Written by Finn Birnie, Rachel Hickey & Garrett Zatlin IMPORTANT NOTE: These rankings are based on how an individual fared throughout the entirety of a season , not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships or at a singular meet. You will notice that these rankings (specifically, the top-half) may mirror the national meet results, but not precisely. That is intentional. These rankings are intended to be an aggregate.  They are not recency lists.   Click here to learn more about our ranking criteria (which was published in 2023).   KEY (Unranked): Was not ranked in our last update. (#/#): First number indicates how much the athlete has moved in the rankings. The second number indicates where the athlete was ranked in our last update. 50. Taryn Parks, Senior, North Carolina (Unranked) Most people know Taryn Parks as a tactically savvy miler during the winter and spring months. And while she had proven to be an effective scorer on the grass before, Parks has never been viewed as a low-stick-caliber talent during the fall months. That's why we were completely blown away by the UNC veteran posting a jaw-dropping 27th place All-American finish out of nowhere on Saturday. That result is maybe the best of her career regardless of the season. It's admittedly hard to rank a 27th place All-American who was 71st at the Nuttycombe Invite, 23rd at the Princeton Fall Classic and 36th at the ACC XC Championships. That's why we opted to give Parks the final spot in our rankings in an effort to reconcile her national meet result with the rest of her seasonal resume. 49. Mercy Kinyanjui, Freshman, Toledo (-16 / 33) We will admit that a 62nd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was a bit of a let-down for Mercy Kinyanjui despite her freshman inexperience. The Toledo ace looked like she was primed to be an All-American this fall, especially given that she didn't waver on any major stages. Kinyanjui secured 7th place at the Loyola Lakefront Invite and then earned an even more impressive 17th place finish at Pre-Nationals. The Rocket star went on to earn individual wins at the MAC XC Championships and the Great Lakes regional meet. In the grand scheme of things, Kinyanjui's performance on Saturday was hardly terrible. Plus, she was consistently successful in a variety of different fields throughout the fall months. In our eyes, she did enough to remain as a top-50 runner, nationally, at the conclusion of this season. 48. Vera Sjoberg, Junior, Boston U. (Unranked) She may not have been a standout star this season, but Vera Sjoberg was quietly steady and reliable against a handful of strong names. The Boston U. product was the runner-up finisher at the Paul Short Run behind Chloe Thomas before settling for 11th place at the Princeton Fall Classic (which featured a large handful of stars). And once she reached the national meet, Sjoberg snagged a 42nd place national meet finish, capping a fall campaign that held great value as a whole. The Terrier low-stick has been a nationally competitive name for the last year or two, but this fall felt different. In 2024, it felt like Sjoberg was able to reach the highest point of her fitness and then maintain that success throughout the entire season. 47. Mia Cochran, Junior, Arkansas (Unranked) Over the last few years, we've always viewed Mia Cochran as a strong, national-caliber scorer who was more of a lead runner rather than a true low-stick. But in the fall of 2024, it feels like the Arkansas standout has graduated to that latter status. Her 18th place finish at Pre-Nationals was tremendous. That result showcased the crazy-good ceiling that we knew Cochran had. However, her 11th place effort at the SEC XC Championships left us wanting so much more. Going into the national meet, we didn't totally know which version of Cochran we were going to get. But when the dust settled, the Razorback veteran snagged a bittersweet 41st place finish, just one spot off from All-American honors. Despite the narrow All-American miss, Cochran still saved her best performances for the two biggest and most important races of the season. In our eyes, she did enough to earn a top-50 ranking. 46. Mercy Kirarei, Freshman, New Mexico (Unranked) Make no mistake, Mercy Kirarei was a strong, nationally competitive name throughout this season even if she wasn't originally ranked. She never had a truly poor performance and when it came to the national meet, she peaked perfectly, placing 35th for All-American honors. The reason why we're just ranking Kirarei now is because her results leading up to the national meet, while very solid, didn't necessarily jump off the page, either. Kirarei was 8th at the Cowboy Jamboree, 38th at Pre-Nationals and 4th at the Mountain West XC Championships. However, on Saturday, Kirarei flexed the very exciting upside that we figured she held coming into this season. That is why she cracks our rankings, but we couldn't put her much higher due to other the movement of other women and to balance this All-American effort with the rest of her resume. 45. Sarah Tait, Senior, West Virginia (Unranked) We really liked Sarah Tait going into the national meet. We thought she was an underrated middle-lineup piece who held a lot of responsibility for West Virginia being as good as they were this fall. Even so, we didn't expect Tait to finish much higher than 60th place going into this past weekend. Sure, she was talented, but placing 82nd at Pre-Nationals and 12th at the BIG 12 XC Championships didn't necessarily scream, "low-stick." However, when Saturday came around, Tait was exactly that. The WVU veteran posted a monster 34th place All-American result. And even in a best case scenario, that effort beat our expectations for her, handily. Sure, Ceili McCabe and Joy Naukot will get most of the attention for their top-half All-American honors, but Tait is arguably the biggest reason why the Mountaineers found themselves earning the silver medal spot on the podium. 44. Siona Chisholm, Senior, Notre Dame (-14 / 30) Siona Chisholm has had a bit of an up-and-down career while at Notre Dame. There is no denying that she is extremely talented, but consistency has, at times, been a challenge. That's why her recent 81st place finish at the NCAA XC Championships isn't a complete shock. The Fighting Irish veteran was arguably the best that she's ever been on the grass this fall. Placing 5th at the Joe Piane Invite and 12th at Pre-Nationals made Chisholm a heavy All-American favorite who had seemingly found far greater stability as a top-tier scorer. That was further emphasized when she placed 6th at the ACC XC Championships. Unfortunately, Chisholm struggled once more on the national stage. Even so, there is no denying that the South Bend standout is a top-50 name. Her performances at three major invitationals gives her plenty of staying power in our rankings. 43. Erin Strzelecki, Rs. Senior, Notre Dame (Unranked) At certain points this season, Erin Strzelecki looked like a very solid and steady distance talent. Her 14th place finish at the Joe Piane Invite was quietly strong and a 5th place finish at the Great Lakes regional meet deserves a nod of respect as well. But at the same time, Strzelecki's resume didn't stand out in any major way, especially after placing 26th at the ACC XC Championships. And yet, we still should have seen her 37th place All-American result coming. After all, Strzelecki finished in the exact. same. spot. as she did at the 2023 national meet! The Notre Dame veteran very clearly has a knack for peaking in the postseason. In fact, relative to expectations, very few women have peaked better than she has. 42. Erin Vringer, Sophomore, Utah (-4 / 38) The regular season treated Erin Vringer very, very well. The Utah distance star was outstanding, making a massive jump in her fitness with a 6th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite and a runner-up effort at the Bill Dellinger Invite. The Utah runner looked outstanding through her first two major meets. An 8th place finish at the BIG 12 XC Championships wasn't quite as strong as her earlier efforts, but it still validated Vringer as a low-stick ace. But on Saturday, the rest of the NCAA caught up to Vringer who settled for a 68th place finish on the national stage. It was a fine result and hardly poor, but the Utah star was seemingly capable of being an All-American. And even though that didn't happen, the whole of her season was still good enough to remain in our rankings. 41. Anika Thompson, Senior, Oregon (Unranked) Coming into this season and throughout the fall months, we tabbed Anika Thompson as a solid middle-lineup scorer who would bring stability to the Oregon women. And for the most part, she did just that, placing 62nd at the Nuttycombe Invite and 12th at the BIG 10 XC Championships. But for as good as those results were, they weren't going to put the Duck veteran into the All-American conversation. Of course, Thompson put herself in that category anyway. On Saturday, Thompson had the race of her life, snagging a huge 32nd place All-American finish to stun the country. That was a massive boost of scoring potency that we didn't expect to see (and I'm not sure that Oregon expected it, either). That All-American performance is a clear outlier on her 2024 cross country resume. Even so, the rest of Thompson's fall campaign was strong enough to earn a TSR #41 ranking instead of just barely sneaking into our rankings. 40. Judy Kosgei, Sophomore, Clemson (-14 / 26) It feels a bit odd to push Judy Kosgei all the way back to our TSR #40 spot. At one point, we were considering her for a top-10 position in our rankings. So how did the Clemson star end up here? Make no mistake, Kosgei was great this fall, placing 4th at both the Louisville XC Classic and the ACC XC Championships. That latter result was especially impressive when you consider that the NC State duo of Grace Hartman and Hannah Gapes were two of the women who finished ahead of her. But at the same time, that was the only result from a major invitational that she had on her resume this season. And while her battles against the West Virginia women and her own teammates were encouraging, those performances can only prop up her ranking so much. That's especially true after the Tiger ace dropped to 51st place at the NCAA XC Championships. From a raw talent perspective, Kosgei is probably a top-20 runner. But considering that she finished 10 spots worse than this spot at the national meet, we felt like a TSR #40 ranking was a relatively fair placement. 39. Carmen Alder, Junior, BYU (-5 / 34) Consistency was the big thing that we were looking for when it came to Carmen Alder this fall. She had a huge win at Pre-Nationals last year, put together a couple of solid results beyond that, but then faded (a lot) at the national meet. But in 2024, Alder was far more steady by placing 10th at the Joe Piane Invite, 14th at Pre-Nationals and 10th at the BIG 12 XC Championships. All of that led to a 39th place All-American finish. Sure, some performances were better than others, but that's not the point. In a season where many of her top scoring teammates weren't healthy, it was imperative that Alder's raw talent was consistently put on display. And sure enough, that is exactly what happened. 38. Brynn Brown, Senior, North Carolina (+11 / 49) On Saturday, Brynn Brown recorded her first-ever All-American honor across any season of competition. That seems absurd given that she was a highly elite distance recruit a few years ago and found plenty of success at various points throughout her career. However, this fall felt like the first truly complete season that Brown has ever had in the NCAA. In fact, few All-American-caliber women were as consistent and as reliable as she was. The UNC ace placed 10th at the Nuttycombe Invite, 7th at the Princeton Fall Classic and 8th at the ACC XC Championships. On Saturday, Brown capped her season with a 38th place finish on the national stage, ultimately being rewarded for her metronomic-like consistency. Sure, the Tar Heel star never had the flashiest performances relative to expectations, but she was truly great every single time she toed the line. And frankly, that's not a given for many of the NCAA's biggest and best distance runners nowadays. 37. Laura Pellicoro, Senior, Portland (Unranked) Few women in the NCAA are more clutch on the nation's stage than Laura Pellicoro is. After earning a tremendous 28th place finish on Saturday, the Pilot veteran now ends her cross country career as one of the most underappreciated distance runners of this era -- and a two-time top-30 All-American (with a 41st place finish last year). Unlike most of the women in these rankings, Pellicoro has consistently found enough success on the national stage to nullify any poor efforts that she has had beforehand. But given that the only other results that she had this season were a 4th place finish at the West Coast Conference XC Championships and an 8th place finish at the West regional meet, there wasn't much to analyze to begin with. 36. Lucy Jenks, Senior, Georgetown (-16 / 20) Seeing Lucy Jenks settle for 49th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships is admittedly a tough pill to swallow. The former Stanford runner had been a consistently strong distance talent for the Cardinal during each of her years in Palo Alto, California. However, the fall of 2024 felt like the year where Jenks truly leveled up her fitness into a new tier. She was 14th at the Nuttycombe Invite, 4th at the Princeton Fall Classic and 5th at the BIG East XC Championships. In our eyes, the stars were aligning for Jenks to earn her very first individual All-American honor. That, however, didn't happen. Instead, the Hoya ace settled for a finish that was nine spots short of that. Despite the gut-punching result, we remain very big fans of Jenks. If Coach Mitchell Baker hadn't signed her, then the Hoyas would likely not have been in the podium conversation to begin with. She was a massive asset for Georgetown this season, making it hard to drop her any further than this. 35. Ali Weimer, Junior, Minnesota (-7 / 28) Ali Weimer will likely be one of the big favorites to win our "Most Improved Award" in our upcoming "End of Season Awards." The jump in fitness that we saw from this Minnesota ace in 2024 was absolutely incredible. Once an afterthought on the grass, Weimer elevated her fitness this fall to become a lethal low-stick star. Her win at the Roy Griak Invite was nice, but her 8th place finish at the Loyola Lakefront Invite was when we truly began to appreciate her growth. Of course, Weimer placing 11th at Pre-Nationals and 3rd at the BIG 10 XC Championships was what truly elevated the Golden Gopher runner into a new echelon of excellence. Unfortunately, Weimer's season didn't end with an All-American honor. Instead, she placed 48th at the NCAA XC Championships, a still-strong result that demands respect. And regardless of the outcome, nothing that Weimer did on Saturday was going to take away from the tremendous breakout camp that she put together. 34. Elise Stearns, Rs. Senior, Northern Arizona (-3 / 31) We'll admit, we're really struggling with ranking Elise Stearns. The Northern Arizona star didn't begin racing until the postseason. And with all due respect to the BIG Sky XC Championships and the Mountain regional meet, those races aren't good indicators of how fit an individual is. A 36th place All-American finish on Saturday is truthfully the only legitimate result that we analyze. And for that reason, we have fittingly placed Stearns at TSR #34 to end the cross country season. 33. Shannon Flockhart, Senior, Providence (Unranked) Wow, how about Shannon Flockhart?! The Providence star is better known for her success on the track, specifically over 1500 meters. However, she has always been a very valuable and strong cross country runner. Sure, she was never favored to be an All-American, but a pair of 69th place national meet finishes between 2022 and 2023 suggested that a top-40 result was at least a possibility this November. Throughout this season, Flockhart exhibited clear improvement in her overall aerobic fitness. Placing 13th at the Nuttycombe Invite and later taking 10th at the Princeton Fall Classic at least put the Friar star in the All-American conversation. The same could be said about her 8th place result at the BIG East XC Championships. However, a monster 24th place performance at the NCAA XC Championships this past weekend was stunning. We knew Flockhart was talented and had made improvements, but this was a huge outlier compared to what we had previously seen from her. In terms of peaking for the national meet, this British distance runner was among the very best in the NCAA this year. 32. Leah Jeruto, Freshman, Oklahoma (-5 / 27) Is a 40th place All-American finish from Saturday a bad result? No, most definitely not. But did we expect Leah Jeruto to produce a better performance than that at the NCAA XC Championships? Yes, we did. The Oklahoma freshman showcased a ton of outstanding raw talent this fall, posting top-tier finishes at major invitationals. At one point, she even looked like a top-half All-American threat this season. By placing 3rd at the Joe Piane Invite, 2nd at the Arturo Barrios Invite and 9th at the SEC XC Championships, Jeruto defeated names such as Rosina Machu, Jenna Hutchins, Siona Chisholm, Carmen Alder, Riley Chamberlain and Judy Chepkoech (among others). In theory, defeating those women likely put Jeruto closer to the top-25 or top-30. Of course, it's hard to be disappointed with an inexperienced international freshman earning All-American honors in her first-ever collegiate season. 31. Sophia Kennedy, Sophomore, Stanford (+4 / 35) Sophia Kennedy concluded her second year of cross country racing with a 33rd-place performance at the NCAA XC Championships. In the process, she earned All-American honors, showing marked improvement from her 95th place finish at the national meet during her freshman year. Kennedy's low-stick result helped the Stanford women secure 6th-place in the team race, adding to the squad’s potency and stability.  Relative to her ACC XC Championship result where she placed 11th, this national meet performance was truly a defining race for Kennedy. There is no better day to maximize your potential than at the NCAA Championships, and it feels like Kennedy did just that. Her continued rise could make her a top-10 threat at next year's national meet. 30. Riley Chamberlain, Junior, BYU (+17 / 47) It has been a breakthrough postseason for BYU’s Riley Chamberlain! A middle distance standout, the BYU junior stepped up in a massive way for the Cougars' title-winning roster. The absence of Jenna Hutchins this past Saturday left a sizable gap in BYU's lineup between low-stick Lexy Halladay-Lowry and the remaining scorers.  Thankfully, that's where Riley Chamberlain comes in. Her postseason run has consisted of a 6th place finish at the BIG 12 XC Championships, 5th place finish at the Mountain regional meet and a 31st place finish at the NCAA XC Championships, securing her first career All-American honor on the grass. Chamberlain gathered more and more momentum as the season went on, rallying from a somewhat underwhelming effort at the Joe Piane Invite a couple of months ago. She peaked beautifully for the national meet and it showed on Saturday. 29. Aliandrea Upshaw, Senior, Northern Arizona (+8 / 37) Ali Upshaw concluded her collegiate career on the grass with a clutch 22nd place individual finish at the NCAA XC Championships. That result is not only the highest individual placement of her career, but she also emerged as the Lumberjacks’ lead scorer with All-American honors.  Upshaw’s season as a whole has been impressive between her individual victory at the BIG Sky XC Championships, and earlier, placing 19th at Pre-Nationals. However, Upshaw had yet to display that level of pure firepower on the national stage, making her recent 22nd-place finish a statement performance of sorts. 28. Brenda Jepchirchir, Freshman, Auburn (+11 / 39) Auburn’s Brenda Jepchirchir is no stranger to our rankings, but she is also one of many newcomers who made big-time splashes this fall. The Tiger freshman capped off her intro season with a 21st-place finish at the NCAA XC Championships, one of eight (yes, eight!) freshmen to earn an All-American honor. Jepchirchir made noise early in her season with her first college victory at the Gans Creek Classic, taking down the Stanford duo of Zofia Dudek and Sophia Kennedy. She later secured a highly promising top-five finish at the top-heavy SEC XC Championships. That race allowed us to realize just how talented Jepchirchir truly was/is. Even so, a 21st-place finish at the national meet was admittedly a bit of a surprise, but it certainly a pleasant one. A result like that proves that she can certainly contend for a top-10 national meet honor next fall with some more development.  27. Rachel Forsyth, Freshman, Michigan State (+13 / 40) Michigan State’s freshman phenom Rachel Forsyth has put together one heck of a postseason campaign! As such, she skyrockets up our individual rankings. With each race, Forsyth seemed to get better and better, demonstrating the poise and confidence of a veteran. Her 4th place finish at the BIG 10 XC Championships showed us her true potential and her runner-up finish at the Great Lakes region meet further affirmed that suspicion. But 16th place at the NCAA XC Championships? We'll be honest, I'm not sure that we saw that one coming, but we do love (good) surprises! That was by far the best race of Forsyth’s young career and it launches her into the conversation of top freshmen in the NCAA this fall. Yes, she is sitting at a spot 11 spots back from where she finished at the national meet. However, that is simply because her regular season results were good, but not necessarily amazing. 26. Silvia Jelego, Freshman, Clemson (-17 / 9) Despite a bit of a hiccup in her season finale, there is still so much for Clemson’s Silvia Jelego to be proud of in her rookie cross country season. Jelego struggled a bit on Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, falling off the lead pace to place 46th at the NCAA XC Championships, just outside All-American honors. Based on her performances leading up to the national meet, we had high hopes and expectations for this young talent. And keep in mind, Jelego had yet to finish outside the top-three in any race she competed in this fall going into this past weekend. Whether it be inexperience or just an "off" day, Jelego admittedly fell short of her potential in the 2024 finale. Even so, that does not make us forget about the raw talent that she flashed at every other point this season. The Tiger rookie proved herself multiple times amongst some of the best in the nation, including her runner-up performance at the ACC XC Championships. For that reason, she remains inside of our top-30. 25. Rosina Machu, Junior, Gonzaga (-2 / 23) Gonzaga junior Rosina Machu may not have had the dream ending that she did during the fall of her sophomore year. Even so, the Bulldog ace still has plenty to celebrate from this fall. At the NCAA XC Championships, Machu capped off her third year of collegiate racing with a 45th place finish, leaving her juuuuust outside of All-American honors. And compared to her 16th place finish from last year, her latest result left us wanting so much more. Even so, leading up to the national meet, Machu had an excellent season. The Gonzaga star finished no lower than 4th place in any meet contested this year, including the Nuttycombe Invite and Arturo Barrios Invite. With every challenge presented, Machu always had an answer despite what her national meet result might indicate. For that reason, we didn't feel compelled to drop her too much in these rankings. 24. Judy Chepkoech, Freshman, Arizona State (0 / 24) First season in the NCAA, first All-American honor for Judy Chepkoech! And that will certainly not be her last. The Arizona State star was one of many standout newcomers who defined the NCAA cross country scene this fall. The Sun Devil ace often thrived against top-tier competition, taking down names such as Rosina Machu, Lexy Halladay-Lowry and more. And in an effort to validate her unreal talent, Chepkoech earned All-American status with her 30th-place performance in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday. In fact, looking at her year as a whole, the national meet was the only race where Chepkoech finished outside the top-five. That is an impressive statistic that most veteran talents can't even claim on their resumes. 23. Margot Appleton, Senior, Virginia (+9 / 32) We started this fall wondering when (or if) we would get to see Virginia’s Margot Appleton toe the line. Thankfully, we are ending the 2024 season after the Cavalier star produced the best cross country result of her career! Appleton’s late entry to the cross country season left many questions regarding her fitness and health. However, the UVA ace put all doubts to rest with her best fall campaign yet (despite her limited racing schedule). In her three lone outings on the grass, Appleton placed 7th at the ACC XC Championships, 5th at the Southeast regional meet, and an astounding 18th at the NCAA XC Championships. That latter result was by far the best finish of her career! The absence of Virginia's superstar admittedly tested our patience, but it is safe to say it was well worth the wait! 22. Brenda Tuwei, Sophomore, Alabama (-11 / 11) Alabama newcomer Brenda Tuwei tumbles a bit in our final rankings update, setting line at TSR #22 following her fall capstone. That's because the Crimson Tide rookie ended her introductory cross country season with a 29th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.  Is that a poor performance? No, absolutely not. But did that result fall short of what we thought could produce? Yes, it did. Tuwei’s season on the grass has been highly impressive with a 4th-place finish at the SEC XC Championships as her season’s hallmark. Before then, she also took down top-tier names such as Grace Hartman, Hannah Gapes, Mercy Kinyanjui, Ali Weimer, Silvia Jelego and Gladys Chepngetich. Naturally, you can see why we opted to keep her a handful of spots higher in our rankings than where she finished at the national meet. 21. Phoebe Anderson, Senior, Columbia (+4 / 25) Experience, experience, experience. That is a mantra that has been commonly associated with the Columbia senior Phoebe Anderson this season. And sure enough, experience is exactly what led the Lioness to her highest cross country national meet finish of her career this past Saturday. Anderson capped off her incredible career with a 26th place finish at the national meet, earning her second consecutive All-American honor on the grass. Her 2024 season was arguably the steadiest fall campaign of her career, demonstrating poise that only a veteran can truly have on big stages. Prior to the national meet, Anderson finished in the top-10 in every race contested, leaving us feeling very confident in her postseason abilities. Despite finishing in 26th place on Saturday, Anderson's resume as a whole only gained more valuable due to how reliable she was. 20. Maddy Elmore, Senior, Oregon (-1 / 19) Despite some limited racing from the Oregon veteran, Maddy Elmore made the most of every opportunity and flexed impressive aerobic development on the grass in 2024. In her first NCAA XC Championship appearance (back in 2022), Elmore was a respectable 72nd place, individually. At the 2023 national meet, she took 52nd place.  In 2024, Elmore soared to 25th overall, her highest finish ever and first All-American honor in cross country. And yet, it still feels like she fell just a tad short of expectations at the national meet.  With the exception of teammate Silan Ayyildiz, Elmore practically ran away from everyone in her season outings leading up to the NCAA XC Championships. In turn, we projected Elmore to be a top-20 finisher on Saturday. A 25th place All-American finish is still wildly impressive for a middle distance specialist and we were encouraged to see the form Elmore was in following the abrupt end to her outdoor track season. All things considered, this fall campaign should be considered a success for her. 19. Chloe Scrimgeour, Senior, Georgetown (-6 / 13) After her 8th place cross country national meet finish in 2023, the sky was the limit for Georgetown’s Chloe Scrimgeour in 2024. But while her 2024 season was far from poor, her 23rd place finish at this year's national meet left us wanting just the slightest bit more. Nevertheless, we cannot discount the season that Scrimgeour had leading up to the national meet as it was remarkably consistent. Prior to the NCAA XC Championships, the Hoya veteran was either 2nd place or 3rd place in every single race that she toed the line for this fall. When you consider how reliable of a low-stick she was, Scrimgeour’s value in our rankings didn't seemingly belong outside of the top-20. As such, the Hoya senior consequently lands at TSR #19 at the conclusion of the fall season. 18. Alexandra Millard, Junior, Providence (-1 / 17) This English distance standout talent left us on our toes this season as we waited for her to exercise her full potential. Sure enough, the upside of Alex Millard began to emerge in the postseason, exhibiting a near-perfect peak for the meets that mattered the most. Millard’s postseason was fantastic, producing a runner-up finish at the BIG East XC Championships, 4th at the Northeast regional meet and finally, a top-20 All-American performance (20th) to help the Friars secure a podium finish. The momentum that Millard gained as the season went on was very noticeable. The deeper into the fall months she went, the more comfortable she seemingly became. With indoor track just around the corner, that can only mean good things for this British distance ace. 17. Florence Caron, Sophomore, Penn State (+5 / 22) Florence Caron emerged as a true force in her sophomore season, capping it off with a top-half All-American finish in 19th place. The Penn State star showed marked improvement since her rookie season, which culminated in a 182nd place national meet finish in 2023. Of course, her breakout extended beyond just the NCAA XC Championships. Caron's cross country season featured numerous top-five performances prior to the national meet. And in Madison, Wisconsin, Caron hung tough with a mix of veteran talents and standout newcomers to earn her first career All-American honor. This Nittany Lion standout began to emerge as a nationally competitive name in the spring months. However, she firmly established herself as a top-tier talent this fall and that can be seen in the fact that her final rank is higher than her national meet finish. 16. Sadie Sigfstead, Rs. Junior, Villanova (+5 / 21) It has truly been a breakthrough season to remember for Villanova’s Sadie Sigfstead! While the talented Canadian had posted nationally competitive results in the past, her performances this season far exceeded expectations. The Wildcat star announced her arrival in spectacular fashion this fall with a commanding victory at the Nuttycombe Invitational. That standout result demonstrated that Sigfstead was competing at a level far beyond what anyone anticipated this season. Following her impressive win at the Nuttycombe Invite, Sigfstead delivered more measured performances, finishing 9th at the Princeton Fall Classic and 4th at the BIG East XC Championships. And while those results were respectable, they were a far cry from the flash of brilliance we saw earlier in the season. That, in turn, left some uncertainty about which version of Sigfstead would show up at the national meet. Spoiler alert: We got the very best version! Sigfstead capped off her remarkable season with a stellar 15th-place finish at the NCAA XC Championships -- an incredible 56-spot improvement from her national meet performance in 2023. It was a fitting conclusion to a breakout fall campaign for the Villanova standout. 15. Joy Naukot, Freshman, West Virginia (-1 / 14) West Virginia newcomer Joy Naukot was remarkably consistent all season long. That reliability also played a pivotal role in the Mountaineers' monumental 2nd place team finish at the NCAA XC Championships. Her first truly eye-catching performance came with a 10th-place finish at Pre-Nationals, showcasing her ability to adapt quickly to the rigors of NCAA competition. That result signaled that West Virginia had a formidable one-two punch between Naukot and her teammate Ceili McCabe. Those suspicions were later validated at the BIG 12 XC Championships where Naukot delivered an outstanding 3rd-place finish, right behind McCabe, who claimed the individual title. Despite an unexciting effort at the Mid-Atlantic regional meet, Naukot looked primed to capture a top-half All-American finish, and sure enough, she did just that, crossing the line in impressive 17th place. Naukot’s top-20 effort not only solidified her status as one of the top freshmen in the NCAA, but also underscored her ability to deliver when it mattered most.  14. Lexy Halladay-Lowry, Senior, BYU (+1 / 15) It’s been a season of highs and lows for BYU senior Lexy Halladay-Lowry. Thankfully, she made sure her collegiate cross country career ended on the highest note possible! The Cougar standout kicked-off her season in spectacular fashion with a commanding victory at the Joe Piane Invitational. Her performance in South Bend, Indiana was so impressive that it placed her firmly in the national title conversation. In retrospect, that may have been a touch ambitious, as her subsequent efforts (while still strong) didn’t quite reach the same electrifying level she displayed at the Joe Piane Invite (apparently due to a nagging postseason injury). However, Halladay-Lowry saved her best for last. Her outstanding 14th-place finish at the national meet in Madison, Wisconsin not only capped off her fall campaign in style, but also played a pivotal role in leading the Cougars to a remarkable national team title.  13. Silan Ayyildiz, Junior, Oregon (+5 / 18) Oregon’s Silan Ayyildiz proved to be a postseason superstar with a truly remarkable string of championship performances. The Turkish distance standout opened her campaign in stunning fashion, capturing the BIG 10 individual title and leading the Ducks to a team victory in their season debut. Two weeks later, Ayyildiz continued her momentum at the West regional meet, finishing as the runner-up and helping secure Oregon’s ticket to the “Big Dance”. Despite limited racing in her legs, Ayyildiz demonstrated that she had the fitness and grit to compete with the nation’s best, making a top-20 finish -- and perhaps even a top-15 result at the national meet -- a realistic goal. Sure enough, she delivered in style, crossing the line in an outstanding 13th place finish on Saturday. While it wasn’t the team result that Oregon had hoped for, Ayyildiz’s postseason heroics stood out as a bright spot. Despite only racing three times, Ayyildiz’s exploits are more than enough to earn her a spot in our top-15. 12. Juliet Cherubet, Sophomore, Texas Tech (-6 / 6) Saying that it, "just wasn’t someone’s day" after finishing 11th at the NCAA XC Championships might sound absurd. But for an athlete as exceptionally talented as Juliet Cherubet, it feels fitting. Heading into the national meet, the Red Raider standout had been on a hot streak of excellent runs. She shattered Parker Valby’s course record at the Arturo Barrios Invitational, took a strong runner-up finish behind Ceili McCabe at the BIG 12 XC Championships and placed 2nd to eventual NCAA silver medalist, Pamela Kosgei, at the Mountain Regional meet. All signs pointed toward a top-five finish -- or perhaps even a podium spot -- at the NCAA XC Championships. Unfortunately, that potential didn’t quite materialize in Madison, Wisconsin. Despite this, Cherubet’s performance was anything but disappointing. Her 11th-place finish marked a seven-spot improvement from last year’s national meet, highlighting her upwards trajectory as one of the best underclassmen in the country. 11. Kimberley May, Senior, Providence (+1 / 12) Last fall, Kimberley May impressed during the regular season, but her performance on the national stage left much to be desired. This year, seeing her flourish during the early stages of the season was promising, but there was still some uncertainty about whether she could deliver when it mattered most. Well, sure enough, May rose to the occasion -- and in spectacular fashion.  Her 10th-place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was the exact kind of performance that many believed she was capable of, especially after her top-five finish at the Nuttycombe Invite and her victory against a loaded field at the Princeton Fall Classic. What made May’s efforts even more remarkable was the impact that she had on her team. Her stellar individual performance propelled the Friars to an impressive 3rd place finish -- a result that exceeded expectations and solidified Providence’s reputation as one of the elite programs in the nation. For May, this season was a true coming-of-age moment, proving that she can be just as big of a threat on the grass as she can be on the track. 10. Hannah Gapes, Rs. Junior, NC State (+6 / 16) Is Hannah Gapes now a legitimate NCAA superstar? Truthfully, there are more arguments in favor of "yes" than there are for "no." An 8th-place finish at the NCAA XC Championships is a remarkable achievement and the perfect culmination of an outstanding postseason for the NC State standout. Heading into the national meet, it was clear that Gapes had the talent to compete among the nation’s best. Her impressive bronze-medal finish at the ACC XC Championships solidified her status as a likely top-20 contender. But to break into the top-10? That’s a career-defining performance. In a season where the Wolfpack needed new stars to rise to the occasion, Gapes and teammate Grace Hartman stepped up to the plate. Their extraordinary efforts were exactly what NC State needed to remain competitive among the elite programs. For Gapes, this season has not only cemented her place as a leader for the Wolfpack, but also as one of the more underrated distance talents in the NCAA. 9. Caroline Jeptanui, Freshman, Tulane (-5 / 4) Caroline Jeptanui’s streak of top-three finishes at every meet this season came to an end this past weekend as she placed 12th at the NCAA XC Championships. If 12th place at the national meet is the "worst" result of someone's season (especially for a freshman), then that speaks volumes as to how elite Jeptanui is. The Tulane star was ultra consistent all season long and proved time and time again that she can compete with the best in the nation. Her standout performances this season include an impressive runner-up finish at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational and a 3rd place run at the Nuttycombe Invite. It's one thing for a rookie to run that well once or twice, but to be as consistent as she was despite not having any experience racing in the 'States is applause-worthy. Given her incredible debut season, it’s only fitting that Jeptanui remains in our top 10. With this experience under her belt, the Green Wave star could very well be one to watch as a potential title contender next year. 8. Paityn Noe, Sophomore, Arkansas (+2 / 10) Paityn Noe’s rise to superstardom has been a joy to witness.  The Razorback sophomore had a strong debut last fall as a freshman, but her lack of experience (and lingering injuries) ultimately limited her performance on the national stage. During the outdoor track season, however, she truly came into her own, showcasing the immense talent that had been evident during her high school career. Her outstanding 9th-place finish in a highly competitive 10,000-meter field at the NCAA Outdoor Championships was a clear indicator of her potential and a preview of what was to come in the fall. Sure enough, Noe capitalized on her improved fitness and newfound experience to excel on the grass. An eye-catching 7th-place finish at Pre-Nationals, followed by a huge 3rd place finish at the top-heavy SEC XC Championships firmly demonstrated that the Arkansas standout was capable of contending for a top-15 finish at nationals.  Of course, Noe went above and beyond, capping off her season with a remarkable 7th-place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. That performance not only underscored her significant growth, but also solidified her status as one of the nation's more elite talents and maybe even a future national title contender.   7. Chloe Thomas, Senior, UConn (0 / 7) Chloe Thomas has emerged as one of the biggest breakout stars of the year and one of the nation’s most consistent runners as well. The UConn standout hadn’t put a foot wrong all season, delivering a series of stellar performances. Her fall campaign included a victory at the Paul Short Run, a 5th-place finish at Pre-Nationals, dominant wins at both the BIG East XC Championships and the Northeast regional meet, and a tremendous 9th-place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. That is an elite level of consistency, especially for someone who wasn’t a factor on the national stage just a year ago. Her ability to maintain her newfound fitness throughout the season against a variety of different distance runners paid off in spades. Thomas has more than earned her TSR #7 spot in our rankings. 6. Ceili McCabe, Rs. Senior, West Virginia (-1 / 5) Ceili McCabe’s return to collegiate competition was nothing short of spectacular. Throughout the season, she offered glimpses of the runner who once earned a bronze medal at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships. Her massive 4th-place finish at Pre-Nationals, followed by an even more impressive victory at the BIG 12 XC Championships, strongly suggested that the Mountaineer was ready to contend for another top-five finish on Saturday. Those predictions proved to be mostly accurate as McCabe found herself in a thrilling battle for a spot in the top-five at the NCAA XC Championships. Ultimately, she narrowly missed the mark, finishing in 6th place. Even so, her impeccable season is the perfect culmination of what has been a truly remarkable cross country career. 5. Grace Hartman, Rs. Sophomore, NC State (+3 / 8) The Wolfpack needed a new leader after so many star veterans ran out of eligibility. Thankfully for them, Grace Hartman stepped up in spectacular fashion. The redshirt sophomore has embraced the challenge with poise and delivered performances far exceeding even the most optimistic expectations. In our last rankings update, we were curious to see how much progress the newly crowned ACC individual cross country champion could make after her 63rd-place finish at last year’s NCAA XC Championships. But Hartman didn’t just climb a few spots -- she shattered all expectations, delivering an incredible 5th-place finish on the national stage.  Her rise has been nothing short of extraordinary. As NC State inevitably reloads for future success, Hartman is poised to lead the charge as their new shining star. 4. Amy Bunnage, Sophomore, Stanford (+25 / 29) “We wouldn’t be surprised if she made this ranking look foolish at the NCAA XC Championships given her prior success.” Welp, she sure made us look foolish! What a phenomenal run by Amy Bunnage on Saturday! Finishing 4th in a field that many consider to be extremely top-heavy was wildly impressive, especially given that it was only her second race of the season. The Aussie star entered the NCAA last year as one of the top recruits in the world (yes, the world), and it feels like she has now emphatically announced her arrival to the collegiate stage. While we were eager to see what she could achieve during the regular season, her decision to wait and focus on peaking at the national meet proved to be a masterstroke. If this performance is any indication, then Bunnage is poised to be a dominant force in the NCAA for years to come. 3. Hilda Olemomoi, Junior, Florida (0 / 3) Death, taxes and Hilda Olemomoi excelling on the national stage. To nobody's surprise, the Florida star delivered yet another stellar performance this past weekend. As expected, she positioned herself among the contenders, closely shadowing her former teammate Doris Lemngole's every move. However, with 400 meters to go, Lemngole made a decisive surge, leaving Olemomoi in a battle with Pamela Kosgei for the silver medal, a fight she ultimately lost by just a stride. Truthfully, there isn’t much left to say about Olemomoi that hasn’t already been said. Her remarkable consistency throughout the season has been a hallmark of her greatness. In fact, her result on Saturday might have been one of the most predictable outcomes of the meet -- but in the best way possible. Olemomoi is so reliably excellent that we’ve come to expect nothing less than brilliance every time she steps up to the starting line. 2. Pamela Kosgei, Freshman, New Mexico (0 / 2) What a phenomenal debut campaign it was for New Mexico rookie, Pamela Kosgei! Make no mistake, her talent was already well-known before the season began. She was, after all, the bronze medalist at the U20 World XC Championships. However, success at the NCAA level is never guaranteed, especially in a runner’s first season. But in Kosgei’s case, the transition was seamless. She dominated the competition all season long, comfortably winning every race leading up to the NCAA XC Championships. There, she delivered a terrific performance, securing an impressive second place behind the formidable Doris Lemngole. It was a debut season that more than lived up to the hype and firmly established Kosgei as one of the brightest new stars in collegiate cross country. 1. Doris Lemngole, Sophomore, Alabama (0 / 1) Was it ever really in doubt? The top returner and preseason national title favorite delivered in spectacular fashion, making it all look effortless. The newly crowned NCAA champion has been dominant all season, so her ability to pull away in the final stages in Madison, Wisconsin, came as no surprise. That’s not to say that we didn’t expect Hilda Olemomoi and Pamela Kosgei to challenge her -- they certainly did -- but Doris Lemngole has been operating on another level this fall. Her effortless surge to claim the national title was proof of her supremacy. This victory marks two NCAA titles in four seasons for the Crimson Tide star, cementing her status as one of the sport’s elite. The real question now is: Ho w many more national titles can we expect from Lemngole in the years to come? ADDED Taryn Parks (North Carolina) Vera Sjoberg (Boston U.) Mercy Kirarei (New Mexico) Mia Cochran (Arkansas) Sarah Tait (West Virginia) Erin Strzelecki (Notre Dame) Laura Pellicoro (Portland) Anika Thompson (Oregon) Shannon Flockhart (Providence) KICKED OFF Regina Mpigachai (Northern Colorado) Fatima Alanis (North Carolina) Chloe Foerster (Washington) Melissa Riggins (Georgetown) Bieke Schipperen (Florida State) Agnes McTighe (Florida State) Carly Wilkes (Furman) Karrie Baloga (Northern Arizona) Jenna Hutchins (BYU) JUST MISSED (in no particular order) Fatima Alanis (North Carolina) Melissa Riggins (Georgetown) Bieke Schipperen (Florida State) Agnes McTighe (Florida State) Carly Wilkes (Furman) Jenny Schilling (Virginia) Taylor Rohatinsky (BYU) Kaiya Robertson (Boise State) Maeve Stiles (Washington) Zenah Cheptoo (Washington State) HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order) Pheline Cheruto (Alabama) Jenna Zydanowicz (UConn) Regina Mpigachai (Northern Colorado) Karrie Baloga (Northern Arizona) Chloe Foerster (Washington) Zofia Dudek (Stanford) Gladys Chepngetich (Clemson) Annastasia Peters (Utah) Blezzin Kimutai (Tulane) Ashley Jones (Tennessee) Notes - N/A

Production Via Wyatt Barnsley On this week’s episode of the Blue Oval Podcast, Ben and Garrett recap an unforgettable NCAA XC Championship! They break down BYU’s historic team sweep of the men’s and women’s titles, Graham Blanks’ back-to-back individual wins and Doris Lemngole’s commanding individual victory. The guys dive into standout performances, surprising results, and teams who fell short. Tune-in for all the analysis and insights from the biggest race of the year and remember to subscribe and review! (4:33) BYU Men Claim NCAA Title Over Iowa State (15:01) Arkansas’ Depth Issues Result in 3rd Place (17:30) Wisconsin Men Capitalize on Home Course Advantage for 4th Place (20:49) David Mularkey Leads NAU Men to 5th Place Finish (22:39) Fascinating Results from the Men’s Race (27:27) Graham Blanks Goes Back-to-Back for Individual Gold (30:16) Habtom Samuel Finishes 2nd With One Shoe (32:02) Dylan Schubert Impresses With 3rd Place Finish (35:50) BYU Women Edge West Virginia for NCAA Championship Gold (42:36) May, Millard & Flockhart Propel Providence to 3rd Place (45:59) NAU Women Underperform with 4th Place Finish (48:05) Oregon Women Disappointed by 5th Place Result (52:19) Notable Team Performances in the Women’s Race (58:03) Doris Lemngole Dominates for Individual Title Victory 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.

Yes, we have photos! TSR readers can download our photos from 2024 NCAA D2 XC Championships on our SNAPSHOTS page! When posting to social media, all we ask is that you (please) cite and tag the respective photographer ( Jackie Kirby // _thekirbycollective ) as well as @thestridereport . Learn more about Jackie's work by checking out her website by clicking here! Enjoy! 2024 NCAA D2 XC Championships (via Jackie Kirby) Instagram: _thekirbycollective

IMPORTANT NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season , not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships or at a singular meet. You will notice that these rankings may mirror the national meet results, but not precisely. That is intentional. These rankings are intended to be an aggregate.  They are not recency lists. Click here to learn more about our ranking criteria (which was published in 2023). KEY (Unranked): Was not ranked in our last update. (#/#): First number indicates how much the team has moved in the rankings. The second number indicates where the team was ranked in our last update. 25. Oklahoma State Cowgirls (-7 / 18) The Oklahoma State women had a tough outing on Saturday, falling all the way back to 27th place. Victoria Lagat (72nd) was the team's lone bright in 72nd place as no other Cowgirl cracked the top-130. Despite the rough end to their season, this team deserves a lot of credit. They lost two standout stars from last year's team and their third low-stick ace, Billah Jepkirui, didn't race this season. Seeing this team defeat a handful of nationally ranked programs at Pre-Nationals and come within six points of New Mexico at the Cowboy Jamboree gave this team enough of a resume to remain in our top-25. 24. Florida State Seminoles (-2 / 22) The Florida State women settled for an unexciting 24th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. That result further complicated our analysis of the Seminoles given how up and down they were throughout the fall months. Bieke Schipperen (57th) ran well, delivering on her role as a low-stick. However, Agnes McTighe (130th) struggled and the scorers after her were fairly spread out in the national meet results. When it comes to FSU's 2024 fall campaign, I think we can conclude that they were more talented than we'd thought they'd be...but they were also just as inconsistent as we were expecting. 23. Gonzaga Bulldogs (-6 / 17) The Gonzaga women started off their 2024 cross country season red hot, posting a big-time 8th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite. But as the season progressed, the Bulldogs seemingly lost momentum and that was plenty evident at the NCAA XC Championships. A 25th place national meet finish is a rough result for a team that was, at one point, listed inside of the top-15 of our rankings. Rosina Machu (45th) had a fine race on Saturday, but she was clearly capable of a top-25 finish. The real issue, however, is that none of the usually-awesome supporting scorers behind Machu ran well. Their second scorer dropped to 137th place and their fifth scorer (a true freshman) settled just outside of the top-200. Even so, Gonzaga should be very proud of the season they had. Not many people had them qualifying for this year's national meet back in August and September. The fact that they made it to Madison, Wisconsin was excellent. 22. Michigan State Spartans (Unranked) At first glance, we didn't think the Michigan State women had done enough this season to deserve a ranking despite placing 21st at the NCAA XC Championships on Saturday. But when you look at their results from this season, it's hard to fault them for losing to the teams that they did. Sure, they struggled a bit at the Joe Piane Invite, but placing 17th at Pre-Nationals and 6th at the ultra-deep BIG 10 XC Championships aren't bad results, especially when you look at who they lost to. However, the biggest development for Michigan State on Saturday was true freshman Rachel Forsyth earning a monumental 16th place finish! That elite low-stick result validated her unexpected postseason success. Kaitlyn Hynes (79th), after sitting out last year, also had a really solid day, offering great scoring value at the second spot in her team's lineup. Admittedly, things fell apart after Hynes as chasm-like gaps began to open up between the Spartans' next few runners. But all things considered, this was a commendable season for the Michigan State women. 21. Syracuse Orange (+3 / 24) You have to commend the Syracuse women for putting together a respectable end to their season, placing 20th at the NCAA XC Championships. Sure, they didn't have anyone crack the top-100, but Savannah Roark, Emma Eastman and Rylie Lusk went 101-106-115, respectively. That tight-knit group at least maintained some level of scoring stability despite their final two scorers fading to 154th and 182nd place. In our eyes, Roark, Eastman and Lusk were all capable of being better on Saturday, especially the former name. Even so, it felt like the Orange fared well despite leaving some points on the table. 20. Wisconsin Badgers (-4 / 16) A 22nd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships is not how we thought the Wisconsin women would end their season after seeing them place 5th at the Nuttycombe Invite a couple of months ago. Lindsay Cunningham being the team's top scorer in 111th place was not an encouraging sign for a Wisconsin group that was supposed to have three women inside the top-100. The middle-lineup trio of Annika Cutforth, Shea Ruhly and Bella Jacobsen did go 142-145-146, respectively, while their fifth runner, Carolyn Shult, took 158th. Despite the backend of their scoring group holding essentially zero gaps, the Wisconsin women simply need more firepower. That was something that we had been saying all season long and it became more and more prevalent as their fall campaign progressed, especially once they entered the postseason. The Badger women were better than what they showed us on Saturday, but they began to move backwards as the season progressed. 19. Arkansas Razorbacks (Unranked) Earlier in the season, we thought the Arkansas women were in major trouble. They were losing to teams that they should have soundly defeated and they were without one of their star low-sticks, Sydney Thorvaldson. Thankfully for the Razorbacks, Thorvaldson returned for the postseason and the team began to show signs of life. Sure enough, their top-heavy lineup allowed them to beat expectations at the NCAA XC Championships with a 17th place result. Paityn Noe (7th) has established herself as an elite distance ace while Mia Cochren (41st) came through as the low-stick that we knew she could be. Thorvaldson (78th) wasn't at her best, but having three women in the top-80 of the national meet feels like it was enough for Arkansas to salvage a strong result. That was going to be needed given that their final two scorers were 171st and 237th. It wasn't the prettiest season, but all things considered, this was very respectable end to a fall campaign that looked like it was going very, very poorly. 18. Minnesota Golden Gophers (+2 / 20) An 18th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships is roughly in-line with how the Minnesota women have fared throughout this season. In fact, their lineup structure at the national meet was fairly predictable as well -- and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Ali Weimer (48th) wasn't an All-American, but there is no denying that she was one of the 40-best distance runners in the country this fall. Emma Atkinson (93rd) also put together a race that was arguably her best of the season, further providing the Golden Gophers with a reliable secondary scorer. Erin Reidy, Nadia Phillips and Izzy Roemer went 125-148-149, respectively, on Saturday. And while it was clear that Minnesota needed more firepower/scoring potency, the Golden Gophers should be pleased with how their backend runners performed. But in the grand scheme of things, it didn't really matter too much how this team performed on the national stage. This has been a huge year filled with success for Coach Sarah Hopkins' team. No matter what result they produced on Saturday, the Golden Gophers should be incredibly proud of their season. 17. Penn State Nittany Lions (+2 / 19) A 15th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was a brilliant way for the Penn State women to end their breakout fall campaign. Florence Caron (19th) capped a breakout season with a huge result while Hayley Kitching (90th) and Madaline Ullom (94th) did a quietly awesome job of giving their team valuable scoring stability. Sophia Toti (150th) and Claire Daniels (153rd) were a bit further back, but still ran well enough for the Nittany Lions to salvage a competitive result. For the most part, the Penn State women did everything that we could have asked them to do. They took down a handful of nationally competitive teams, some of whom still reside in our top-25 rankings, and they never truly had a poor race this season. Even so, despite their success, it seems fair to say that their national meet result was on the better end of expectations. 16. Utah Utes (-4 / 12) The Utah women entered the fall months as a team that was very much on our radar. By returning a number of top women from last fall, including two All-Americans and some much-improved depth, there were moments where we thought the Utes could possibly sneak onto the podium. They did, after all, place 2nd at the Nuttycombe Invite and defeated a limited Oregon team at the Bill Dellinger Invitational. However, when the postseason came around, the Utes began to falter a bit. They weren’t quite as competitive at the BIG 12 XC Championships as we thought they'd be. And when the national meet rolled around, it felt like most of the women faltered from expectations. At the national meet, Annastasia Peters (44th) had a really strong race considering the tough season she was having However, top low-sticks like Erin Vringer (68th) and Mckaylie Caesar (120th) weren't nearly as potent as they had been earlier in the fall. With their fifth runner dropping all the way back to 205th place, the Utah women settled for an underwhelming 19th place finish. The very best version of this team is a borderline top-10 squad. Their Nuttycombe Invite performance showed us that and their result on that stage is the biggest reason why they're not dropping more than this. Even so, the Utes were likely capable of a little bit more than what they showed at the national meet. 15. Florida Gators (+6 / 21) A huge 12th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships is a result that we knew the Gators were capable of producing. Of course, we hadn't seen them fare this well until Saturday. Hilda Olemomoi (3rd) is among the best of the best while junior Tia Wilson (63rd) offered a really nice secondary scoring result. The performances Bethan Morley (108th) and Allison Wilson (116th) allowed the Gators to capitalize on the potency of their low-stick(s) without their backend diluting most of their value. Admittedly, the team's final scorer faded to 174th place, a result that held Florida back from cracking the top-10. Even so, we entered this season with significant concerns about the Gators' depth. For Coach Will Palmer to craft the lineup that he did after losing numerous superstars from last year deserves plenty of kudos. And while this group did produce a handful of strong results earlier in the season, this final result was clearly their best team effort of the fall months. 14. Virginia Cavaliers (0 / 14) The Virginia women entered Saturday at our TSR #14 spot, placed 14th at the NCAA XC Championships and now end their season at TSR #14 in our rankings. Margot Appleton (18th) delivered the low-stick All-American result that we thought she was going to post at last year's national meet. Her late-season returned stabilized this lineup in a significant way. Jenny Schilling (52nd) wasn't an All-American, but she was still very clearly a national-caliber low-stick this fall. Tatum David (112th) had a quietly good race, Gillian Bushee (151st) was likely capable of more and the same could be said about Camryn Menninger (167th). And yet, despite the backend struggles of this lineup, UVA still salvaged a 14th place finish. For the most part, the Cavaliers were a steady and reliable team throughout the fall months. They were never the best team in any major fields that they toed the line for, but they also never faltered at meets like the Nuttycombe Invite (11th) or the ACC XC Championships (4th). And remember, they didn't have Appleton for the former race. 13. North Carolina Tar Heels (+2 / 15) After a brutal 2023 fall campaign, the North Carolina women rallied in 2024, returning to a nationally competitive tier. And on Saturday, the Tar Heels scored an 11th place finish. It wasn't necessarily a surprising result for UNC, but it was on the better end of our expectations for them. Taryn Parks (27th) came out of absolutely nowhere to earn a monster All-American honor. Remember, she was "only" 71st at the Nuttycombe Invite, 23rd at the Princeton Fall Classic and 36th at the ACC XC Championships. Behind her, Brynn Brown (38th) capped her season with a well-deserved All-American finish. Fatima Alanis (92nd) was a bit further back, but still produced a decent result. Meanwhile, Eva Klingbeil (122nd) and Ciara O'Shea (126th) did a nice job of closing out UNC's team scoring somewhat quickly. I don't know what changed about this team compared to last year. For the most part, these are the exact same women who UNC fielded in 2023. But whatever changed, it worked. 12. Alabama Crimson Tide (-2 / 10) The Alabama women were previously ranked at TSR #10 and placed 10th at the national meet...so why are they dropping two spots in our rankings? Well, that is simply because both Washington and Notre Dame were previously ranked ahead of the Crimson Tide. And despite both of those teams struggling a bit on the national stage, their overall seasons were still strong enough to remain ahead of Alabama. The Crimson Tide were a strong and steady team throughout this fall. In fact, at one point, it felt like they could have possibly been a podium threat. However, the absence of Joy Gill and the uncertainty surrounding a few newcomers made that dream short-lived. On Saturday, Doris Lemngole secured the individual national title, unsurprisingly giving her team a lethal injection of scoring. Brenda Tuwei, in her first cross country national meet, took 29th place for a very strong All-American result. Addison Dorenkamp (86th) was much better than expected and even though Pheline Cheruto (87th) wasn't quite as potent as we thought she could be, she still ran well. The challenge, however, is that the team's fifth runner faded to 177th place. Oddly enough, Franziska Drexler, a consistent backend contributor for Alabama throughout this season, did not race. Alabama still deserves plenty of respect for the season that they had. They defeated NC State at the Loyola Lakefront Invite and went on to win the SEC title over two teams that currently reside in the top-20 portion of our rankings. If people wanted them ranked just a little bit higher / where they actually finished at the national meet, then we wouldn't totally disagree. 11. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (-7 / 4) You really gotta feel for the Notre Dame women. Throughout the entirety of this season, the Fighting Irish looked like a podium team. And if they weren't going to end their season on the podium, then they were almost certainly going to be a top-10 team at the NCAA XC Championships...or so we thought. Saturday was a brutal outing for Notre Dame. Erin Strzelecki (37th) yet again came in incredibly clutch with another surprising All-American performance. However, pretty much no one else with the possible exception of Mary Bonner Dalton (82nd) had a good day. Siona Chisholm (81st), Gretchen Farley (141st), Reagan Riley (206th), Emily Covert (214th) and Isabel Allori (233rd) all struggled greatly at the national meet, leaving the Fighting Irish with a 16th place finish. Notre Dame's performance from this past weekend isn't anywhere close to how good they actually are. Of course, we probably should have been more careful with our optimism leading into the national meet. After all, Dalton, Farley, Riley and Allori were inexperienced underclassman and Saturday was a good reminder of how shaky youth-based lineups like that can be. 10. Washington Huskies (-4 / 6) At the beginning of the season, the Washington women looked incredible. They comfortably won the Nuttycombe Invite despite not having Sophie O'Sullivan or Samantha Tran. And at Pre-Nationals, the Huskies continued to impress, this time taking down NAU and falling only to the eventual national title winners, BYU. But as the postseason approach, it felt like Washington began to lose momentum. They finished runner-up at the BIG 10 XC Championships behind Oregon (as expected), but the Ducks had easily trounced their conference rivals. And after a lacking performance at the West regional meet, the Washington women underwhelmed on Saturday, taking 13th place at the NCAA XC Championships. The Huskies didn't have a single woman crack the top-50 spots at the national meet. If I had told you that after their performance at the Nuttycombe Invite, I don't think many people would have believed me. Sure, Maeve Stiles (58th), Julia David-Smith (73rd) and Amina Maatoug (93rd) offered decent scoring results, but Foerster struggled greatly while a few of her teammates were not at their best. The Huskies remain as a top-10 team in our rankings given how dominant they were in the regular season. For a moment, it looked they were borderline locks for the podium. And for as disappointing as Saturday had to be, it's important to recognize how good this team was as a whole throughout 2024. 9. Georgetown Hoyas (-2 / 7) The Georgetown women settled for a 9th place team finish at the NCAA XC Championships, a somewhat predictable result. Sure, the Hoyas likely could have threatened for a top-five result, but remaining inside the top-10 seemed to be the expectation for this team. Chloe Scrimgeour (23rd), Lucy Jenks (49th) and Melissa Riggins (54th) didn't have their best races, but they certainly didn't run poorly. The same can be said about Almi Nerurkar (110th) and Charlotte Tomkinson (114th) who closed out the scoring. And although the rest of this team's depth wasn't quite as high up as we thought they'd be, it largely didn't matter. As long as their latter two runners didn't let the team score get out of control, the Hoyas were never going to truly struggle on the national stage. 8. NC State Wolfpack (+5 / 13) The NC State women ended their season with an 8th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. And for a team that underwhelmed at times this fall, seeing the Wolfpack peak perfectly for the national meet was incredibly promising. We'll admit, our idea of the Wolfpack being a top-10 team on Saturday seemed unlikely, especially after their plummeted to 5th place at the ACC XC Championships. But on the national stage, everything clicked. Grace Hartman (5th) and Hannah Gapes (8th) ended their seasons as the best 1-2 punch in the country. That is not something that we would have predicted at the start of this season. However, the real hero on this team is Brooke Rauber who struggled during the regular season, but came alive for the regional and national meets. She secured a massive 50th place finish on Saturday, bridging the two halves of NC State's lineup. Angelina Napoleon (96th) had her best race of the season and that was enough to offset the gap to the Wolfpacks' final scorer who settled for 160th place overall. All of this was done without Fiona Smith and with freshman Ellie Shea having a tough outing. Kudos to Coach Laurie Henes. During a season that looked like it was spiraling, she rallied her team and helped them peak for the national meet right on time. 7. New Mexico Lobos (+4 / 11) The New Mexico women took 7th place on Saturday, a somewhat predictable result as long as everyone in their lineup ran up to expectations. That was surely the case upfront as Pamela Kosgei (2nd) and Mercy Kirarei (34th) produced outstanding All-American performances. However, the strength of this lineup could be found in the performances of Klara Dess (74th), Natalie Bitetti (91st) and Tilly Simpson (118th). We weren't entirely sure what the Lobos' supporting cast was going to look like this fall, but seeing those three women run well on the same day was probably a best case scenario. New Mexico proved to be a formidable team throughout the fall months. They defeated Oklahoma State at the Cowboy Jamboree and settled for a very strong 7th place effort at Pre-Nationals. In retrospect, keeping them at TSR #11 up until now was probably a mistake on our part. 6. Stanford Cardinal (+3 / 9) Throughout this season, we preached how the Stanford women needed more firepower -- or at least, another viable lineup option. Both Sophia Kennedy and Zofia Dudek were great low-sticks throughout the fall months, but Riley Stewart had been a bit inconsistent and the backend of their lineup had some work to do. That was evident at Pre-Nationals where Stanford placed 11th, a fairly surprising result for a historical powerhouse. But once the postseason rolled around, Stewart became more reliable and superstar low-stick Amy Bunnage came back to racing at the West Regional XC Championships and the NCAA XC Championships. On the national stage, the Cardinal had their best races of the season...for the most part. Bunnage (4th) was electric with a monster performance while Sophia Kennedy (33rd) delivered on All-American expectations. Zofia Dudek (66th) wasn't an All-American, but she was still a valuable scorer. However, the biggest reason why the Stanford women ultimately placed 6th at the NCAA XC Championships is because Stewart came through with a huge 58th place finish. The woman who was once the biggest question mark in this lineup turned out to be (arguably) the biggest reason why the Cardinal placed 6th on Saturday. Sure, Julia Flynn (119th) was a bit further back, but given some of the gaps that plagued this lineup earlier in the season, that was a result that Stanford was probably more than happy to take. 5. Providence Friars (+3 / 8) Going into Saturday, we figured that the Providence women could be a podium team, although we didn't think that they were favored to do so. And yet, against the odds, Providence scored a huge 3rd place podium finish, a result they were thrilled about. Shannon Flockhart (24th) saved the best cross country race of her career for the perfect moment and you could argue the same about Kimberley May (10th). With Alex Millard (20th) producing a huge result of her own, the top-three of the Friars' lineup was the best in the field (by a single point over West Virginia). And yet, despite those three women running so well, it was Laura Mooney (58th) who truly put the stamp on a brilliant team result. Her result gave this team a ton of overwhelming firepower and it also made up for the scoring drop-off to their fifth runner (who placed 128th, a still-solid effort). We're opting to place Providence at TSR #5 to end the season. Earlier this fall, they fell to Georgetown (three times), Washington and Utah. And while those are all strong programs, none of those teams finished higher than 9th at the national meet. Regardless, the Friars should be thrilled with their performance. 4. Oregon Ducks (-1 / 3) Coach Shalane Flangan was refreshingly candid with her evaluation of Oregon's team performance on Saturday. Simply put, they were disappointed with a 5th place finish. If they weren't going to compete for the win, then the idea of landing on the podium (which they missed by four points) seemed highly probable. Through three runners, Oregon was right on par with expectations. In fact, they even exceeded expectations! Silan Ayyildiz (13th) and Maddy Elmore (25th) were outstanding as projected, but Anika Thompson (32nd) had an unreal race to give her team a third lethal low-stick. Klaudia Kazimierska (100th) and Ali Ince (104th) didn't have poor performances. However, they needed to finish just a little further up in order for Oregon to reach the podium. Finding an appropriate spot for the Ducks in our rankings after the season they had is admittedly tough. Oregon didn't field their top lineup until the BIG 10 XC Championships and when they did, they were dominant. We think a TSR #4 ranking is fairly reasonable compared to the other teams who were considered for this spot. 3. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (-1 / 2) Admittedly, I thought that the Northern Arizona women were capable of a stronger result than 4th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. In fact, I even picked them to secure the win! Ali Upshaw (22nd) and Elise Stearns (36th) were both plenty strong, but NAU needed far more potent firepower if they were going to finish any higher than 4th. The rest of the Lumberjacks didn't run poorly -- Keira Moore (60th), Maggi Congdon (71st), Alex Carlson (81st), Nikita Moore (95th) and Karrie Baloga (97th) all held their own -- but we felt like those women were capable of being at least 10 to 20 spots better (each). Regardless, NAU still put forth a strong run which mostly aligned with how their season went. Going into the national meet, the only teams who they lost to were BYU and Washington. Other than that, they seemed like a good fit for our TSR #3 spot. 2. West Virginia Mountaineers (+3 / 5) The West Virginia women entered the national meet as favorites for the podium. That was a sentence that I didn't think we would be typing in late November. Even so, the Mountaineers were terrific leading up to the NCAA XC Championships. They earned a tremendous 4th place finish at Pre-Nationals and then secured a comfortable runner-up effort at the BIG 12 XC Championships behind BYU. The challenge, however, is that this team had zero margin for error. If just one of the women in their top-five slipped up, then the Mountaineers were going to tumble down the standings. That, however, didn't happen. Instead, WVU saved their best race of the season for Madison, Wisconsin. Ceili McCabe (6th) and Joy Naukot (17th) were unsurprisingly awesome. However, Sarah Tait (34th) had a monumental run. Her unexpected All-American performance was complemented by fantastic supporting efforts from Emily Bryce (69th) and Madison Trippett (89th). All of that led to West Virginia landing in 2nd place at the NCAA XC Championships, settling within reaching distance of the BYU women. We knew West Virginia had a few strong pieces going into this fall, but the Tait-Bryce-Trippett scoring trio is biggest reason why this group found so much success on Saturday. 1. BYU Cougars (0 / 1) We're not necessarily surprised that the BYU women won the national title on Saturday. They were, after all, the favorites in the eyes of many. However, the Cougars didn't have Jenna Hutchins, an All-American candidate, for the national meet. For most teams in BYU's position, that would be tricky to manage. Of course, the Cougars aren't like "most teams". The combination of Lexy Halladay-Lowry (14th), Riley Chamberlain (31st), Carmen Alder (39th), Taylor Rohatinsky (43rd) and Carlee Hansen (65th) all seemingly peaked for the postseason. Going into the national meet, we questioned what the backend of BYU's lineup would look like without Hutchins. We also wondered if all of those women would be able to run well on the same day. But now that the dust has settled, we've learned not to doubt Coach Diljeet Taylor and the BYU women. ADDED Michigan State Spartans Arkansas Razorbacks KICKED OFF Furman Paladins Tennessee Volunteers JUST MISSED (in no particular order) Lipscomb Bison Boston College Golden Eagles Connecticut Huskies Portland Pilots Harvard Crimson Toledo Rockets Wake Forest Demon Deacons Texas Longhorns Furman Paladins Tennessee Volunteers HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order) Liberty Flames Princeton Tigers Villanova Wildcats Boise State Broncos Ole Miss Rebels Tulane Green Wave LSU Tigers Utah Valley Wolverines Northwestern Wildcats Colorado Buffaloes Notes - N/A

IMPORTANT NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season , not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships or at a singular meet. You will notice that these rankings may mirror the national meet results, but not precisely. That is intentional. These rankings are intended to be an aggregate.  They are not recency lists.   Click here to learn more about our ranking criteria (which was published in 2023).   KEY (Unranked): Was not ranked in our last update. (#/#): First number indicates how much the team has moved in the rankings. The second number indicates where the team was ranked in our last update. 25. Harvard Crimson (-3 / 22) The Harvard men were a tricky team to figure out this season. They secured a huge 10th place finish at Pre-Nationals, but then fell victim to an upset by Princeton (for the second year in a row) at the Ivy League XC Championships. And on Saturday, individual national title winner Graham Blanks was the lone bright spot. None of the other Crimson men ran well. Harvard ultimately settled for 27th place, a poor result considering where we had them listed in our preseason rankings. Sure, Blanks was phenomenal and Shane Brosnan (57th) continues to be one of the steadier names in this lineup. The problem? Their third runner placed 192nd and their final two scorers didn't crack the top-230 spots...yikes. Even so, that Pre-Nationals performance still rings loud in our heads and it felt like enough for them to remain in our rankings to close out the season. 24. Princeton Tigers (-3 / 21) The Princeton men took home a truthfully disappointing 24th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. And the deeper that you look into their results leading up to this meet, the less exciting they are. Yes, the Tigers were great at the Nuttycombe Invite, placing 9th to defeat the likes of Villanova, Virginia, Syracuse, Georgetown and more. But at their home meet, both Villanova and Georgetown got their revenge. Yes, Princeton did upset Harvard for the Ivy League title, but the Crimson weren't exactly great in the postseason. Princeton also barely escaped the Hoyas and a strong Navy squad at the Mid-Atlantic regional meet a couple of weeks ago. We liked what we saw out of Myles Hogan (64th) and Nicholas Bendtsen (77th) on Saturday. However, both of those men were likely capable of more, especially the latter. And with no other runners cracking the top-160, the Tigers left us shrugging our shoulders on Sunday. 23. Georgetown Hoyas (Unranked) A 23rd place finish from Georgetown at the national meet is pretty unsurprising. The Hoyas sat on the fringes of our team rankings (both in and out) throughout the fall months. To see them sneak into our final set of rankings isn't a surprise. Georgetown's scoring contingent of Abel Teffra (65th), Luke Ondracek (114th) and James Dunne (123rd) had fine outings. Teffra's performance should even be considered as a "good" run. Even so, there was only so much that this team could do given that their final two scorers placed 176th and 208th. Relative to how the rest of their fall campaign went, this result is very much aligned with our expectations. 22. Utah State Aggies (-4 / 18) A 22nd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was a slightly underwhelming end to the season for a Utah State team that (seemingly) had so much promise. Their 3rd place finish at the Paul Short Run was admittedly hard to gauge and they didn't field their top-six men at the Mountain West XC Championships. However, when they ventured to Pre-Nationals, the Aggies took 11th place, a strong result that put USU in the top-25 portion of our rankings. But on Saturday, Camren Todd (25th) was the only true bright spot for a squad that simply wasn't prepared to face the overwhelming nature of the national meet. No other Utah State men finished inside of the top-130 and their fifth scorer faded to 204th place. Regardless, this is a team that handily beat our expectations for them this fall. They should be plenty proud of even getting to the NCAA XC Championships. 21. Butler Bulldogs (+4 / 25) All things considered, the Butler men should be fairly happy with their 20th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. Their regular season results weren't bad, but they also weren't exciting. A handful of top men simply struggled throughout the fall months and other key names weren't even present. In fairness, the Bulldogs did begin to rally in the postseason. At the national meet, Will Zegarksi capped off a huge breakout season with a 17th place All-American. Meanwhile, teammate Austin Gabay (68th) turned out to be one of the more underrated transfer pickups of the offseason. Veteran Florian Le Pallec (103rd) was clearly not in top form this fall, but salvaged enough fitness to keep his team somewhat competitive. However, Butler's final two scorers finished 183rd and 198th. In a season where numerous things didn't break in the Bulldogs favor, I thought Coach Matt Roe was able to make the most out of a tough fall campaign. 20. Colorado Buffaloes (+4 / 24) A 19th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was probably on the better side of our expectations for the Colorado men going into Saturday. Of course, it wasn't dramatically better than what the Buffaloes were capable of producing. Dean Casey (30th) had a slow start to the season, but built momentum and peaked perfectly on the national stage. The challenge, however, is that he was Colorado's lone low-stick. Behind him Lukas Haug (105th), Isaiah Givens (127th), Simon Kelati (159th) and James Overberg (160th) closed out the scoring. We'll admit, Colorado was far from the flashiest team in the country. Guys such as Givens, Kelati and Kole Mathison weren't nearly as potent from a scoring perspective as we thought they would be. The Buffaloes did produce a couple of solid results earlier in the season, but they also had an oddly poor performance at the BIG 12 XC Championships where they fell to Texas Tech. Coach Sean Carlson was able to put together a fine fall campaign considering that this was his first season at Colorado. Despite certain men not running as well as we thought they would, the Buffaloes were still able to defeat a handful of respectable programs. However, it will still take time before Colorado returns to the elite level of excellence that they were once known for. 19. Virginia Cavaliers (-8 / 11) In the fall of 2022, the Virginia men placed 22nd at the national meet. In the fall of 2023, the Virginia men placed 22nd at the national meet. Now, in the fall of 2024, the Virginia men have placed 21st at the national meet. A few years ago, we expected the Cavalier men to eventually evolve into podium contenders by around this time. And yet, that hasn't been the case. In fact, their national meet results have shown essentially zero progress. That has been a fairly frustrating development given that their earlier results suggest that they are at least a top-15 team in the NCAA. Sure, Gary Martin (13th) was absolutely incredible on Saturday, but no other UVA runner cracked the top-100. I still believe in Coach Vin Lananna. Him and his staff have been quietly excellent when it comes to recruiting and the talent is very clearly there. Just look at how well the spring of 2024 went for Virginia! Even so, the Cavaliers need to simply be better on the grass, specifically in their season finale, moving forward. 18. Alabama Crimson Tide (-6 / 12) Going into the NCAA XC Championships, we knew that the Alabama men had a ton of elite firepower. However, we also knew that their margin for error was fairly slim, especially for a lineup that featured a two inexperienced international talents. But in the grand scheme of things, none of the Crimson Tide men ran well. In fact, they didn't even produce an individual All-American result. Dismus Lokira (41st), Victor Kiprop (51st) and Dennis Kipruto (75th) didn't necessarily run poorly, but all three of those men were capable of being All-Americans. And with no other men cracking the top-190, it was hard to find too many positives for Alabama. As a result, the Crimson Tide placed 18th overall. We unfortunately had to drop the men of Tuscaloosa six spots in our rankings. That's because, when you look at their results throughout this season, the only ranked team who they beat was Butler. 17. Furman Paladins (+3 / 20) All things considered, Saturday had to be viewed as a success for the Furman men. Dylan Schubert had the race of his life, placing 3rd overall. We imagine that Carson Williams (42nd) was gunning for All-American honors, but he should be proud of the season that he had, nonetheless. He was a very underrated secondary scorer throughout this fall. Admittedly, that 1-2 punch carried the Paladins in the team scoring, but freshman Colin Eckerman (145th) had a decent run considering his inexperience. The team's final two scorers, however, dropped to 180th and 185th. All of that led to Furman placing 17th in the final team standings. For a team that dropped all the way back to 21st place at the Nuttycombe Invite back in September (albeit, with Schubert), the end to their season carried plenty of positives. They slowly improved as the fall months unfolded and they seemingly saved their best result of the season for the meet that mattered the most. 16. Washington Huskies (0 / 16) The Washington men ended their season with a 16th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships...and we don't really know if there's much analysis needed for that result. The Huskies were led by Nathan Green (54th) while Tyrone Gorze (84th), Evan Jenkins (103rd) and Leo Daschbach (117th) offered fairly respectable scoring value, although some more-so than others. Ronan McMahon-Staggs (164th) closed out the scoring for the Washington men. The best way to describe the Huskies' national meet performance was, "decent" or maybe even, "good," but it certainly wasn't "great." And with the possible exception of their 5th place finish from the Nuttycombe Invite, that is also the best way to describe how their season as a whole went. 15. Villanova Wildcats (-2 / 13) The Villanova duo of Liam Murphy and Marco Langon ended fantastic cross country seasons by placing 9th and 15th, respectively, at the national meet. That kind of result isn't too surprising for the former, but it was great to see Langon having that kind of success after showcasing impressive fitness over the last year. The Wildcats' standout Aussie rookie, Bailey Habler, took 125th place while CJ Sullivan (150th) and Devon Comber (201st) closed out the scoring. In the end, Villanova took 15th place in the final standings. In the grand scheme of things, it feels perfectly appropriate that Villanova ended their season in the very middle of the national meet results. They were extremely top-heavy, somewhat stable at the middle portion of their scoring group and highly volatile at their fourth and fifth lineup spots. And when you look at how their season as a whole went, it's hard to be too surprised. 14. Oregon Ducks (+3 / 17) Last year, the Oregon men didn't even come close to qualifying for the NCAA XC Championships. One year later, and the Ducks have finished in the top-half of the national meet results, taking 14th place on Saturday. Aiden Smith (29th) had shown signs of promise in the postseason, but his All-American result was incredible. That performance came (somewhat) out of nowhere. Behind him, redshirt freshman Simeon Birnbaum (74th) held his own with a very solid result that sets him up well for the future. However, what we really liked about Oregon's team effort was Evan Dorenkamp, Elliott Cook and Quincy Norman staying together, finishing 116-118-124, respectively. That was arguably the most stable that the backend of the Ducks' lineup had looked throughout the entirety of this season. Saturday yielded more than just a nice result for Oregon. In the grand scheme of things, the Ducks positioned themselves for future long-term success and showed prospective recruits that they are returning to national relevance. 13. California Baptist Lancers (+6 / 19) The fact that the California Baptist men finished 13th at the NCAA XC Championships is incredible to me. This group lost a ton of top-tier scorers from a 2023 squad as well as their coach. If the Lancers qualified for the national meet in 2024, then that was already going to be considered a grand success. But CBU did more than that. On Saturday, Zouhair Redouane (26th) and Valentin Soca (33rd) each posted outstanding All-American performances. That, in turn, gave their team tons of scoring potency. Daniel Abdala (95th) continued to be one of the more underrated middle-lineup scorers in the nation while Pedro Marin (115th) concluded what turned out to be a quietly great season. Yes, the Lancers' fifth runner did drop to 177th place, but CBU's front-end scoring potency largely countered that. I have major respect for Coach Sean Smith. He did a great job at Azusa Pacific, but this is arguably his best coaching job yet. 12. Syracuse Orange (+3 / 15) Syracuse wasn't the most exciting cross country team in the NCAA, but they didn't need to be. The Orange were flat-out solid throughout the entirety of this season. They didn't necessarily produce any results that jumped off the page, but they never really had a truly poor performance, either. Sure enough, the Orange quietly delivered another strong effort to wrap up their 2024 fall campaign. Relative to how the start of his season went, few men in the NCAA peaked better than Sam Lawler (28th). However, it was veterans Assaf Harari (74th) and Alex Comerford (76th) who gave Syracuse an excellent scoring base through three runners. Redshirt freshman Benne Anderson (91st), despite his inexperience, was a crucial fourth scorer. He is likely the reason why this team cracked the top-15 on Saturday. With fellow redshirt freshman Connor Ackley (139th) doing enough to get by, the Orange ended their season with a 12th place national meet finish. That result wasn't out of the realm of possibility for Syracuse, but it was certainly on the better end of expectations. And despite the concerns found in our preseason assessment of this team, Coach Brien Bell further proved to be one of the more underrated coaches in the country as far as development is concerned. 11. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (+3 / 14) A 10th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships caps a very weird season for the Notre Dame men. Their fall campaign featured upsetting Northern Arizona on their home course, placing 7th at Pre-Nationals, dropping to 6th place at the ACC XC Championships and now taking 10th place at the NCAA XC Championships. The Fighting Irish went through a rollercoaster ride of sorts this season, weathering highs and lows throughout their fall campaign. Izaiah Steury (24th) was having a good season, but his All-American result was easily the best result of his career. That injection of scoring potency was followed by a nice effort from Ethan Coleman (48th). Behind them, freshman Drew Griffith (90th) and redshirt sophomore Daelen Ackley (99th) offered much-needed stability at the two most important points of Notre Dame's lineup. CJ Singleton (143rd) capped the Irish's top-five, but it feels like Notre Dame left points on the table. Carter Solomon wasn't even a scorer for his team on Saturday despite placing 12th at Pre-Nationals. We also didn't see low-stick veteran Josh Methner compete this season. And yet, despite all of that, Notre Dame placed 10th at the national meet. In turn, we are left scratching our heads wondering what to make out of their last few months of racing. 10. Stanford Cardinal (-5 / 5) There's no other way around it -- seeing Stanford place 12th at the NCAA XC Championships this past weekend was disappointing. The Cardinal looked great all season long. They showed plenty of early promise before going on to place 3rd at Pre-Nationals and then finish runner-up at the ACC XC Championships. Cole Sprout finally looked like his old self, Lex Young and Thomas Boyden evolved into fringe low-sticks, Leo Young became far more reliable and the freshmen behind those four men (specifically Paul Bergeron) looked very, very strong. But on Saturday, the Cardinal struggled to establish greater low-stick scoring potency. No one on their team finished higher than 63rd place. However, at the same time, their top-four men finished in the top-92 spots while their fifth man stayed somewhat close in 113th place. None of the Stanford men truly blew up on Saturday, but five "just okay" performances weren't going to yield much excitement in the team results. And yet...who cares? This is a team of the future that could be contending for a national title in two to three years. 9. New Mexico Lobos (-3 / 6) The New Mexico men finished 9th at the NCAA XC Championships, but I have no idea how to gauge their performance as a whole. On one hand, the Lobos had a fantastic low-stick trio which featured Habtom Samuel (2nd), Collins Kiprotich (35th) and Evans Kiplagat (40th), each of whom earned All-American honors. However, after them, gaps began to form. Rikus Van Niekerk (98th) had a decent race, stabilizing his team's lineup with a top-100 result. However, Vincent Chirchir (148th) was the team's final scorer and he was much further back than expected. We had said throughout the season that if everyone on New Mexico's team ran at their best on the same day, then they would be on the podium. And if you put Chirchir in an All-American position, then that's exactly what would have happened. 8. North Carolina Tar Heels (+2 / 10) The North Carolina men could have had a large handful of problems with depth this season after losing Alex Phillip and Jake Gebhardt from their 2023 team. That, however, was not an issue -- and the national meet showed us why. Parker Wolfe (7th) and Ethan Strand (8th) were incredible, both on Saturday and throughout the season. However, it was the breakout fall campaign from Colton Sands (52nd) who gave this team some much needed stability. The late-season rise of Will Coogan (82nd) also needs to be recognized and the same could be said about Patrick Anderson (142nd) to a lesser extent. Sure, the Tar Heels didn't have the best supporting cast in the country, but it was certainly better than we thought it would be. Wolfe and Strand may produce the highlights, but Sands and Coogan acted as the backbone of this team in 2024. 7. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (0 / 7) The Wake Forest men had their star low-stick, Rocky Hansen, fade to 100th place on Saturday. And yet, despite that, Wake Forest still finished 7th overall at the national meet. That, of course, was because Charlie Sprott (32nd) emerged as a low-stick and was closely followed by JoJo Jourdon (47th), Joseph O'Brien (56th) and Luke Tewalt (61st). That was a highly impressive scoring contingent that held tons of great value compared to the respective spots of other team's lineups. Yes, the Demon Deacons did lose to the UNC men at the national meet by one place. However, this Wake Forest squad was 3rd at the Nuttycombe Invite and won the ACC team title without Hansen. In both of those instances, they defeated North Carolina. For that reason, we kept them at TSR #7. 6. Oklahoma State Cowboys (-4 / 2) Yes, I know the Oklahoma State men placed 8th at the national meet, but is anyone really going to say that they weren't one of the top teams in the country? Here is what I said about the Cowboys in our latest "First Thoughts" article ... "Through two runners, the Cowboys looked great as Brian Musau (6th) and Denis Kipngetich (11th) delivered on low-stick expectations. But to see so many crucial scorers like Victor Shitsama (70th), Laban Kipkemboi (107th), Adisu Guadia (110th), Ryan Schoppe (121st) and Fouad Messaoudi (222nd) all struggle was...odd. It's one thing for one or two of those men to not run well, but five of them? I can't lie, I was scratching my head on that one. Even so, I think most people can still see that, from a raw talent perspective, Oklahoma State is still a top-three team in the country. That, of course, was not seen on Saturday." And yes, while I do think that they have the best raw talent in the country, we also need to see results which actually suggest that. On Saturday, we didn't see that, therefore dropping the Cowboys to TSR #6 in our final rankings. 5. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (+3 / 8) All things considered, you really have to commend the Northern Arizona men for salvaging a 5th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. It would have surprised no one if the Lumberjacks faded to 9th or 10th place on Saturday. Instead, they were 25 points off from the podium. David Mullarkey (18th) and Santiago Prosser (38th) were the low-sticks that we thought they could be. However, it was the backend scoring trio of Corey Gorgas (60th), Colin Sahlman (67th) and Justin Keyes (87th) who did a very solid job. They ensured that NAU's team score stayed in check, something that other top-ranked teams had trouble doing. Sure, NAU didn't reach the podium, but it just goes to show how valuable depth and stability can be in the postseason. 4. Wisconsin Badgers (+5 / 9) Speaking of depth and stability, that's exactly what gave the Wisconsin men a well-deserved podium result at the NCAA XC Championships on Saturday. Bob Liking (16th) finally had a great national meet performance that was long overdue. However, it was the group behind him that packed together incredibly well. Adam Spencer (45th) ran an extremely smart race, picking off runners in the latter-half of the 10k distance. Behind him, it was Micah Wilson (53rd), Matan Ivri (58th) and Christian de Vaal (69th) who truly put the Badgers on the podium. Make no mistake, each of those latter three men had shown signs of promise earlier this fall and they had all made clear improvements. However, the ongoing progression of Ivri and de Vaal led to them peaking beautifully for the postseason while Wilson saved the best race of his career for the perfect time. It is extremely hard to get on the podium with just one individual All-American -- but the Wisconsin men did just that. Outstanding job to the Madison-based men who took full advantage of racing on their home course. 3. Arkansas Razorbacks (0 / 3) We were well aware that the Arkansas men had a lethal top-three in Yaseen Abdalla, Kirami Yego and Patrick Kiprop. However, the biggest question was if they had a good enough backend to keep themselves on the podium. The answer? Yes, they did have enough...even if it didn't look like they did. The Abdalla-Yego-Kiprop trio went 4-20-21, respectively, in the final results. That top-three carried the Razorbacks in the scoring -- and that was necessary. Ben Shearer (55th) held his own after a few "off" days earlier this fall, but the team's final scorer didn't cross the line until 136th place. Arkansas essentially lived and died by their top-three. And in their effort to reach the podium, it worked. 2. Iowa State Cyclones (+2 / 4) If we had told you going into the weekend that Said Mechaal would be Iowa State's top scorer, where would you have thought he finished? If I had to guess, you likely would not have said 10th place. That, of course, is exactly where Mechaal placed. Behind him, Sanele Masondo (23rd) peaked perfectly for the national meet once again. The same could be said for Joash Ruto (34th). The Cyclones' fourth scorer, Robin Kwemoi Bera (37th), wasn't quite as potent as we thought he would be, but he salvaged an All-American result. Gable Sieperda (49th) closed out the scoring. If Kwemoi Bera had finished closer to where we thought he could have placed, then Iowa State wins the national title. Of course, Mechaal outperformed expectations in his own right by 20ish spots, theoretically balancing each other out. Regardless, Iowa State did everything right this season. They went all-in on landing a few key stars while they still had a few All-Americans of their own. Their depth was elite and many of their men peaked right on time. It was hard to dislike anything about this squad in 2024. 1. BYU Cougars (0 / 1) In an effort to not be redundant, I would suggest that you could go back and read our "First Thoughts" article for further analysis on the BYU men. ADDED Georgetown Hoyas KICKED OFF Eastern Kentucky Colonels JUST MISSED (in no particular order) Portland Pilots Wyoming Cowboys Eastern Kentucky Colonels Michigan State Spartans Montana State Bobcats Tulsa Golden Hurricane Tulane Green Wave Virginia Tech Hokies Gonzaga Bulldogs Ole Miss Rebels HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order) Cornell Big Red Iona Gaels Purdue Boilermakers Michigan Wolverines Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas Longhorns Indiana Hoosiers NC State Wolfpack Boise State Broncos Colorado State Rams Notes - N/A

I want to first start by apologizing for how delayed this article is. As I'm sure many of you can understand, we were hard at work this weekend collecting and posting post-race interviews ( on our YouTube page ), publishing a variety of different photo albums ( on our SNAPSHOTS page ), recording a new episode of the Blue Oval Podcast and trying to navigate the logistics of travel that come with the NCAA XC Championships. Yesterday's national meet performances were captivating. Each race made me feel invested in the final outcome -- even if I wasn't actually invested in any singular individual or team (ok, fine, I may have been rooting for Virginia Tech). Below are a few initial thoughts and analysis on the major headlines from Saturday. This article won't be quite as long as most of our "First Thoughts" articles usually are. Part of that is because we are pressed for time. The other part is because I want to save some analysis for our final set of team and individual rankings. Alright, let's dive in... Graham Blanks Goes Back-to-Back, Wins NCAA Gold Over Shoe-Less Habtom Samuel Going into Saturday, it felt like a variety of men were capable of winning the individual national title. The favorites, at least in the eyes of The Stride Report, were Habtom Samuel (New Mexico), Solomon Kipchoge (Texas Tech), Brian Musau (Oklahoma State) and Graham Blanks (Harvard). And if you really wanted to extend the conversation, then guys like Parker Wolfe (North Carolina) and Patrick Kiprop (Arkansas) had arguments as well. In my official predictions, I picked Brian Musau to win the individual national title. Of course, he wasn't the nation's popular pick -- and I completely understood why. Graham Blanks was, after all, the defending national champion. Plus, Habtom Samuel had defeated Blanks en route to a win at the country's most prestigious meet of the year (other than the NCAA XC Championships), Pre-Nationals. My pick for Musau, however, was simply because he had done everything that we could have realistically asked him to do. Not only did he beat Habtom Samuel head-to-head at the Cowboy Jamboree, but he also won the BIG 12 title over Solomon Kipchoge and a handful of other superstars. But when the gun went off and the national meet field began to unfold, it was the Harvard veteran who remained poised and controlled. And just like he did last year, Blanks took control in the final kilometer, powering away from a field that simply didn't have enough wheels to respond. Funny enough, Blanks made the same move at the same part of the course that allowed him to win the 2023 title at the Nuttycombe Invite. That, in turn, gave Graham Blanks his second individual national title. Habtom Samuel secured silver despite losing one of his spikes while Furman's Dylan Schubert (3rd) and Arkansas' Yaseen Abdalla (4th) had surprisingly great days. Blanks has now reached a point where he is simply better than everyone else. If he's healthy, he's going to win. Not necessarily because he's more fit than his competition, but simply because he's one of the smartest and savviest racers that we've seen in a while -- and no, it's not just because he goes to Harvard. In our still-unreleased episode of the Blue Oval Podcast, I asked my fellow podcast co-host, Ben Weisel, who Graham Blanks most reminded him of in the era of TSR coverage. And after some thought, we came to the conclusion that Wisconsin alum Morgan McDonald was the best comparison. Maybe not by resume, but more so by skillset. Both McDonald and Blanks had/have a knack for sitting with the lead pack, surveying the field and gauging when to respond (and not respond) to certain moves. They're both strength-based distance stars who were debatably at their best on the grass and could pull away from their opponents at will in the closing stages of most races. And yet, despite the similarities, I feel compelled to say that, with a second cross country national title under his belt, Blanks has already surpassed McDonald in my personal all-time collegiate distance running hierarchy. Doris Lemngole Makes Statement With Late-Race Kick, Wins NCAA Individual Cross Country Title The women's battle for the 2024 individual cross country national title felt like a pretty straightforward conversation. Doris Lemngole (Alabama), Pamela Kosgei (New Mexico) and Hilda Olemomoi (Florida) were the three NCAA individual title favorites. Sure, you could try to make an argument for someone else, but doing so would feel like a stretch. Despite the race featuring a handful of aggressive front-runners, the pace actually seemed to be fairly light compared to expectations. That left Lemngole, Kosgei and Olemomoi right next to each other with roughly 300 to 400 meters remaining. But at that point, Lemngole began to open up her stride. She pulled away from Kosgei, looking incredibly smooth while doing so while showing surprisingly great foot-speed. In the end, that kick gave Lemngole her first individual cross country national title. Kosgei (2nd) and Olemomoi (3rd) would round out the top-three as expected. It's important to remember that Lemngole is only a sophomore and has won two national titles in four seasons (she won NCAA gold in the steeplechase during the spring). Naturally, one can't help but wonder how many national titles she'll have racked up by the time she leaves the collegiate realm. In fact, the more appropriate question may be, how many national titles will it take for Lemngole to turn pro? That question is more impactful than one may realize. Lemngole's teammate-turned-rival, Hilda Olemomoi, has yet to win a national title of her own. And with Pamela Kosgei now in the NCAA, the opportunities for the Florida star to secure gold over the next few years will become increasingly more challenging. However, my biggest takeaway from Lemngole's performance is that she is, definitively, the better distance runner than Kosgei and Olemomoi. In a race that was expected to be a three-person battle, Lemngole's ability to almost effortlessly pull away from her competition was beyond impressive. In that race, experience wasn't the differentiating factor -- pure talent and fitness were. Jenna Hutchins-Less BYU Women Secure NCAA XC Team Title With Four Individual All-Americans In the eyes of many, the BYU women were viewed as the national title favorites going into the NCAA XC Championships. But then news arose that Jenna Hutchins, a strong All-American favorite, was potentially not racing for the Cougars. And yet, for whatever reason, that didn't seem to sway too many opinions -- although it certainly swayed mine. I personally chose the Northern Arizona women to win, a group that, in retrospect, needed more potent scoring at the 3-4-5 spots of their lineup. Of course, the consensus of the masses turned out to be the smarter decision when making final predictions. The BYU women rallied in the latter-half of the race while the other top teams around them began to falter at crucial scoring spots. Lexy Halladay-Lowey (14th) was unsurprisingly great. However, the recent success that we had seen from Riley Chamberlain, Carmen Alder and Taylor Rohatinsky earlier this fall was the main reason why the Cougars had enough All-American firepower to secure the win. That trio did, after all, go 31-39-43, respectively, in the overall results. But the biggest reason why I didn't trust BYU to win the national title without Jenna Hutchins was simply because I didn't know who their fifth woman was going to be -- or if that fifth woman could be relied upon to quickly close out the scoring. In the end, that final scorer turned out to be Carlee Hansen who, for the second-straight year, saved her best race of the season for the national meet where she placed 65th. That super clutch result gave BYU a little bit of breathing room against a West Virginia team that was closer to winning than some may realize. How lucky are we as cross country fans that we get to witness two all-time great coaches, Diljeet Taylor (BYU) and Laurie Henes (NC State), competing against each other at the same time? Sure, the Wolfpack may not have been contending for NCAA gold this time around, but that's not the point. The fact that both of these coaches reside in the same era -- and will likely be around for quite some time -- is a rare treat. And on Saturday, it was Coach Taylor who climbed yet another rung on the ladder of all-time elite NCAA distance coaches. BYU Men Thrive, Win NCAA XC Team Title With 124 Points While Oklahoma State Men Struggle Last year, the Oklahoma State men dominated the field at the NCAA XC Championships. By scoring just 49 points, the Cowboys won the national team title and positioned themselves as favorites for NCAA gold in 2024. However, at the BIG 12 XC Championships earlier this season, the BYU men pulled off what was, at the time, an upset win over Oklahoma State. And while that result didn't necessarily guarantee that the Cougars would win the NCAA title, it did tell indicate that they were capable of doing so. Sure enough, that's what happened on Saturday. In Madison, Wisconsin, the BYU men emerged victorious, scoring 124 points in a complete reversal of last year's results. And truthfully, nothing about their lineup structure on Saturday surprised us -- it was largely what we expected to see. Casey Clinger (6th), Creed Thompson (12th), Joey Nokes (31st), Lucas Bons (39th) and Davin Thompson (50th) were the five scorers for BYU. The former four men emerged as individual All-Americans, giving the Cougars a complete lineup which didn't have the same imbalances as other programs. Of course, if there are any specific heroes on this team, then it has to be Bons and Davin Thompson. The former is considered to be a miler, but has made tremendous progress on the grass this season. Bons slowly improved throughout the fall months and capped his season by peaking perfectly at the national meet. Davin Thompson, meanwhile, deserves a lot of credit. This is a guy who was injured throughout last year. Late August was his first race back since December 3rd of 2022. Without his 50th place finish, BYU still would have won...but only barely. But maybe the most impressive part in all of this was that James Corrigan, the team's Olympic steeplechaser and an All-American favorite, faded to 62nd place on Saturday. If I told you on Friday that I came from the future and that Corrigan would finish outside of the top-60 at the national meet, then you wouldn't have thought that BYU would win the team title, would you? However, you also wouldn't have anticipated Oklahoma State falling to 8th place overall. Frankly, no one in the country saw that coming. And if someone says that they did, then they're probably lying. Through two runners, the Cowboys looked great as Brian Musau (6th) and Denis Kipngetich (11th) delivered on low-stick expectations. But to see so many crucial scorers like Victor Shitsama (70th), Laban Kipkemboi (107th), Adisu Guadia (110th), Ryan Schoppe (121st) and Fouad Messaoudi (222nd) all struggle was...odd. It's one thing for one or two of those men to not run well, but five of them? I can't lie, I was scratching my head on that one. Even so, I think most people can still see that, from a raw talent perspective, Oklahoma State is still a top-three team in the country. That, of course, was not seen on Saturday.

Yes, we have photos! TSR readers can download our photos from 2024 NCAA D3 XC Championships on our SNAPSHOTS page! When posting to social media, all we ask is that you (please) cite and tag the respective photographer ( Dakota Smith // dakksmith ) as well as @thestridereport . Enjoy! 2024 NCAA D3 XC Championships (via Dakota Smith) Instagram: dakksmith

Yes, we have photos! TSR readers can download our photos from 2024 NCAA D1 XC Championships on our SNAPSHOTS page! When posting to social media, all we ask is that you (please) cite and tag the respective photographer ( Andrew LeMay // lemay.photo ) as well as @thestridereport . Enjoy! 2024 NCAA D1 XC Championships (via Andrew LeMay) Instagram: lemay.photo

The Stride Report was all over the place at the NCAA D1 XC Championships on Saturday! Thanks to our guys Donny Speas and Will Loggia, we were able to collect over 20 different post-race interviews from a variety of top individuals and coaches. Be sure to go check them out and subscribe to our YouTube page !

Written by Rachel Hickey & Mike McKean Edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin It all goes down tomorrow... The NCAA D1 XC Championships are set to be a thriller. The battle for both team titles appears to be extremely close while individual gold could be won by a variety of men and women. Below, we asked two of our Division One contributors for their thoughts on what they're expecting during tomorrow's season finale. Let's jump into it, shall we? Men's Analysis BYU and Oklahoma State are expected to battle for the men's team title on Saturday. Who are you taking? What/who will be the defining factor of this race if BYU wins? What about Oklahoma State? Rachel: I think I have to take BYU based on how well they packed up at the BIG 12 XC Championships. Casey Clinger was a huge factor in their upset win over Oklahoma State. If he can pull that off again in Madison, Wisconsin with the Cougar pack in the hunt, then I think they have the pieces needed for a national title. For Oklahoma State, the biggest “x-factor” might be Fouad Messaoudi. I watched the BIG 12 XC Championships firsthand, and the scoring truly came down to OSU’s fifth runner. That was/is expected to be Messaoudi, but faded too much in the final kilometer in what turned out to be an "off" day for him. If he can put together the back-half of a race, then OSU will be the better team on virtually any given day. Of course, all it takes for BYU is one Cowboy to have an “off” day as we saw during conference weekend. For me, personally, I won’t be surprised if the Cougars pull it off again. Mike : For BYU to pull off the win this weekend, they’re going to need another great outing from their fifth man. The Cougars are littered with options at their five spot, with likely candidates coming from athletes like Lucas Bons, Davin Thompson or Aiden Troutner. BYU taking down Oklahoma State at the BIG 12 XC Championships was in large part due to a breakout race from Bons. If the men from Provo want to repeat that result from the BIG 12 XC Championships, then they’ll need one of Bons, Thompson and Troutner to keep the gap close to their 2-3-4 runners (Nokes, Creed Thompson and Corrigan). When you look at Oklahoma State’s biggest “x factor,” I agree with Rachel that they’ll need Messaoudi to step up in a huge way. However, it’s not just him who they’ll need more out of. Perhaps an even more compelling storyline in this race is what version of Laban Kipkemboi the Pokes get. The redshirt freshman star got his regular season off to a hot start with a 3rd place result at the Cowboy Jamboree and a runner-up result at the Weis-Crockett Invitational. After earning silver at the Midwest Regional XC Championships this past weekend, his 19th place result at the BIG 12 XC Championships feels flukey. If Oklahoma State gets the best version of Kipkemboi, then their odds of winning the title skyrocket. How many men's individual national title contenders are there and who are they? How do you expect this race to play out and who do you think most benefits from that predicted racing style? Rachel: Realistically, I see three men in the national title conversation, but I am willing to open it up to four. Graham Blanks (Harvard), Habtom Samuel (New Mexico) and Brian Musau (Oklahoma State) seem to be the, "Big Three” ahead of this weekend’s matchup. However, based on past results, injury or not, I am not willing to completely rule out Parker Wolfe of North Carolina. We know Wolfe can be unbelievably clutch when it matters most. And despite his pesky foot injury, I think we would be foolish to completely rule him out of the conversation.  Regardless, I do think that this will be an aggressive race from the gun which I would imagine benefits Blanks who was very good at matching paces and moves in his 2023 title race. Musau is not one to set the early pace, but Samuel and Texas Tech’s Solomon Kipchoge might. Look for Musau and the Cowboy contingent to push later in the race as is the OSU style. Mike : This feels like a four-man race to me. Of course, I’m talking about Habtom Samuel, Brian Musau, Solomon Kipchoge and Graham Blanks. I truly feel like this race is going to be aggressive from the gun. With strength-based stars like Kipchoge and Samuel at the helm, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see either of these two look to drop the majority of the field early. That being said, all four of these runners are far too talented to not go with a hot pace. Could we see a similar tactic from Samuel that we saw at Pre-Nationals earlier this year? There, the Lobo ace made an aggressive move with 1k to go, dropping the entire field (including Blanks). That move felt intentional in a way that I can’t seem to shake as we enter the national meet. In any way you see this race being played out, I do feel like a majority of the could-be tactics/strategies will favor Habtom Samuel.  How many men's teams do you think can realistically make it onto the podium on Saturday? Who are those teams and why? Rachel: I honestly think that there are six or seven teams who will be in the hunt for the four podium spots on Saturday. Let’s break it down, shall we? Oklahoma State and BYU are the obvious two title contenders with OSU having a slight edge over the Cougars (although I do have the maybe-not-so-unpopular opinion of sticking with BYU to the end). These two teams are truly in a conversation of their own and it is difficult to see another team entering their tier. After that, the battle gets really, REALLY interesting, though. Arkansas, New Mexico, Northern Arizona and Iowa State all have the pieces needed to snag a trophy in Madison this weekend. The question is, who will have the most pieces fall into place to do it? Arkansas and New Mexico are teams spearheaded by phenomenal front-running and low-stick potency. They do, however, have some gaps in their middle-to-backend portions of their lineup. That, in turn, opens up opportunities for other teams to potentially play spoiler. NAU and Iowa State are both just very solid teams. While these two squads may lack the front-end firepower of their fellow podium contenders, the Lumberjacks and Cyclones have the stability to fit into the gaps potentially left by the Lobos’ and Razorbacks’ fourth and fifth runners.  I, for one, cannot WAIT to watch this race play out in real time.  Mike: My mind is telling me that this is a five-team battle for the four podium spots. However, my heart is saying that I need to include a couple of sleepers, those being Stanford and NAU.  My picks for the podium come down to three tiers. Let’s walk through those:  Tier A (Juggernauts): Oklahoma State and BYU. Those two squads are by far the class of the field. The showdown between these two after a stellar battle at the BIG 12 XC Championships is simply must-watch television.  Tier B (Contenders) Arkansas, Iowa State and New Mexico. The battle between these three teams feels just as exciting to me as the battle between Oklahoma State and BYU. The gap between each squad feels incredibly slim and there’s no telling what order these teams will finish among the 3rd, 4th and 5th place positions. Both the Razorbacks and Lobos are led by star low-sticks who feel destined to earn top-10 (maybe top-five?) finishes, individually. Admittedly, there’s a very small margin for error with Arkansas as they’ve displayed a large drop-off from their fourth to fifth runners throughout the fall. When it comes to New Mexico, we’ve yet to see each runner have an “on” day at the same time this season. If they all hit on Saturday and are at their best, don’t be surprised if they find themselves finishing in the top-two. For Iowa State, it seems clear. They have simply shown elite consistency throughout the year and are spoiled with depth. They haven’t had an “off” day yet and we don’t see that changing this weekend. This team’s floor feels incredibly high, even if their ceiling may be capped at a 4th place finish. Tier C (Sleepers) Stanford and Northern Arizona. I’d be mistaken if I underestimated a Coach Mike Smith squad at the NCAA XC Championships. Their season may not have gone like we’ve expected it to, but you have to feel confident in the Lumberjacks peaking at the perfect time. As far as Stanford goes, this is the same group that finished 3rd at the most competitive regular season meet of the year (Pre-Nationals). They have run extremely well in highly competitive fields this year and that deserves respect heading into Saturday. Georgetown, Ole Miss, Tulane, Tulsa, Virginia Tech and Wyoming are men's teams who have qualified for the national meet, but are not listed in our top-25 team rankings. Which team out of that group do you expect to earn the best finish at the NCAA XC Championships? Rachel: I love this question! I think each of these teams offer something different and have very different reasons why each qualified for the national meet. That being said, I would be inclined to favor either Wyoming or Tulane to earn a more favorable placement on Saturday. The Wyoming Cowboys have had a quietly underrated season, in my opinion. They did, after all, win the Roy Griak Invite, place 4th at the Joe Piane Invite and post an impressive 12th place team finish at Pre-Nationals. I'll admit, their postseason efforts haven't been as strong, but the Cowboys still have all of the pieces to make something happen on Saturday.  As for Tulane, I am encouraged by the fact that their top-three runners seemed to tackle the 10k distance easier than the 8k distance. Jack Jennings, Bernard Cheruiyot and Illia Kunin provide great scoring potency and experience to the Green Wave squad. As long as their last two scorers don't complete plummet to the backend of this results, then this is a team that I could see turning some heads. Mike : I have to ride the hot hand here and go with the Virginia Tech Hokies. Their run at the Southeast Regional XC Championships was flat-out incredible. It feels like this squad has been gaining an incredible amount of momentum…and fast. Led by star low-stick George Couttie, the Hokies seems to be peaking at the right time. While others in this group have gotten worse as the season has progressed, the opposite has been true for the men from Blacksburg, Virginia. Not to mention, the scoring potency that they’ve received from freshmen Nicholas Kipchirchir and William Winter is a massive confidence boost heading into Saturday. Who is your men's "sleeper" pick among teams? Rachel: I am going to go with the North Carolina Tar Heels as my “sleeper” men’s team pick as an outside podium threat. UNC is spearheaded by phenomenal front-runners in Parker Wolfe and Ethan Strand, both of whom will almost surely secure top-half individual All-American honors. With a lethal 1-2 punch like that, any team suddenly becomes a threat on the national stage.  For the Tar Heels though, the bigger impact runners will be their 3-4-5 scorers who, admittedly, have been fairly far back in bigger races this fall (although Colton Sands has been sneaky-good). Sands, Will Coogan and Patrick Anderson will have to fill in some gaps to be able to support the firepower of Wolfe and Strand. Maybe it’s a little far-fetched or hopeful thinking, but I fully believe that they can pull off something great in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday...and wouldn’t that be entertaining? Mike : Walk with me here -- I’m going with the Alabama Crimson Tide.  Yes, I know about their prior national meet woes and I know that they haven’t had the best version of Hillary Cheruiyot this season. However, you cannot deny how talented the trio of Victor Kiprop, Dismus Lokira and Dennis Kipruto have been this season. None of those three Crimson Tide low-sticks have had a poor result this season. The jump to 10k is also a huge advantage to them as well. Let’s also not forget that Hillary Cheruiyot, at his best, is an All-American talent. The ‘Bama veteran has not been at his best this year, but even if they can get him at 80%, then he can provide great scoring potency.  Also, can we put some respect on Hudson Hurst’s name? Alabama has never been known for their depth as they’ve recently struggled with the backend of their scoring. That being said, Hurst’s 21st place result at the SEC XC Championships is a quality result. That’s not something that we’ve seen from a Crimson Tide fifth man in a while. I know I’m going out on a limb here, but with a field as large as the NCAA XC Championships, those low-sticks are going to play a huge role in team scoring. With Alabama’s top-three feeling like, arguably, guaranteed All-American locks, don’t be surprised if they shock the field with a podium effort. Who is your men's "sleeper" pick for an individual All-American honor? Rachel: I love Camren Todd of Utah State for this answer. Todd has only run three races this fall, leaving more questions than definitive answers on his fitness, truthfully. He opened his season with a win at the Lehigh Paul Short Run, certainly turning some heads in his direction, then went on to place 17th at Pre-Nationals in a deeply competitive field. After not racing the Mountain West meet, Todd returned for the Mountain Regional XC Championships with a 14th place finish to secure an NCAA XC Championship bid.  Todd has great experience on the national stage, having placed as high as 42nd in years past. I’ve always said experience is everything in cross country racing, as demonstrating poise in big races is what leads to even bigger results. Personally, I think Todd is ready to take that jump into the individual All-American contingent. Mike : Death, taxes and Santiago Prosser showing up in November. I have to go with "Mr. Reliable," here. Prosser's ability to show up at the national meet is irrefutable with his past two performances at the NCAA XC Championships which resulted in 19th and 21st place finishes. I know what you may be thinking, "What has Prosser has done this season that is indicative of earning an All-American honor this weekend?" Well, here’s why I’m so confident: Prosser’s fall progression over the past three seasons has been eerily similar to what he's done in 2024. In 2022, he finished 33rd at the Nuttycombe Invite, 17th at the Mountain Regional XC Championships and then wrapped the season with a 19th place All-American finish at the national meet. In 2023, he finished 29th at the Nuttycombe Invite, 15th at the Mountain Regional XC Championships and then 21st at the national meet. And this season? He has finished 25th at the Pre-Nationals and 12th at the Mountain Regional XC Championships. See where I’m headed? Prosser is known to peak at the national meet and there's no reason to think that he won't do so again. Women's Analysis BYU and Northern Arizona are expected to battle for the women's team title on Saturday. What/who will be the defining factor of this race if BYU wins? What about Northern Arizona? Rachel: Despite some rumors that Jenna Hutchins may or may not toe the line on Saturday, I am still backing the Cougars all the way. I might be biased since I watched them win their second-consecutive BIG 12 title in person. However, I would also argue that I have every reason to be biased! Ask anyone who knows BYU: The BIG 12 XC Championships was not their best day, and the Cougar women still dominated against West Virginia, a team who has quickly risen into the podium conversation. Oh, and for an added bonus? They did so without Hutchins even being a scorer for them. Riley Chamberlain has been one of the biggest difference-makers for the BYU women as she seems to be peaking perfectly and has emerged as a great low-stick to support the firepower of Lexy Halladay-Lowry. To be frank, I don’t even think the Cougars even need to have a perfect (or near-perfect) day to win with their current depth. To play devil’s advocate with myself, NAU’s "x-factor" has been the return of Elise Stearns who offers firepower to an already-deep lineup. Even so, I am not sure the remaining players on the Lumberjacks' roster will fill any gaps that BYU might open up -- but I hope NAU rises to that challenge. Mike : When it comes down to who’s going to win the team title on the women’s side, both NAU and BYU can make a convincing case when deciding a winner. The Cougars feel like a riskier pick, but their top-tier talent is undeniable, possessing multiple runners who can earn All-American honors. For the Lumberjacks, they feel like a safe option based on their depth. With so many options to fill in the backend, their floor feels incredibly high.  Quite simply, BYU has the higher ceiling, but NAU has the higher floor. For NAU, the biggest x-factor comes in the return of Elise Stearns. To get back a legitimate low-stick who can be a top-half All-American talent is a luxury we weren’t sure that they’d have. If Stearns can compete with the Cougars' top scorer and combat those points, then they have a great shot of winning. When it comes to BYU, of course, a lot will depend on the pending status of Jenna Hutchins. If healthy, then she’s an All-American-type talent. That being said, if the Cougars are without Hutchins, then a lot is going to fall on the shoulders of Riley Chamberlain and Carmen Alder. If that junior duo continues to be the version of themselves that we’ve seen so far this postseason, then they may not even need Hutchins to pull off the win. This matchup truly feels like a toss-up which makes Saturday’s battle all the more exciting.  How many women's individual national title contenders are there and who are they? How do you expect this race to play out and who do you think most benefits from that predicted racing style? Rachel: I see four women truly being in the battle for the NCAA individual title: Doris Lemongole (Alabama), Hilda Olemomoi (Florida), Pamela Kosgei (New Mexico) and Ceili McCabe (West Virginia).  And if you think the men’s race will be aggressive from the start, then the women’s race will be downright violent. These four women are all known to prefer a hot early pace, with each instigating pace-pushes in all their respective races this season. Add in the fact that McCabe will have teammate Joy Naukot likely helping with the early pace-setting efforts, and it is hard to see a way this race isn’t very hot early-on. As for who benefits? Well, all of them, actually. I would not be surprised to see this race truly come down to the wire between any combination (or all) of this quartet of women.  Mike: In all honestly, it feels like the individual crown is going to belong to one of Doris Lemngole (Alabama), Pamela Kosgei (New Mexico) or Hilda Olemomoi (Florida). I’m in full agreement with Rachel on this pace being violent from the start. I envision both Lemngole and Olemomoi leading the charge with Kosgei following close behind. It’s hard to imagine the rest of the field being able to handle the pace from these three. As far as who has the biggest advantage, you could make the case for all of them. Pamela Kosgei is undefeated so far this year. In her last appearance in Madison, Wisconsin, she performed admirably despite her inexperience. The Lobo freshman showed poise as she patiently sat on the aggressive pace from Olemomoi before ultimately making a defiant move. With that being said, Kosgei is entering her first NCAA Championship and there is added pressure that comes with that. How will she handle expectations on the biggest stage of the year? Time will tell.  When you look at both Hilda Olemomoi and Doris Lemngole, they both bring experience to the table. Between the two, I have to give the slight edge to Lemngole who is the top returner from last year's national meet. Ultimately, no matter what racing style we see on Saturday, it feels like Lemngole will be well-prepared to handle it. How many women's teams do you think can realistically make it onto the podium on Saturday? Who are those teams and why? Rachel: Is it crazy to confidently say seven? I firmly believe there are seven. We’ve already established that the title race is primarily between BYU and NAU. However, the race for 3rd and 4th place will be an absolute bloodbath. Oregon, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Providence and West Virginia have all shown on one or more occasions that they have what it takes to leave Madison, Wisconsin with some hardware. Honestly, I am not sure which will have the upper-hand on Saturday. The Oregon women finally showed all their cards and seem to have the most scoring potency to offer of this group with Maddy Elmore and Silan Ayyildiz providing lethal firepower up front. But truthfully, each of these teams have their own firepower to offer (besides maybe Notre Dame, who benefits from a more holistic approach).  Mike : I’m with Rachel here. If it’s crazy to think that there are seven podium-contending teams, you’ll think I’m insane for saying I could see eight. Much akin to the men’s race, it feels like there is a large gap between the top-two of BYU and NAU and the rest of the field. However, your guess is as good as mine when it comes to who will finish in the third and fourth podium spots. I could see six different teams earning a podium finish: Oregon, Notre Dame, Washington, West Virginia, Providence and Georgetown. And when you look at teams who seem to be getting better each week, look no further than West Virginia and Oregon. The Ducks’ emergence of Maddy Elmore and Silan Ayyildiz providing one of the most lethal 1-2 punches in the NCAA is a massive development in the podium race. If we can see Klaudia Kazimierska replicate the success that she had at the BIG 10 XC Championships, then this squad honestly feels like a lock for a podium finish.  For the Mountaineers, the backend of their scoring has improved drastically as the season has progressed. Ceili McCabe and Joy Naukot are upper-echelon stars, but the rise of Sarah Tait, Emily Bryce and Madison Trippett is worth noting. Both Providence and Georgetown have also provided elite consistency this fall. Each squad presents star low-sticks and sneaky-good depth. The Fighting Irish women remind me a lot of the Iowa State men -- they’ve simply been great all year. They feel like a safe choice for a podium finish despite their youth’s inexperience on the national stage. If they get the best version of Emily Covert on Saturday, then the podium has a spot for Notre Dame. Lastly, you can’t count out the Washington women. It feels like they’ve been slightly regressing since their hot start to the regular season, but the talent that their roster possesses is easily comparable to the other squads in this conversation.  Arkansas, Boston College, Harvard, Lipscomb, Michigan State, Texas and Toledo are women's teams who have qualified for the national meet, but are not listed in our top-25 team rankings. Which team out of that group do you expect to earn the best finish at the NCAA XC Championships? Rachel: It seems foolish not to immediately think of Arkansas. You can always count on the historically dominant program to find some way to pull a better-than-expected performance out.  Obviously, the Razorbacks simply do not have the same depth and firepower that they have had in recent years. However, Paityn Noe, Sydney Thorvaldson and Mia Cochren have certainly made a case for Arkansas being a sleeper in the postseason. The Razorbacks did narrowly place 4th at the SEC XC Championships to a ranked Florida team, and still won the (admittedly, not as strong) South Central region over the Texas Longhorns. Noe has been peaking perfectly this fall and will provide a great low-stick score for Arkansas. But speaking of Texas, I would not count them out, either. At the South Central meet, the Longhorns fell just one point shy of beating the Razorbacks with great middle-lineup stability. While the Longhorns won’t have the same firepower as Arkansas, I would not be surprised to see them shock a few extra teams in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday. Mike: I might be showing some bias here, but as a former athlete for Ohio University, I feel inclined to show some love to the mid-majors. The Toledo women are my pick and a large reason for that is because of the depth that they’ve shown throughout the year. Yes, Mercy Kinyanjui is a legitimate All-American threat who is going to provide great value as a low-stick. But how about Laura Nicholson emerging as a secondary low-stick behind Kinyanjui?  The Rocket veteran’s 6th place result at the Great Lakes Regional XC Championships was easily her best performance of the year and it seems like she’s peaking perfectly. The same can be said about Lou Trois and Lianna Surtz. The Toledo women are led by a freshman low-stick, but the scoring of their 2-3-4 runners comes in the form of upperclassmen. On the biggest stage of the year, I feel confident in those veterans stepping up.   Who is your women's "sleeper" pick among teams? Rachel: Depending on how we are defining a “sleeper” pick, I am going to claim two teams and explain each pick: the Washington Huskies and the Florida State Seminoles. Washington is my sleeper podium team (if they can even be classified as that) as this is a squad that has shown bright flashes of greatness throughout the season. The Nuttycombe Invite team champions, the Huskies have a loaded lineup with great depth that, on a day where everything goes right, could challenge for the last podium spot. At one point this fall, the Huskies were ranked among our top-three teams and I can’t say I would be too surprised to see them climb their way back into that tier with veteran talents such as Chloe Foerester, Maeve Stiles, Julia David-Smith, Sophie O’Sullivan and Amina Maatoug. All it takes is for one of those women to be the spark plug for the Huskies to round into their best form. We then move to my second sleeper pick, Florida State, who I simply feel has had a quietly underrated fall season. Bieke Schipperen and Agnes McTighe have been pleasant surprises this fall and have provided great low-stick potential for this squad on big stages. Brooke Mullins, the transfer from Drake, adds NCAA Championship experience as she qualified as an individual in 2023. She bolsters FSU's middle-lineup stability enough for me to see them punching above their weight on Saturday. Mike : My sleeper team has to be the NC State Wolfpack. If we’re being honest, this would not have been my pick prior to the Southeast Regional XC Championships. I know we shouldn’t put much stock into regional meets, but to see the Wolfpack bounce back after a horrendous ACC XC Championships showed a lot of resilience. And quite frankly, I have full trust in the 1-2 punch of Grace Hartman and Hannah Gapes. They have both been stellar all season long and it feels like the backend of their scoring group is peaking at the right time.  They will, admittedly, need another great performance from Brooke Rauber and the freshmen duo of Bethany Michalak and Ellie Shea. However, if there’s any coach who can bring that out of an inexperienced group, it’s Coach Laurie Henes.  Who is your women's "sleeper" pick for an individual All-American honor? Explain why. Rachel: Possibly a hot take: I’m going to go with Regina Mpigachai of Northern Colorado.  This mid-major standout has really come into her own this fall, most recently culminating in a 3rd place finish at the Mountain regional meet. If you were to look at her TFRRS profile, Mpigachai has impressive range of 2:04 (800), 4:16 (1500) and 16:12 (5k) on the track. She has also displayed relative consistency this fall (despite her very flukey 61st place finish at the BIG Sky XC Championships). While the regional meets truthfully do not hold too much stock in our eyes, I do believe that Mpigachai's season as a whole (again, outside of her conference meet result) demonstrates that she will be ready to make the jump into the All-American contingent. Mike : I’m going with Maelle Porcher of Iowa State here.  It feels like she has been residing just outside of our TSR top-50 rankings throughout the entirety of her 2024 fall campaign. That, of course, is not to say that she hasn’t made it hard to leave her off that list. The Cyclone junior has displayed elite consistency throughout the fall and has truly yet to have a “bad” day. With a 16th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invitational paired with a 16th place result at Pre-Nationals, it’s clear that Porcher can contend with the best on a course that’s going to feel very familiar for her. The vast improvement from 2023 and the increase in aerobic fitness is too hard for me to ignore. Look for the Cyclone ace to contend with the nation’s best for the third time this season on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course.