2024 NCAA XC: Previewing the Women’s Top 10, from #5 NC State to #1 NAU

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 previewed the top 10 men’s teams on Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday we reviewed the first half of our women’s top 10. Now it’s time to look at women’s teams #5 through #1, starting with the three-time defending champions…

*Men’s #10 through #6 *Men’s #5 through #1 *Women’s #10 through #6 *All 2024 NCAA XC coverage

5) NC State

2023 finish: 1st   *Returners from NCAAs: 3/7 (lose #1, #2, #3)   *Coach: Laurie Henes

This year’s NC State team will look different to the one that has ruled over the NCAA the last three years. The Wolfpack’s top three finishers from last year’s NCAA team — Katelyn Tuohy, Amaris Tyynismaa, and Sam Bush — are all gone. So is Kelsey Chmiel, a three-time top-10 finisher at NCAAs. And Leah Stephens, who was 43rd last year as a true freshman, has been injured since the spring. Coach Laurie Henes said she does not want to rush the 19-year-old Stephens back before she is ready.

NC State has won three straight NCAA titles (Photo courtesy James B Daves/NCAA)

“She was training and had a bit of a setback,” Henes said. “…I want to make sure she doesn’t get into a cycle of that. So my guess is that we would not run [Leah] this fall. I just want to make sure she can have a long career.”

If you’re counting, that means the Wolfpack’s five best runners from 2023 may not run a step for them this fall. And yet, this could still be a podium team. NC State is young, but there is a lot of talent on the roster. Grace Hartman (63rd NCAA XC, 15:28/32:28 pbs), Hannah Gapes (73rd, 15:58), and Gionna Quarzo (102nd, 15:51) all return from last year’s title team. Brooke Rauber (90th at ’22 NCAA XC) will not race early but Henes expects her to be ready for the championship portion of the season. And the Wolfpack bring in Fiona Smith (15:50/32:57), who was the NCAA DIII champion last year for St. Benedict.

NC State also has a bunch of first- or second-year runners with limited NCAA experience but impressive high school accomplishments:

• Angelina Napoleon (RS freshman): Won Gatorade national track & field athlete of the year in 2023 after breaking high school record in 2k steeplechase (6:18). NCAA steeple qualifier as true freshman (9:54).
• Jolena Quarzo (RS freshman): Younger sister of Gionna was 3rd at ’24 US U20 XC champs.
• Ellie Shea (true freshman): Ran 4:40/9:02/15:46 for mile/3k/5k in high school and twice finished top-15 in World XC U20 race.
• Bethany Michalak (true freshman): 3rd at ’22 NXN, 2nd at ’23 NXN.

Henes said she expects Napoleon, Jolena Quarzo, and fellow redshirt freshman Kate Putman to be factors this year. When we spoke last week, Henes said she had yet to decide whether Shea and Michalak will redshirt this fall (though Shea raced in an NC State uniform at last week’s adidas XC Challenge where she was 26th) but has been impressed by what she has seen from them so far.

“We’ll have people that are a lot better than people might expect,” Henes said. “Some of the development we’ve had has been really good.”

4) Notre Dame

2023 finish: 4th   *Returners from NCAAs: 5/7 (lose #1, #2)   *Coach: Matt Sparks

After finishing 5th in 2021 and 7th in 2022, the Fighting Irish made the podium by taking 4th last year at NCAAs in Charlottesville. The leader of those teams was Olivia Markezich, the 2023 NCAA champion in the steeplechase who came to Notre Dame as a walk-on in 2019 and left as one of the most decorated runners in program history. Markezich (3rd at ’23 NCAA XC) and her twin sister Andrea (35th) are no longer in South Bend, which means Notre Dame no longer has a clear #1 runner. But coach Matt Sparks believes his team can still challenge for the podium thanks to its depth.

Notre Dame celebrating its 4th-place finish in 2023 (Photo courtesy James B Daves/NCAA)

“In the past years, we really relied on Olivia to carry us from the front and we all just kind of followed her and expected her to carry the weight of the team in so many different ways,” Sparks said. “…Those that were on the team with Olivia have really stepped up into some leadership roles and asserted themselves and found their voice, on and off the track.”

Sparks describes his top four as “very interchangeable.” Emily Covert, now on her third school in 12 months after transferring from Colorado to Tennessee to Notre Dame, was 50th at NCAAs last year for Colorado (she ran track for Tennessee) and boasts impressive track pbs of 15:35/32:30. Siona Chisholm (15:32, 15th in NCAA 5k final), Erin Strzelecki (37th NCAA XC, 15:51), and Sophie Novak (9:02 3k, 9:40 steeple) form a strong top four.

And Sparks expects true freshman Isabel Allori (4th NXN, 9:48 2-mile) and redshirt freshman Arianne Olson (16:05 5k, 10th World U20s, ACC 10k runner-up) to mix it up with the Irish’s top group as well.

Put it all together, and Notre Dame should challenge NC State for the ACC title (NC State has won eight in a row) and push for the podium at NCAAs once again.

“We really feel like we have a much different team than previous years but with a similar ceiling,” Sparks said.

3) Washington

2023 finish: 8th   *Returners from NCAAs: 6/7 (lose #6)   *Coach: Maurica Powell

Last year was Washington’s most successful cross country season since coach Maurica Powell took over in 2018, with the Huskies winning Pac-12s for the first time since 2009 (it was also their last Pac-12 title — UW is in the Big 10 now) and finishing 8th at NCAAs, the program’s best finish in 12 years. With all five scorers returning and the addition of one of the country’s top transfers, Washington should be even better in 2024.

Washington’s top three from last year, Chloe Foerster (47th NCAA XC), Sophie O’Sullivan (56th), and Julia David-Smith (58th), all ran pbs during the track season: 4:07 in the 1500 for Foerster, 4:00 in the 1500 at the Olympics for O’Sullivan, and 15:57 in the 5k for David-Smith (as well as 8:59 in the 5k). India Weir (140th NCAAs) also ran 15:51 for 5k indoors and Tori Herman (17th at ’21 NCAA XC) ran 15:54.

One thing Washington did not have last year at NCAAs is a low stick, but that should change with the addition of Duke transfer Amina Maatoug, who was 9th at NCAAs last year and ran 8:46/15:37 on the track before a foot injury ended her season. Powell told LetsRun Maatoug is back to full training now and “fitter than I thought she’d be at this point.”

That gives UW a strong potential scoring five with athletes who represent five different countries: the USA (Foerster), Ireland (O’Sullivan), France (David-Smith), Great Britain (Weir), and the Netherlands (Maatoug). Grad transfers Maeve Stiles (Penn, 15:55 5k) and Samantha Tran (Michigan, 15:52) also join the team this fall.

Given Maatoug’s injury last spring and a delayed start for O’Sullivan following the Olympics, this is a team that may take some time to come together but could be one of the best in America by November.

2) BYU

2023 finish: 14th   *Returners from NCAAs: 5/7 (lose #1, #4)   *Coach: Diljeet Taylor

In her first seven years at BYU, Diljeet Taylor‘s teams finished in the top 10 every single year, including an NCAA title in March 2021. And in six of those seven years, BYU outperformed its pre-meet rank. It was an impressive championship record, and one of which Taylor was immensely proud.

Which is what made the disappointment of 2023 so difficult for her to stomach. BYU went into the meet ranked #3 in the country and was leading at 2k but fell apart late and faded to 14th.

“The women just got overly excited in that beginning,” Taylor said. “They didn’t run within themselves and then there was some panic that set in. And I’m going to take responsibility for it as a coach.”

BYU women at NCAA XC under Diljeet Taylor

Taylor had not had to deal with that sort of failure before, and initially, she struggled to move past it.

“It really broke me to the core,” Taylor said. “…It really did kind of kill me. And maybe it shouldn’t have, right? When I look back now, it’s like, how did that do that? How was one result able to do that?”

A few weeks after NCAAs, Taylor called up her longtime mentor, the legendary former Georgetown coach Frank Gagliano, searching for advice.

“He was like, okay, well yeah, that was awful,” Taylor said. “But what are you, as a coach, going to do about it?”

Taylor had her team write down what they were thinking and feeling that day (something she did as well). She also wrote a book, Believe in Her, that was published in July. And BYU got back to kicking ass. The Cougars won the DMR at NCAA indoors with three legs that had been on the NCAA XC team. In fact, all seven finishers from the XC team qualified for NCAA indoors, either individually or as part of the relay.

Taylor believes she is a better coach now because of what she and the team went through last year. And the next time her team hits a rough patch, she will know how to navigate it.

“I’ll never get broken like that again,” Taylor said.

Looking to the 2024 season, BYU should be in the thick of the national title conversation. Jenna Hutchins (15:30/32:44) was 6th in the NCAA 10,000 last spring. Riley Chamberlain developed into one of the NCAA’s top milers, anchoring BYU’s victorious DMR at NCAAs and running 4:10/8:51 for 1500/3k. Carmen Alder won Pre-Nats last year in XC and has run 15:51 for 5k on the track. And Lexy Halladay-Lowry broke out last spring while redshirting, running 9:22 in the steeple and 15:02 for 5k. Those times would rank her #4 and #3, respectively, on the NCAA all-time list had she run them in a BYU uniform. She should be one of the best runners in the country this fall.

That gives BYU a strong very strong top four. Add in Carlee Hansen (9:04 3k), Taylor Lovell (9th NCAA steeple, 9:48 pb), and Miami (OH) transfer Carmen Riano (9:46 steeple/15:50 5k) plus freshman Nelah Roberts, who was 16th at NXN last year and whom Taylor believes could step into the top seven right away, and this is a team capable of winning BYU’s second NCAA XC title in five years.

Taylor said that some athletes, such as Halladay-Lowry, may take a bit longer to reach top fitness after a long track season. But she believes that by November, the group could develop into something special.

“The pieces are there,” Taylor said. “They’re not where they’re supposed to be [now] but you’re going to see us get better every other week, every time we compete…The pieces will fall into place.”

1) Northern Arizona

2023 finish: 2nd   *Returners from NCAAs: 3/7 (lose #1, #2, #4, #7)   *Coach: Mike Smith

Before the 2016 season, NAU XC coach Eric Heins announced he would be leave the program at the end of the year and brought in his replacement, Mike Smith, as an assistant for that season. The NAU men responded by winning the first XC title in school history, and have gone on to win five more under Smith’s watch.

The NAU women on the NCAA course last year

Eight years later, history could repeat itself. Smith has said he is leaving NAU at the end of the 2024-25 campaign, and his replacement, longtime assistant Jarred Cornfield, is already in place. NAU’s men’s team looks to be in a rebuilding year, but the women are as good as ever. Whether they can send Smith out as a champion as the men did for Heins in 2016 will be one of the major storylines of the 2024 cross country season.

NAU was the best team in the NCAA for much of 2023 but had a bad day at nationals in Charlottesville and wound up missing out on the program’s first women’s national title by just one point. The Lumberjacks lose a lot from that team — three of their top four from NCAAs are not returning — but this is still the best squad in America entering the 2024 campaign.

Elise Stearns was 20th at NCAAs but on her best day she can run in the low single-digits — like she did in 2022, when she finished 4th. Maggi Congdon made a huge breakthrough on the track, running 4:02 for 1500 at the Olympic Trials, and should better her 60th-place finish from NCAAs last year. Aliandrea Upshaw (57th) gives NAU three returners who were in the top 60 at NCAAs last year.

And, just like last year, NAU should benefit from some key transfers. Alyson Churchill (15:33 5k) was 22nd for Florida State at NCAA XC last year while Karrie Baloga was 82nd for Colorado as a true freshman. Both women are now in Flagstaff. Add them to Stearns/Congdon/Upshaw and no school has a lower combined score of their top five returners from NCAAs than NAU. Another transfer, Alex Carlson from Rutgers (8:56 3k/15:53 5k) provides depth. And while it can occasionally take transfers time to adjust to Flagstaff’s 7,000 feet, both Churchill and Baloga have been there since January.

Redshirt freshman Emma Stutzman (17th at ’22 NXN), Aussie Keira Moore (18th at Nuttycombe Invite last year), and Alexis Kebbe (99th at ’22 NCAA XC) could also step up if called upon.

All together, the Lumberjacks have a strong, deep team, one that is capable of sending Smith out on top if they can get it right on race day at nationals.

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