on the track, Tuwei has not yet produced any results that match her outstanding road racing performance. Sure, her recent marks of 15:51 (5k) and 33:00 (10k) each deserve a nod of respect. Even so, those results, as well as a lack of known cross country performances, makes it challenging to give her a top-50 spot over other women who are more established. Tuwei probably has the highest ceiling of anyone in our "Just Missed" or "Honorable Mention" sections. We just need to see her fully exhibit that potential before we can rank her. Makenna Veen, Junior, Michigan State We really like Makenna Veen. It feels like the Michigan State veteran does all of the small things right and often boasts many of the intangibles that we look for. Consistency, for instance, has been one of the strongest attributes of this fringe low-stick. Last fall, Veen earned a "just okay" 37th place finish at the Virginia Invite before going on to the Nuttycombe Invite where she earned a much more encouraging 32nd place finish. Top-five finishes at the BIG 10 XC Championships and the Great Lakes regional meet were eventually followed by a 70th place finish on the national stage. Having an athlete as reliable as Veen can often be a huge boost for any program, especially in a sport as volatile and chaotic as cross country. She clearly has a high floor in terms of her baseline performances and she seemed to fare well at a variety of meets. The main thing holding us back from ranking Veen is that she simply needs to be a little bit better at meets like the Virginia Invite and the NCAA XC Championships. She didn't necessarily race poorly on those stages, but we're still waiting to see if her ceiling extends high enough to the point where we are convincingly saying, "She can be an All-American." We certainly think that last part is possible. But for now, we'll keep her in the "Just Missed" section of our rankings. Shannon Flockhart, Senior, Providence Shannon Flockhart is someone who has been gaining more and more attention as a national-caliber runner as of late. The Providence veteran had a breakout track season this past winter, running a 4:30 mile PR and helping the Friars' DMR to All-American honors. On the outdoor oval, Flockhart was even better, running 4:05.99 for 1500 meters and placing 6th overall at the outdoor national meet. Flockhart would then venture overseas where she ran 4:04.98 for the metric mile distance, earning a statement win at the Morton Games. There is no denying that Flockhart is currently in the best shape of her life. She was not only racing at a national-caliber level more consistently, but she also gained far greater control of her fitness. Of course, these are track times and the mile is not often a distance that directly correlates to the 6k distance in cross country. So...why is she listed here? Flockhart's history of being clutch in the postseason doesn't exclusively apply to the track. That's because the Providence star has finished as high as 69th place at the NCAA XC Championships...twice. Yes, you're reading that correctly: Shannon Flockhart finished in 69th place at the NCAA XC Championships in both 2023 and 2022. The UK native also posted decent efforts last fall at the Virginia Invite (36th) and the Nuttycombe Invitational (45th). When you pair that season-long steadiness with Flockhart's postseason success and a recent leap in fitness, the argument for her to be ranked becomes increasingly harder to ignore. But for now, we'll place her in our "Just Missed" section while we await to see if her recent momentum will push her into the All-American hunt. Allison Wilson, Senior, Florida When Allison Wilson transferred from Alabama to Florida last fall, her move was mostly overlooked. That, of course, was because the Gators had landed more established distance stars in Flomena Asekol, Amelia Mazza-Downie and Elise Thorner. But as we reflect on the 2023 cross country season, we find that Allison Wilson was arguably the most underrated transfer pickup in the NCAA last summer. The collegiate veteran more than held her own at the Nuttycombe Invite, posting an impressive 38th place finish. And at the national meet, Wilson once again found success, grabbing 49th place. Admittedly, Wilson wasn't without imperfections last fall. She faded to 19th place at the SEC XC Championships and settled for a slightly better 14th place result at the South regional meet (although we don't put a ton of stock into the latter result). We also haven't seen Wilson post any head-turning PRs on the track, instead settling for times of 15:58 (5k) and 33:34 (10k). At the end of the day, those are mainly the reasons why we opted to keep Wilson out of our top-50 rankings...for now. Regardless, Wilson proved last year that she was one of the more clutch distance runners in the country. In the two biggest meets of the season, Wilson had her best-ever races. And if we were analyzing results from just those two meets, she would almost certainly be ranked. Frankly, we wouldn't argue with anyone who has her ranked in their preseason top-50. Savannah Roark, Senior, Syracuse In the fall of 2022, Savannah Roark was one of the biggest breakout stars that the NCAA had. The Syracuse ace stunned the nation by initially placing 9th at the loaded Cowboy Jamboree. She would later earn a 31st place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite which mostly validated her earlier effort in Stillwater. After a not-as-great performance at the ACC XC Championships, Roark capped her sophomore campaign with a massive 23rd place All-American finish. Roark seemingly came into the 2023 season with tons of momentum. She had just broken through to a nationally competitive tier and had run a 10k PR of 32:49 on the outdoor oval. However, the Orange ace was clearly not in top form last fall. Roark placed 41st at the Virginia Invitational and then 63rd at the Nuttycombe Invite. She later ended her season with an 87th place effort at the NCAA XC Championships. Since then, Roark has seemingly made progress in her fitness, running three PRs in three different events and qualifying for the outdoor national meet in the 10k. Even so, we're now left wondering which version of the Syracuse veteran we will see this fall. We're willing to bet that Roark will be noticeably better in the fall of 2024 than she was last year. She did, after all, display promising momentum and consistency on the track over the last few months. Of course, trying to figure out exactly how much better she will be is the biggest challenge we have. And for that reason, we've opted to place the cross country All-American in our "Just Missed" section of names...for now. Siona Chisholm, Junior, Notre Dame We were exceptionally high on Siona Chisholm going into last fall. The Notre Dame talent was coming off of a freshman year where she placed 7th at the 2022 ACC XC Championships and had qualified for the 2023 outdoor national meet over 5000 meters. In other words, we thought the classic freshman-to-sophomore leap was inevitable for Chisholm. That, however, was not the case. Chisholm did start off her season on a high note, placing 5th at her home meet, the Joe Piane Invitational. There, she took down six eventual All-Americans. But the rest of Chisholm's season left us wanting more. She was 85th at the Nuttycombe Invite, 13th at the ACC XC Championships and 114th at the NCAA XC Championships. And based off of those results, you can see why we opted to leave her out of our rankings. Thankfully, momentum has begun to swing back into Chisholm's favor following an extremely encouraging outdoor track season. This past spring, the Notre Dame talent ran 15:32 for 5000 meters and qualified for the outdoor national meet over that same distance. We are still holding Siona Chisholm stock despite some of her challenges with consistency. We think her upside is among the best in the nation and it truly wouldn't surprise me if she ended up being a top-30 name in the NCAA this fall. Bethany Graham, Rs. Junior, Furman You could make the argument that the best version of Bethany Graham is the most underrated cross country low-stick in the country -- or at least one of them. This Furman veteran has been so steady and so reliable for the Paladins over the years. She has evolved into a focal name for a distance squad that has become increasingly more competitive in recent years. Graham has also been fantastic at the cross country national meet, boasting a clutch factor that other NCAA standouts can sometimes lack. The problem, however, is that she was injured throughout the second-half of the 2023 cross country season. And truthfully, her latest efforts on the track haven't been all that great. But are we really going to ignore someone who is a two-time cross country All-American and a two-time top-30 finisher at the Nuttycombe Invite? The answer to that question is easy: No, we are not going to ignore her. Trying to balance the nationally competitive pedigree of Graham with her latest challenges isn't an easy thing to do when it comes to crafting rankings. Even so, her history is strong enough to the point where she'll at least remain in our "Just Missed" section while we await for greater clarity this fall. HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no order) Julia David-Smith (Washington) Lindsay Cunningham (Wisconsin) Joy Gill (Alabama) Jane Buckley (Providence) Lily Murphy (Penn) Ava Earl (Northeastern) Caroline Jeptanui (Tulane) Florence Caron (Penn State) Riley Chamberlain (BYU) Chloe Thomas (UConn) Quick Note(s) & Key Omissions N/A

Podcast production via Wyatt Barnsley Ben and Garrett are back this week with the first taste of our preseason XC rankings! The guys kick-off the pod with the news of Judy Kosgei heading to Clemson before going through the very first portion of our famed NCAA XC Top-50 Rankings. The guys break down who they feel just missed out on the list, who was perfectly ranked, who they would most want on their team and some of their personal favorites. Be sure to listen, subscribe and review! (3:06) Judy Kosgei Transfers to Clemson (8:48) Who Got Robbed? (Men) (12:28) Who Got Robbed? (Women) (15:58) Most Likely to Go From Honorable Mention to All-American (Men) (19:12) Most Likely to Go From Honorable Mention to All-American (Women) (21:59) Perfectly Ranked Men’s Runner (50-41) (26:00) Perfectly Ranked Women’s Runner (50-41) (30:27) Who Would You Want the Most for the Future? (Men 50-41) (33:02) Who Would You Want the Most for the Future? (Women 50-41) (35:39) Personal Favorites (Men 50-41) (39:03) Personal Favorites (Women 50-41) You can listen to that episode (and others) on our PODCASTS  page! You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Soundcloud. If you like it, be sure to leave us a rating  and a review ! Note: If you're having issues loading the episode on the site via mobile, try refreshing  the episode page. We will look into this issue for future episodes.

Well, it's about that time of the year, huh? Yes, that's right, our summer preseason cross country rankings are BACK! Believe it or not, NCAA cross country racing is only five-ish weeks out from returning. And with our team rankings taking up a heavy portion of that lead-up time, we thought now would be an appropriate moment to introduce our individual rankings. After all, we can only talk about transfers for so long, right? You, the reader, will almost certainly disagree with certain aspects of our rankings. In fact, I would be shocked if you didn't. But that, of course, is what makes this so fun. Even so, we wanted to provide our BOOST subscribers with a broad idea of how our summer rankings are constructed in an effort to create some transparency and understanding. That way, you can at least return to this article and say, "This is probably what they were analyzing," if you don't understand a certain decision we made. Yes, much of the language that you're reading below has been recycled from last summer. However, I have made a few tweaks to offer greater clarity. Here we go... The Schedule Our Preseason NCAA D1 XC Top 50 Individuals will officially begin on July 25th. Our D1 "Just Missed" and "Honorable Mention" names will likely be coming on July 24th. Simply put, we will most likely begin publishing tomorrow. Our Preseason NCAA D2 XC Top 25 Individuals and our Preseason NCAA D3 XC Top 20 Individuals will (likely) be starting the following week via a similar schedule. So don't worry, those are definitely on the way! And yes, we are doing NAIA rankings this year! Of course, because our group of NAIA writers is still relatively small, those preseason rankings will look a bit different compared to our NCAA group. For our NAIA rankings, those lists will have less analysis (although we won't discard the analysis entirely) in favor of ranking more names. Our goal publish date for those NAIA individual rankings is August 5th. As for our cross country team rankings, we're still working on those, but they should be coming out shortly after our individual rankings. Just Missed & Honorable Mention Names I always get a question or two about these sections, so I thought I would quickly add a section in this article offering some explanation. The "Just Missed" group is exactly what it sounds like. These athletes are the first set of individuals who barely missed securing a spot inside of our rankings. They are, in the eyes of The Stride Report, slightly better than the "Honorable Mention" names. Our "Honorable Mentions" section is reserved for athletes who weren't quite our first choices to enter our rankings should a spot open up. However, these athletes still felt too accomplished and too talented to not even mention. It should also be noted that for our preseason rankings (not necessarily during the season), we limit our "Just Missed" group to 10 names and our "Honorable Mention" group to 10 names. Creating Rankings Despite Eligibility Uncertainty Creating these summer rankings has been a major test of the mental fortitude of our entire writing staff at The Stride Report. But frankly, that's been the case every year. Trying to figure out who has cross country eligibility, who doesn't have cross country eligibility, who has cross country eligibility but isn't using it and who is appealing for additional eligibility makes these rankings extremely difficult to craft. We have counted the seasons of used eligibility for all of our listed names via TFRRS. We have searched tirelessly for articles, interviews, social media posts, updated rosters and notes indicating who has eligibility and who does not. We have even messaged some athletes throughout the country and we have emailed a ridiculous number of coaches. In other words, we have done everything in our power to ensure that these rankings are as accurate as humanely possible. On paper, I feel pretty confident about our rankings and I think we have a very good chance of getting every returner (and every departure) correct. However, there is a possibility that someone is actually not returning who we didn't catch. There is also a possibility that someone IS returning and we didn't catch them. But for the most part, I like to think that we did an excellent job of checking for eligibility. Sure, not every coach or athlete got back to us, but all things considered, I'm not sure that we could have done much more. Alright, now let's actually talk about the ranking criteria... The NCAA XC Championships Do Not Entirely Dictate How Successful An Athlete's Season Was Let's suppose that Runner X comes into the 2024 cross country season and absolutely dominates. The athlete easily dusts a handful of elite talents during the regular season, cruises through their conference meet and wins their regional meet with no one close by. Then, all of the sudden, that runner unfortunately has an "off" day at the NCAA XC Championships and falls back to 200th place. Are we really going to say that Runner X wasn't a top-five or top-10 runner that season? Not all examples are as extreme (or as easy) as that. But one performance at the national meet is not going to be the sole driving factor of how someone is ranked. The national meet obviously holds the most weight when it comes to the order of our rankings. And yes, there is something to be said about those who perform well on the big stage. Still, the cross country season is so much more than just one meet. Consistency is a HUGE Factor That We Consider This ties into the above section, but one great race or one bad race isn't going to drastically alter someone's ranking for the entire season. Reliability can make runners extremely valuable. Coaches know what they are going to get out of their more consistent athletes and they can have the comfort of knowing that they will likely not perform below a certain standard. Did you perform well in a smaller meet? Did you perform well in a larger meet? Have you defeated top talents on more than one occasion? Have you shown that you can be competitive in multiple race scenarios? Runners in our top-50 (or top-25) (or top-20) don't necessarily need to hit all of that criteria. Even so, it certainly helps when they show time and time again that they can produce strong results regardless of the races that they are in. And yes, consistency applies to poor performances as well (albeit, not in a favorable way). Progression, Momentum & Peaking Sometimes, it takes a while for certain athletes to get in a groove. Some athletes perform at a much higher level after they get a few races under their legs. Some coaches are experts at ensuring that their team peaks for the postseason. Some athletes are younger and simply become more comfortable with racing at the collegiate level as the season goes on. If an athlete can show an upwards trend in a positive direction, then we are going to take that into consideration. Momentum is a very real thing when it comes distance running. Athletes on a hot streak are often difficult to take down (i.e. Bryce Hoppel on the track in 2019). The Weight of Regular Season Meets & Postseason Meets Each cross country meet needs to be put into context. If we take a look at last year, you could make the argument that meets like Nuttycombe, the Virginia Invitational and maybe Pre-Nationals were more competitive than most of the conference meets in the country (although maybe not all). It would also be unfair to compare the A-10 or the Horizon League to conferences like the ACC or the BIG 10. To be blunt, those first few conferences are not equal to the latter conferences in terms of their competitiveness. The same can be said for regional meets (although there is usually less disparity). This brings me to our next point... Varying Levels of Competition Some teams can't always travel to larger invitationals like Nuttycombe or Pre-Nationals. We completely understand that. However, we are then forced to put things into perspective. There have been multiple instances where athletes have dominated every (relatively small) meet that they have entered, but then get to the national meet and completely blow up. It's one thing to go undefeated and run super fast during the regular season. However, things are going to be extremely different on the national stage when you're facing a stampede of the greatest collegiate runners that the country has to offer. Lack of Emphasis for Regional Championships Speaking of postseason meets, let's chat about the regional cross country meets for a brief moment, shall we? The regional meets are tough to gauge, mainly because a lot of the best teams and individuals in the country don't always put forth their best effort. This is usually in an attempt to preserve themselves for the NCAA XC Championships. On the other hand, some teams and individuals are going all-out to extend their seasons. Those men and women are fighting for the last few national qualifying spots and hoping that the Kolas system swings in their favor. Generally speaking, we don't look at the regional meets too heavily (especially at the D1 level). In our opinion, those meets are not truly indicative of what the overall cross country season actually looks like as far as competition is concerned. While we certainly take outstanding performances into consideration, it's rare for us to really look at the nine regional meets and have them be a significant part of our rankings. Analyzing Performances on the Track Do performances from the indoor track and outdoor track seasons play a role in our cross country rankings? Yes, most definitely. Do those performances from the oval have a bigger influence on our rankings than actual cross country results? It's not an exact science, but 95% of the time, I would probably say no. We use marks from the track as indicators of someone's improvement or which direction they'll trend. However, in most cases, performances from the cross country season are the main (but not entire) driver behind someone's ranking. That said, there are going to be instances where someone had a decent cross country season, but didn't really break out until the track season started. Some performances are just too good to ignore and for that reason, someone will usually sneak into our rankings thanks to their fast times on the oval. Absences, Down Years & Injury History Runners are human. Not everyone is going to make massive improvements or even match their performances from a year ago. If an athlete had a great 2022 cross country season, but struggled/underwhelmed in 2023, then we'll still consider them for a spot in our rankings. Talent rarely just disappears and injuries are typically to blame for "down" years. That said, not everyone who was great in 2022 will automatically get a spot in our rankings in 2024. Does this athlete have a history of injuries? If so, how significant were those injuries? And how often was this runner injured? How good were they in 2022? Have they raced at all recently? If so, were their performances encouraging? These are the questions we ask ourselves when trying to rank runners that we, a) haven't seen in a while, or b) have been struggling as of late. Freshmen Incoming freshmen often draw plenty of debate. Every year, there are always a couple of high school superstars who enter the collegiate ranks and conjure discussion about whether or not they deserve a preseason ranking. There are two trains of thought on this... College is obviously a wildly different and new experience for almost everyone transitioning out of high school. In a lot of instances, it takes time for these incoming freshmen to get adjusted to their college workload and new environment. They also don't (usually) have the same lengthy experience of racing at this level whereas other collegians are simply more proven against NCAA competition. On the other hand, some high school athletes have set all-time marks which indicate that they will be superstars in the future. Sometimes, historically great talents need to be recognized as such before they even toe the line for an NCAA race. Our TSR writers who are responsible for constructing our women's rankings may also view how we rank freshmen differently from our men's team (and vice versa). We don't often crowd our rankings with freshmen, but there are certainly instances where a couple of true freshmen will make appearances inside our lists... High-Upside Talents If you are a consistent TSR reader, then you may have seen a lot of words/phrases like "upside" or "high ceiling" in our articles when we talk about certain athletes. What this means is that there is greater room for growth and improvement for one athlete in comparison to another. Freshmen, naturally, have greater upside than most collegiate athletes. They hold plenty of NCAA eligibility and should (in theory) only get better once they are exposed to higher-level training and stronger competition. Unsurprisingly, a runner's upside will eventually plateau in the latter portion of their careers. But if an elder distance talent is only recently beginning to find their true potential, then we would consider them to have some "untapped" upside. It's a similar story for a junior athlete who has been on a non-stop streak of growth since first coming into the NCAA. While this aspect may seem wildly subjective (and it is), it still holds a level of validity that should be considered as we craft our top-50 lists. International Athletes Athletes who are coming into the NCAA from overseas / another country are truthfully difficult to rank. It's tough to know what their competition was like prior to joining the NCAA and no one is 100% sure how they'll handle the rigors of a competitive cross country season. There are also a lot of instances where we can't confirm rumored marks from the track. That said, some athletes have track times that are just too good to ignore or have championship experience and finishes that we believe make them game-changers for the upcoming fall. Now, admittedly, we simply don't know about each and every international athlete who is coming into the NCAA. We've done our best to track all of the recent moves and transfers that have taken place this offseason, but it's boarderline impossible to know about all of them. Still, we'll continue to evaluate every name that we can in order to ensure that our research is extensive and exhaustive. Difference of Opinions We have a variety of different groups overseeing each of our rankings. We have a D1 women's group, a D1 men's group, a D2 group, a D3 group, an NAIA group and a lone wolf combing through high school results. Naturally, not everyone is going to agree on a ranking. Some writers will want to place a greater emphasis on championship performances while others will want to rely on consistency. Others will place a significant amount of importance on injuries and absences while others will think it's not a big deal. Oftentimes, we debate about an athlete's potential versus what the athlete has actually done. The debates are endless, but my point is clear: Just because we have this ranking rubric doesn't mean that everyone is going to place the same amount of weight on each category. That, however, is what makes these rankings so much fun.

Written by Conor Day, additional edits & commentary via Garrett Zatlin Earlier today, Northern Arizona announced that David Mullarkey was signing with the team as a standard transfer. The move comes shortly after Mullarkey’s former coach, Bob Braman, announced that he was retiring and leaving Florida State. According to TFRRS, the future Lumberjack is expected to have at least one full year of eligibility remaining across all three seasons of competition. A native of England, Mullarkey has been outstanding ever since entering the NCAA in the spring of 2023, making four different national meet appearances. A 3k and 5k specialist on the track, the greatest value found on Mullarkey's resume is the fact that he's a legitimate three-season threat. Holding personal bests of 3:58 (mile), 7:42 (3k) and 13:28 (5k), Mullarkey boasts respectable turnover while maintaining a clear inclination for the aerobic-centric events. And while the English distance talent hasn’t run a 10k on the track yet, his cross country results suggest that he would be incredibly strong at that distance as well. Those cross country results that we are referencing are his breakout 14th place finish at the 2023 Nuttycombe Invite, bronze medal performance at the 2023 ACC XC Championships and 40th place run at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. That latter result was actually a slight "off" day for Mullarkey despite him still earning All-American honors. Mullarkey's long distance tilt and immediate cross country promise is exactly what Coach Mike Smith has historically sought in recruiting when building his aerobic-centric program. That is precisely why NAU was one of the two schools that we suggested for Mullarkey when he first entered the transfer portal. Mullarkey is the first step in NAU’s attempt to replace the glaring holes in their projected 2024 cross country lineup. The Lumberjacks will no longer be able to rely on Nico Young, Drew Bosley, Brodey Hasty or Aaron Las Heras as the former has signed a professional deal with Adidas while the latter three men are out of cross country eligibility. The men of Flagstaff do return a handful of promising names such as All-American ace Santiago Prosser as well as Colin Sahlman, Corey Gorgas and Cael Grotenhuis (among others). But Mullarkey's introduction to this roster changes the trajectory of this team in a significant way. By adding another low-stick to the fold, Mullarkey bolsters NAU's chances of remaining on the podium while simultaneously relying less on the natural growth of less proven names. NAU will certainly be counting on Mullarkey for a top-half All-American finish later this fall in order to achieve the same team success that they have had recently. Training at altitude with teammates who are at a similar level as him could also be the exact thing that could elevate Mullarkey to a tier that makes him more of an All-American lock rather than an All-American contender.

Believe it or not, there is most definitely a market for NAIA analysis, something that our readers showed us after we posted yesterday's article. Now, it's time to break down many of the top NAIA programs on the women's side. Below, we evaluated a handful of top teams from last year and attempted to gauge what the expectations should be for those squads going into the fall months... NOTE: Any analysis offered in this article is not meant to be an indication of where an athlete or team will or will not be ranked in our preseason lists as new information is constantly flowing in. Any eligibility mentioned below is based off of TFRRS and any inside information that we have been able to collect. We also could not get to ALL nationally relevant teams in this article. Just because a team was not mentioned does not necessarily mean that they are less relevant than other teams which were highlighted. Let's begin our chat with the College of Idaho women, your defending NAIA team champions. The Yotes were incredible last year...and frankly, that may be underselling them. The long distance powerhouse posted just 68 points at the national meet with four women cracking the top-seven! That's insanely impressive. And if you look at how the rest of their season played out, you'll find that it wasn't too surprising to see the COI women take home gold (although their title win was far more convincing than we thought it would be). Of course, not all of those star-caliber women can stay in the NAIA forever. Long-time veteran Abby Shirts is now gone and Ellyse Tingelstad, last year's national meet runner-up finisher, is no longer listed on College of Idaho's 2024 cross country roster. And to be blunt, that is going to hurt the Yotes...a lot. Make no mistake, the return of Sage Martin and Kahea Figueira is going to ensure that this Idaho-based distance squad remains nationally competitive. On paper, they have a chance to be the best 1-2 punch in the NAIA this fall. Even so, there was a fairly significant gap after COI's top-four last year. If one of those four women had a tough outing on the national stage, then their team score would have ballooned and pushed them out of title contention. We should also mention that Charlie Duff, an excellent support scorer who has made encouraging progress in her fitness over the last year, is apparently gone as well. Molly Connor, one of COI's key support scorers, is returning. She showed promise on the oval this past year and should be able to contribute as an effective scorer on the grass. Even so, the title-winning firepower that headlined this team in 2023 has been cut in half. Admittedly, that makes it difficult to imagine this team defending their title in 2024. Could it happen? Sure, it could, but that would also require a handful of women behind Martin and Figueira to make significant jumps in their fitness. That said, I do think there is enough remaining firepower and enough recent progress from COI's support scorers to say that they will be podium contenders come November. So if the College of Idaho women aren't going to be viewed as the national title favorites this fall, then who is? * * * Well, the title favorites may be the silver medalists who were 24 points behind the Yotes at last year's national meet. I am, of course, talking about The Master's women. Yes, it's true, the Mustangs lose top-20 All-American Ellen Palmgren from last year's team. That is obviously far from ideal, especially given the top-heavy scoring nature of their competitors. Even so, the trio of Hannah Fredericks, Suzie Johnson and Rebekah Niednagel are all set to to return in 2024. Each of those women were top-25 All-Americans last fall. Oh, and Emma Nelson? She is another returning All-American who placed 40th at last year's national meet. Now, admittedly, Niednagel had the race of her life at the 2023 NAIA XC Championships, comfortably earning All-American honors after mostly being a backend support piece during the regular season. Thankfully, the breakout star did validate her unbelievable national meet race with a strong year on the track, running 4:38 (1500) and qualifying for the NAIA Outdoor Championships. If The Master's women end up winning gold this fall, it's likely going to be because Niednagel carried her momentum from last fall into 2024. Of course, with veteran Alyssa Lovett expected to be out of eligibility, the Mustangs will also need to find a stable fifth scorer who can keep any excess scoring to a minimum. That's easier said than done, but look for Brooke Cregan to be that name after a fairly solid spring campaign on the oval. We now move to St. Mary (KS), a team that is almost identical to The Master's in terms of their projected lineup structure for this upcoming fall. Long-time veteran Maddy Walter-Sherretts is no longer with the Spires, instead choosing to finish her eligibility at Savannah College of Art and Design. But even with one low-stick gone, this Kansas-based distance program will still return a trio of All-Americans in Reagan Hiebert, Kate Madsen and Riley Hiebert. Those three women all finished in the top-25 at last year's national meet with the former name emerging as a 6th place finisher. And for the most part, none of those results were flukes given how well they ran during the regular season. That simply means that we should fully expect that trio to return to their All-American ways in November. Returning veteran Carlie Gregg -- who finished 76th at the national meet and earned a sneaky-good 25th place finish at the Blazing Tiger Invite -- may end up being the most important scorer that this team has in 2024. Her ability to cut-off excess scoring and stabilize this lineup is going to be critically important. But thankfully for the St. Mary women, Gregg had a strong year on the track and should continue to make improvements. I also love the fact that both Monse Guerrero-Chapula and Josie Tyrrell, two top-102 national meet finishers, are both going to be returning as experienced juniors. On paper, St. Mary may end up being the most balanced NAIA cross country squad in the nation this fall. Of course, being a "balanced" team doesn't always mean that you can overcome another team's firepower. * * * I was initially prepared to talk about the Milligan women having a "down" year given that they lost their low-stick and a handful of valuable backend veteran scorers. But the more you look at this roster and the accompanying upside that some of these women hold, it's hard to argue that the Buffaloes aren't a podium-caliber team this fall. Low-stick ace Caitlin Dominy is out of eligibility, leaving returning All-Americans Hannah Brown and Ellen-Mary Kearney to lead the team. That's a very strong 1-2 punch, but with the top teams in the NAIA looking incredibly top-heavy, it's the rest of this squad that will need to collectively improve. The good news is that the Buffaloes do add Kirsten Geary to their roster this fall, a transfer from Georgetown College (KY). She was the 58th place finisher at last year's national meet, but has proven to be far better than what that result would suggest. After all, this is someone who won the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge XC Invitational, placed 10th in the "Silver" race at the Louisville XC Classic and was a 5k All-American in the winter! In theory, Milligan still has three All-American-caliber women who can keep them in the hunt for a podium spot. But with fourth scorer Zanelle Willemse and fifth scorer Gracie Allen not expected to return, women such as Patricia Barrera and Natalie Fellers will likely be tasked with closing out the team's scoring. Although, after seeing how well Ashlyn Haas and Anna Jones ran on the track this past spring, there's reason to believe that Milligan may have a stronger backend than you would initially project. Let's now chat about the Taylor women, a team that comes with both good and bad news. The good news for the Trojans is that they return five of their top-seven women from last fall, including one All-American (Noel VanderWall) and one near-All-American (Audrey Brinkruff who was actually an All-American in the 5k this past winter). The bad news, however, is that the two women they do lose were their first and fourth scorers at the national meet (Mollie Gamble and Ahna Neideck). Not having Gamble is a brutal blow given that she scored just four team points via her 4th place finish at the NAIA XC Championships last fall. Not only that, but Neideck was almost certainly an All-American-caliber talent last fall after placing 31st at the Louisville XC Classic and 14th at the Blazing Tiger Invite. Her 70th place finish at the national meet was not at all reflective of her true potential. Trying to replace the scoring value of someone like Mollie Gamble in just one offseason is often not a realistic goal for most teams. That, however, may not apply to the Trojans. But...why is that? That's because the Taylor women signed one of the single-most impressive high school distance recruits in the nation from the Class of 2024. I am, of course, talking about Jayne Halterman. The Tennessee native earned a tremendous 7th place finish at the Foot Locker XC National Championships last fall and owns a 5k PR of 17:01. While she did end her high school campaign as our TSR #46 recruit, Halterman was ranked as high as TSR #28 in our list. It's never easy to dissect how good new freshmen will be when they enter the collegiate realm. Even so, Halterman is a true national-caliber recruit and everything we've seen from her suggests that she can contend for a top-10 spot at the NAIA XC Championships come November. And suddenly, Taylor's up-top firepower from last year is structurally unchanged. With two top-90 national meet finishers in Lynae Ackley and Kaitlin Burden both set to return, I am actually led to believe that this team will be even better than last year and possibly a podium favorite. That is not something that I expected to say about this team when I first began my analysis. * * * We now move to Huntington, a team that I truthfully struggle to be high on. Losing the single-best runner in the NAIA, Addy Wiley, and an 11th place national meet finisher in Anna Martin (she is not listed on their 2024 cross country roster) is not something that I see the Foresters being able to overcome. Simply put, those two women made up the entirety of Huntington's identity last fall and they carried their team in the scoring. Now, in their defense, the Foresters do bring back Emily Tedder, Molly Harding and Malarie Pinwar who went 60-87-91, respectively, at the national meet. That's a solid core that this team can build around. But with their final two runners from last year's national meet being unable to crack the top-230 (and their regular season performances largely matching those results), it's hard to see the Foresters being a top-10 team in 2024. The story is distinctly different for the women of St. Francis (IL). They didn't necessarily have a true low-stick star last year. They did, however, boast tons of great depth and excellent pack-running. Not only that, but they also return everyone from last year's team! The Saints had five women finish in the top-90 at the national meet, although their top scorer was Riley Jo Ford who missed out on All-American honors by seven spots. But despite not having a true star-caliber low-stick, having so much compact depth return for another year should only make this team better. And the best part of all? Every. Single. Returner. is expected to be a senior by eligibility, per TFRRS. In other words, you're getting a high-floor team that boasts tons of experience and still has room to collectively improve. Of course, if this team really wants to solidify themselves as podium contenders, then they'll need to find far greater scoring potency come November. The Southern Oregon women are in a slightly similar situation as St. Francis. The Raiders return their entire top-four from the national meet, including two All-Americans in Alejandra Lopez and Lauren Foster. They also bring back Alyssa Johnson and Cammeo Ramirez, two top-100 national meet finishers. On paper, that is going to be SOU's core this fall. They are roughly just as talented as the core that we spoke about with St. Francis, but they are slightly more spread out, boasting better firepower, but one less returning piece. Haylee Brodahl's departure, while not ideal, will largely be nullified by the return of rising junior, Sarah Mauk. And with the aforementioned Ramirez proving to be a borderline lead scorer at the Blazing Tiger Invite, I only see this team getting better in 2024. However, simply returning their main scorers and "running it back" will only get this team so far if they want to seriously contend for the podium. If that's going to happen, then closing down on the backend of this lineup is a must. * * * Alright, let's now chat about what I believe to be the most fascinating team of the upcoming 2024 NAIA cross country season. And just like the men's article, that team is Cumberlands (KY) University. The Patriots return all seven of their women from last year's top-10 national meet squad. Of those returners, five of them were either freshmen or sophomores. What this means is that, in theory, this team should naturally get stronger as they grow older. But make no mistake, the Cumberlands (KY) women did not have a perfect team last year. The national meet highlighted significant gaps in their lineup, something that was also plenty apparent during the regular season. Simply returning everyone and relying on them to naturally mature as racers probably isn't going to be the thing that puts this team on the podium. Instead, it's going to be Sanae Hassnaoui (via Barton County CC) and Jessica Chappell (via Harding) who will give this program the scoring boost they need. The former was a JUCO standout, running as fast as 9:39 for 3000 meters. The latter was a top-10 finisher at the Great American XC Championships (an NCAA Division Two meet). Neither Hassnaoui or Chappell have to be superstar low-sticks to impact this program in October and November. By acting as solid support scorers, they'll give this team a boost closer towards the podium. And if they do meet expectations, then we're talking about two potential All-Americans, especially for Hassnaoui. As for the Dordt women, last year's 10th place national meet team, I simply don't have much to say. The Defenders no longer have the low-stick scoring services of Jessica Kampman. They also lost a support scorer in Taylor Anema. Returning women such as Isabella Webb, Jessica Opfer and Molly Mulder will give Coach Nate Wolf a solid group to build around. That trio could end up being sneaky-good given that they were either freshmen or sophomores last year and are due to naturally improve in the same way that we mentioned with Cumberlands. Of course, the real challenge will be seeing how this team fills out their scoring behind that group of women. Alright, this article is getting longer than I thought it would be. Let's wrap up this discussion with quick-take bullet-points, shall we? The Lewis-Clark women are expected to lose their top low-stick in Brooklyn Shell, but they return everyone else. With a fairly significant drop-off after their top-four throughout last fall, losing your top scorer isn't going to make overcoming that backend gap any easier. That said, I do believe that both Chloe Overberg and Geraldin Correa could realistically evolve into true low-sticks. Embry-Riddle Arizona returns everyone from their 12th place national meet team. Three of those returners finished in the top-90 at the NAIA XC Championships and nearly all of those returners are expected to be seniors. In other words, there are a lot more positives about this team than there are negatives. Indiana Wesleyan was a SUPER young team last year, but they still cracked the top-15 at the national meet. With a new coach now at the helm, it will be fascinating to see how this still-rising distance squad is able to make an impact after gaining valuable experience. Wow, the Goshen women lose A LOT of scoring and depth from last year's team, at least according to TFRRS. I'll be interested to see how Coach Rustin Nyce is able to revamp his squad in 2024.