2024 NCAA XC: Previewing the Women’s Top 10, from #10 Oregon to #6 Tennessee, Plus Individual Contenders
By Jonathan Gault
This week on LetsRun.com we are previewing the 2024 NCAA cross country season, which begins in earnest with the Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison on Friday. We began by previewing the top 10 men’s teams on Monday and Tuesday. Today, we preview women’s teams #10 through #6, with the remainder of the top 10 to come tomorrow.
*Men’s #10 through #6 *Men’s #5 through #1 *All 2024 NCAA XC coverage
Before we get to that, though, let’s set the scene. On the women’s side, the last three cross country seasons have belonged to North Carolina State. Powered by the trio of Katelyn Tuohy, Kelsey Chmiel, and Sam Bush, the Wolfpack won three straight titles, though they needed freshmen Leah Stephens and Grace Hartman to step up last year when Chmiel was sidelined with an injury the week of the race.
NC State still has a talented roster, but with Tuohy, Chmiel, and Bush moving on, the Wolfpack will need to develop new stars if they are to challenge for a fourth straight title.
“I don’t know how we are ranked #1 [in the coaches’ poll],” NC State coach Laurie Henes told LetsRun.com. “That’s kind of ridiculous, we lost our top four. I think we’ll have people that are a lot better than people might expect. Some of the development we’ve had has been really good.”
Individually, Americans have won the last three NCAA women’s XC titles, with Whittni Morgan winning for BYU in 2021, followed by Tuohy (2022) and Florida’s Parker Valby (2023). In 2024, however, the NCAA champion is very likely to be a Kenyan. Alabama’s Doris Lemngole is the top returner from last year and broke the collegiate record in the steeplechase by running 9:15 to win the NCAA meet in June. Meanwhile Lemngole’s former teammate Hilda Olemomoi, now at Florida, would have been a double NCAA champion last spring if not for Valby, finishing 2nd in the 5,000 and 10,000. With track pbs of 15:04 (Lemngole) and 15:06 (Olemomoi), the duo rank #4 and #5 on the all-time NCAA list for 5,000.
But it’s possible neither of them wins the national title. That’s because New Mexico brought in budding star Pamela Kosgei, and it’s not an exaggeration to say she is one of the most talented women ever to hit the NCAA. Kosgei, 20, is the younger sister of former marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei and has already done some pretty impressive things herself. In 2023, she earned the bronze in the U20 race at the World Cross Country Championships.
Do you realize how good you have to be to do that? In that race, Kosgei finished one second behind the silver medalist, Ethiopia’s Medina Eisa, who would run 14:16 for 5,000 five months later. The World XC bronze medalist in 2019 was Tsigie Gebreselama, who is now a 14:18/29:48 woman. Kosgei did not run World XC in 2024, but she did beat Brit Megan Keith in an XC race in January — the same Megan Keith who would run 14:43 and 30:36 on the track in the spring.
Kosgei has been in Albuquerque since the spring and has run one race, a 9:28 steeple at the Portland Track Festival in June. New Mexico coach Darren Gauson told LetsRun she had a great summer of training. And while her best event may eventually be the longer distances like her sister, NCAA cross country fans will know all about her very soon.
“She’s going to be very special,” Gauson said. “Some things that she is doing here is just blowing everybody away.”
All right — let’s get to the top 10.
Honorable mentions: Stanford, Utah, Virginia
10) Oregon
2023 finish: 10th *Returners from NCAAs: 6/7 (lose #1) *Coach: Shalane Flanagan
Oregon returned to the top 10 last year for the first time since 2018 and has a good chance to repeat that performance this fall. The team’s top NCAA finisher from a year ago, Izzy Thornton-Bott (40th), has moved on, but the Ducks bring back Maddy Elmore (52nd, 15:15 5k), Anika Thompson (104th, 15:52/32:54), and Klaudia Kazimierska, who improved a ton over the summer, running in the Olympics for Poland and clocking a pb of 3:59 for 1500. Kazimierska may be eased into things this fall given how long her track season ran, but she could be a nice ace in the hole for NCAAs.
Mia Barnett (4:08 1500 pb) and Dalia Frias (15:56 5k), a couple of transfers from UCLA and Duke, respectively, should bolster the Ducks’ depth.
The wild card is Silan Ayyildiz. A Turkish transfer from South Carolina, Ayyildiz, who turns 25 in October, owns fast pbs of 4:09/8:54/15:15 but ran just two cross country races last fall (7th at SECs, 11th at the Southeast Regional). She also has a poor history at NCAAs, qualifying three times in the mile/1500 but never making the final and finishing just 16th in the 5,000 in June. If Ayyildiz can run to her potential, she could help Oregon push for the podium. But even if she does not, this could still be a top-10 team.
9) Lipscomb
2023 finish: 11th *Returners from NCAAs: 6/7 (lose #1) *Coach: Nick Polk
I know what you’re thinking. Lipscomb?
Yes. Last year the Bisons (I’ll admit, I had to look up their nickname) made NCAAs for the first time in program history and finished a surprising 11th. Coach Nick Polk, who was hired in 2019, said it took several years for the program to reach this point, but it was a result he felt was possible after the team finished 10th at the Nuttycombe Invitational last season.
“I think just being able to slowly build something sustainable over time through recruiting the right kids was probably the biggest piece, the kids that fit Lipscomb University culturally,” Polk said. “We didn’t have a single transfer on the line and we didn’t have a single international kid on the line.”
Lipscomb, which is located in Nashville, Tenn., loses its #1 runner from NCAAs in Lydia Miller. But the team brought in transfer Linda Perez (15:54 5k pb) from UC Riverside and Polk believes a number of his returning athletes have improved since last year, including Colbi Borland (15:44 5k), Kiara Carter (4:09 1500, NCAA qualifier), and Leonie Saurer (10:08 steeple, NCAA qualifier).
Polk believes his team can be better than a year ago and crack the top 10 at NCAAs. But, like every school, it will come down to how they run on the day.
“10th for us is a solid day,” Polk said. “We have a bad day, we could be 15th. I also think we could be top 5-7 if we hit it right.”
8) Georgetown
2023 finish: 18th *Returners from NCAAs: 5/7 (lose #2, #3) *Coach: Mitchell Baker
The Hoyas were 18th at NCAAs and lose two of their top three runners from that team. So why are they in the top 10 in 2024?
It certainly helps that Georgetown has one of the best runners in the NCAA in Chloe Scrimgeour, who is the top American returner from last year’s NCAA meet (8th). And Georgetown’s 2023 NCAA performance is a bit misleading because Melissa Riggins (4:07 pb, 4th NCAA 1500) was a DNF. Riggins was 15th at Nuttycombe last year. If you slot her into the 20s at NCAAs, suddenly the Hoyas jump from 18th to challenging for the top 5.
Georgetown also picked up a bunch of grad transfers. Stanford’s Lucy Jenks (15:33 pb, 93rd NCAA XC) should be the most impactful, but Princeton’s Fiona Max (16:26, 84th ’21 NCAA XC) and Penn’s Olivia Morganti (16:06, 144th NCAA XC) could help out. Another transfer, Almi Nerurkar from the UK (16:00 5k) has strong bloodlines — her father, Richard, was a two-time Olympian, finishing 5th in the 1996 Olympic marathon.
A lot will depend on the new arrivals, but if a few of them hit, this team could finish a lot higher than 8th at NCAAs.
7) Providence
2023 finish: 28th *Returners from NCAAs: 6/7 (lose #3) *Coach: Ray Treacy
Providence, like Georgetown, is a Big East team that should be vastly improved from 2023. Shannon Flockhart ran 4:05 on the track last year in the 1500, while Kimberley May was the NCAA runner-up in the 1500 and ran 15:26 for 5,000. Flockhart and May were 69th and 116th at NCAAs last year, but Providence coach Ray Treacy expects both will finish much higher in 2024.
“[Shannon] is definitely in better shape coming into this cross country season than she has been [in previous years],” Treacy said. “And Kimberley was great in cross country last year apart from NCAAs. She was 2nd at the Northeast Regional to Maia [Ramsden], she was 2nd to Chloe Scrimgeour at the Big Easts…I would expect her to be really high up.”
The Friars also add Alex Millard (4:05/15:18 pbs), the 2023 British university champion for Loughborough University, who should give them another runner near the front of the pack at NCAAs.
The questions come at #4 and #5. Kenzie Doyle (15:27 pb) transferred to Providence from UMass Lowell over the summer but has been struggling with her fitness and may not race at all this fall. Jane Buckley has run 15:41 but has not raced since June 2023 due to a stress fracture in her sacrum; she has been training since July but may not debut until late in the season. And Laura Mooney was 60th at the 2021 NCAA XC meet but only 185th last fall (though she did run a 5k pb of 15:59 during the ’24 track season).
“We’ve had quite a few teams in the past that made the podium,” Treacy said. “I think this team is better than some of those teams. That’s what we’ll be shooting for. We have three people that are for sure potential All-Americans, and our 4-5 with Jane and Laura Mooney…I would expect us to be in the hunt for the podium.”
6) Tennessee
2023 finish: 6th *Returners from NCAAs: 6/7 (lose #5) *Coach: Justin Duncan
Former Tennessee distance coach Sean Carlson left the Vols after two years to take the top job at Colorado in this offseason, but much of the 6th-place team Carlson assembled last year remain intact for Justin Duncan, the former Oklahoma State assistant who is taking over in Knoxville. Jessie Secor, the team’s #5 runner at NCAAs a year ago, followed Carlson to Boulder, but the other six finishers from NCAAs last year return, including scorers Ashley Jones (42nd), Jillian Candelino (72nd), Rachel Sutliff (74th), and Caroline Lyerly (91st). Candelino and Lyerly were both true freshman in ’23, so there is still plenty of room for them to grow.
Jones was the Vols’ top finisher at NCAAs last year (Photo courtesy NCAA/James B Daves)
Duncan said that when he got the job at Tennessee, his top priority was to connect with the current athletes on the team. The consensus? They believed in the culture they had built over the previous two years and wanted to stay together in Knoxville.
“They really liked what they had to hear, what we were selling, what we were talking about, the vision,” Duncan said. “…They invested in not only themselves and the program, but each other. They felt really strongly that they wanted to keep it, that they had a good thing going.”
Duncan is the head cross country coach but has two assistants working beneath him, both of whom were in prominent roles at their old programs — Brian Biekert was the head cross country coach at Southern Illinois, while Amy Rudolph was the women’s cross country coach at Iowa State. Duncan said the team will operate as a combined program, with both Biekert and Rudolph helping with both teams. It is an interesting setup, to say the least.
The one potential issue for the Volunteers is they don’t appear to have a clear low stick. Seven of the teams in last year’s top 10 had at least one woman in the top 15. That said, Tennessee did not have a single top-40 finisher last fall and still finished 6th. But the lack of a clear star narrows the margins. Tennessee knocked it out of the park at NCAAs in 2023 and may have to do the same in 2024 to replicate last year’s finish.
Be a fan and talk about NCAA xc cross country on our world-famous messageboard / fan forum:
- How about some love for Lipscomb and coach Nick Polk? They were 11th at NCAAs with no transfers and no foreigners.
- Ok State’s Dave Smith: “There are five teams that can potentially win…but I wouldn’t say we’re a 50% chance to win.”
- Easy fix for the foreign recruiting issue in the NCAA
- Iowa St adds an 8:22 steepler Joash Ruto. Does this make them a threat for NCAA XC team title?
- I have little respect for NCAA teams that assemble foreign XC Teams
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Have you read our 3 other NCAA xc previews?
*Men’s #10 through #6 *Men’s #5 through #1 *Women’s #10 through #6 *Women’s #5-1 *All 2024 NCAA XC coverage
