Pre season top 20 cross country list (Women)

Weird how you insinuate NC State is still "looking" for a #4. Samantha Bush?

unc has a solid team, but not the firepower to be #2. Florida and Colorado are clear favorites over them.

yeah, I forgot about Sam Bush, my bad. That said, I'm not worried at all about NC States #5 or #6 runner. they'll be fine. i anticipate a 3-peat.

UNC brings back 1-7 runners whereas Florida and Colorado, while talented, have a team built of transfers. if I had to put money on a veteran team or a brand new team of transfers I'd bet the veteran team every time, no matter how talented the transfers are.

and Florida and Colorado are so fragile. Valby, Cook, Starlinger have all dealt with multiple injuries during their careers. any one of them goes down their teams are in trouble.

gonna be an interesting season.

Didn't Tuohy have major knee surgery around age 19?

she did, and if this was the 2020 NCAA Cross Country preview I would have mentioned it. but that was 3 years ago and she's 100%.

Starliper though, is coming off an injury plus some mental issues that's kept her from racing for over a year. Cook injured herself at last years indoors and hasn't raced since, and Parker Valby, despite winning the NCAA 5000m, has had multiple injuries in her short career at Florida.

i wish them all nothing but the best but coming back from an injury is a big unknown.

like I said, gonna be an interesting season.

People claim Cook is injury prone but she is the same age that Tuohy had a major injury. And Valby was 2nd in XC amd national champ in track. Just odd to make them out to be injury prone.

I agree there are more questions about 2-3 of the CO runners than Valby. I agree that while UNC is solid they do not have the upside to get on the podium that other teams do. I also think that Tuohy "surgery" aka procedure was not so "major" but did require rehab and rest.

Anyone remember this thread?

They've been injured consistently throughout their career. It's not one injury it's a consistent pattern of injuries. Hence they are injury prone

FL somehow gets ranked 2nd to AL in Preseason poll for the South region. National ranking comes out today.

The Alabama Crimson Tide women are expected to earn the top position, after a promising incoming class looks ready to replace the loss of three top-5 scorers. The Florida Gators, led by last year’s NCAA runner-up Parker Valby, come in champing at the bit for second place, with three All-American transfers in Elise Thorner, Amelia Mazzie-Downie and Flomena Asekol.
Florida State, Ole Miss, and Lipscomb finish out the top-5.

ustfccca.org

2023 NCAA DI Women’s Cross Country Regional Rankings – Preseason

USTFCCCA Communications

2023 NCAA DI Women’s Cross Country Regional Rankings – Preseason

Open link

Valby has results from 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. That is rhe opposite of consistent injuries. But you often lie when it comes to attacking Tuohy slayers.

Alabama has a young team so there may be a lot of potential there for the future, but Florida is loaded NOW with Valby, Asekol, Mazza-Downey, and Thorner. Florda will win the Regional and maybe the NCAA if they can find a good #5.

Alabama has 10 freshmen, 7 sophomores, 5 juniors, 2 seniors, and 1 grad student on the roster.

Unfortunately for her, after successful XC seasons she has missed most of the last 2 Indoor seasons due to injury. But resumed success Outdoors.

Valby and the Gators ranked #9.

Not sure how much the polls are worth, but they are out. FL 9th which seems way too far back if they are healthy and fit.
NC State
Northern Arizona
Oklahoma State
Notre Dame
Colorado
North Carolina
BYU
Stanford
Florida
Oregon

If I take the LAACTiC numbers and correct some teams and add some newcomers I get the below for 1-10 (by score, not avg rating).

NC State
Northern Arizona
Stanford
Colorado
Notre Dame
Oklahoma State
Florida
North Carolina
BYU

My opinion at this point (assuming CO all healthy and fit which may be optimistic). But I may have NAU underestimated.
NC State
Colorado
Florida
Northern Arizona
Stanford
Oklahoma State
Notre Dame
North Carolina
Virginia
Arkansas

https://www.ustfccca.org/2023/08/featured/2023-ncaa-di-womens-cross-country-national-coaches-poll-preseason

If valby can stay healthy…

Personally, I think the rankings are kind of useless. According to the website,

"Regional Rankings are determined subjectively by a single member coach in each respective region. The regional representative is tasked with weighing returning teams’ strength with current season results (if applicable) in determining a rank-order of squad potential."

A single coach from the region ranks the teams? No bias whatsoever.

I don't know how the national rankings are determine but there are only 11 voters. College football, by contrast, has 66 voting coaches.

Why did this speculation even come up in the first place?

http://results.tfmeetpro.com/TimingInccom/2023_Eye_Opener_College/

My assumption with the national ranking is the same 9 coaches from the regional rankings + 2 maybe USTFCCCA officials. The points are just reverse order sums. So 1st = 30 points, 2nd = 29 points, ... 30th = 1 point. Then just add all the coaches votes. 11*30=330 is the maximum possible score. If a team were to get 1 point, that means a single voter put the team at 30th.