2023 D3 Cross Country Nationals Preview
Snow drifted in banks along the curves of the Forest Akers golf-course-turned-cross-country-course in East Lansing, Mich. One wrong step and shoes filled with snow–game over if the first signs of wetness began to seep through socks. The cold, hard earth sat trampled by spectators in body paint and athletes in full tights and undershirts alike–heat energy from contracting muscles mixed with a bit of national-meet ecstasy was the only force keeping bodies warm. The 2022 D3 XC National Championships happened almost a year ago, but the feeling of frosty exhilaration has managed to stay with me for most of those 365 days.
The way Ethan Gregg went on a solo mission out front in the men’s race with only split shorts and a jersey to cover his body, the outburst of joy from Johns Hopkins women when they pulled off a shocking defense of their national title, and the bouncing celebration of MIT coach Riley Macon as his team walked back to camp as national champions are among some of my favorite moments from the 2022 championships.
Now, it is time for new players to make their own memories as we count down the days until the 2023 championship is hosted in Newville, Penn. Luckily, the solace of special moments isn’t all to be relied upon for warmth this year, as the current Saturday forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-50’s and sunshine. Regardless of what elements nature throws, competitors know that this is the weekend they have worked toward all year and now is their time to show the nation. 32 teams and 70 individuals on each side will crowd in their starting boxes and look for the smoke to shoot out from the starting pistol–nationals is underway, and 2023 is a year you won’t want to miss. Here’s what to watch for this weekend in D3 cross country.
Men’s Preview
In 2022, MIT men posted their first program and school national title in a sweeping victory in which five of their athletes finished as All-Americans and all seven of their competitors finished within the top 60. Their score of 82 beat runners-up Wartburg by a massive 47 points. Though MIT returns a strong roster that could have a shot at defending their title to the nationals field again this year, the 2023 spotlight turns to two different programs of interest for the 2023 team title: the UWL Eagles and the NCC Cardinals.
Both teams come off of big victories in their respective regions. La Crosse took the win in the North over Whitewater, and North Central took the win in the Midwest over Wartburg, both teams that also have a shot at finishing on the podium. With both regions being so competitive up front, all four of these teams have a somewhat honest effort under their belts just a week before nationals, something that could both prepare them well for the higher-stakes competition and wear them out. In the case that one of these teams is to fall, watch out for the Mid-Atlantic champions Carnegie Mellon, Mideast champs Williams, West winners Pomona-Pitzer, or defending champions MIT to swoop in for a podium finish.
La Crosse has been prepping for this weekend all year. They packed it up in early September and still took an easy win at Running of the Cows, they traveled to Paul Short to place seventh in the Gold Race ahead of several D1 programs, they packed it up again at the Drews/Neubauer Invitational, they put five in the top 10 at conference, and they posted a 43-second pack time at regionals. The common theme: the strength of the pack. We saw Pomona-Pitzer move up in a pack to win the 2021 national title, and last year we saw MIT keep their scoring pack all in the top 40. This year, UWL could be employing similar tactics en route to a national title of their own.
With Ethan Gregg likely going to the front to try to win an individual title, it will be up to the squad of Isaac Wegner, Grant Matthai, Aidan Matthai, and Adam Loenser to stay as closely behind as they can. Gregg took 4th overall last year, and Wegner took 12th. Grant Matthai was then 70th, returner Corey Fairchild was behind him in 93rd, and Aidan Matthai finished 171st.
The biggest pickups for this squad in 2023 is the jumps Adam Loenser and Grant Matthai have made in a year. Loenser comes off of an All-American finish in the outdoor steeplechase and has been a consistent scorer for the Eagles despite not running on their regional or national squad last year. Grant Matthai, on the other hand, has launched himself off of what was already a solid freshman campaign. He started last season as La Crosse’s seventh guy, and finished the season as their third at nationals. He’s claimed that scoring position as his own this year, running stride for stride with Gregg and Wegner at both conference and regionals this year. If both of these two can put themselves in All-American contention, they will have a good shot at the team crown.
North Central, though not necessarily practicing pack running, has been a dominant team in large races all fall long. They come off of a track season that saw three 5k All-Americans, a message to the nation that they will be a force to be reckoned with when they take to the grass. They traveled to the Spartan Invitational to take third behind big-school, Michigan powerhouses Michigan State and Grand Valley. They then went south to Louisville to capture a fifth place finish amid big-school talent and ahead of programs such as Miami(OH) and Lee (Tenn.). Halfway through October, they won one of the largest and most competitive D3 interregional meets of the weekend down the road at Augustana, beating nationally ranked teams like Whitewater and Wartburg. They capped off the postseason with their 49th straight conference victory and 33rd program regional victory just ahead of the big dance.
Their squad is mostly veterans in seniors Max Svienty, Braden Nicholson, Connor Riss, and Andrew Guimond. Both Riss and Guimond made All-American status last year and joined forces with returner James McGlashon to post a 7th place team finish. This year, they add rookie BJ Sorg to the mix, who has been a consistent fifth for the Cardinals. All four seniors have the resumes to be eligible for All-American finishes, and if McGlashon and Sorg can make a run at top 40, or at least be as close as possible, a national title could go back into the hands of North Central for the first time since their 2016-2018 threepeat. Riss did not run at regionals, but will hopefully be back in the lineup in PA on Saturday.
Other teams in the mix include Carnegie Mellon, who finished just outside of the top 10 at nationals last year, but returns a roster that boasts talented depth. They took seventh at the early-season Panthers invite, where six of their athletes ran 5k in under 15 minutes, they won the Dickinson Long-Short Invitational, took 13th in the Paul Short Gold race just points behind West Point, beat South region champs Lynchburg at Geneseo, and posted dominant wins at UAAs and regionals. At regionals, all seven of their athletes finished within 12 seconds of each other all within the top 2 of the race. Now that’s a pack. As mentioned before, the strength of the pack tends to prevail on the big stage, and the athletes of CMU certainly have what it takes to be a top contender.
Look for North come-up team Whitewater to keep things interesting. Led by Christian Patzka, who is the favorite to win the individual title, Whitewater boasts loads of additional talent in XC All-American Gunner Schlender and mile All-American Justin Krause, as well as Dan Anderson, Craig Hundley, Chris Allen, Tucker Johnson, and Nick Hardin. With much of the team’s 3-8 showing variability the past two races, choosing a national roster may prove difficult for the Warhawks. However, if each shows up ready to compete like they have been most of the year with Patzka leading their way, something special could be in the cards for this squad.
Wartburg will also be a notable contender. Led by Christopher Collet, who will likely go with the front of the race, this team has been just within striking distance of big teams like North Central and Whitewater all year. They come off of just a six-point loss behind North Central last week, enough to give the Cardinals somewhat of a scare, though with a healthy Riss plugged back in, the scores could have looked different. Wartburg flew somewhat under the radar last year only to finish second in the nation behind MIT, so they likely will step up to the line in hopes of defending or exceeding their runner-up finish from last year.
Do not be surprised if the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens also have something to say in this conversation about the podium. They know the course from their fourth place finish at Pre-Nats and have been putting together a sneaky good string of races out west. Their scoring team of Lucas Florsheim, Derek Fearon, Cameron Hatler, Colin Kirkpatrick, and Jack Stein posted a conference win at SCIACs that saw just 28 seconds from one to five, and at regionals, replicated this 28-second spread for a victory over CMS and George Fox. If they can once again keep 28 seconds between their scorers, this team could find itself back on the podium, perhaps even at the top position like they were just two years ago.
Other teams not to be counted out for a podium finish are the returning squad from MIT, led by third-place All-American Sam Acquaviva, Williams, led by John Lucey and Nikhil DeNatale, and RPI, led by Cory Kennedy.
The last Dark Horse we mention until every team turns into a dark horse is Lynchburg. They’re led by Frank Csorba and Chasen Hunt. They have run most of their races together this season and can pack a mean 1-2 punch. With Mid-Distance stars Sam Llaneza and Tor Hortung-Davidson as their flanks, Lynchburg could position themselves well on Saturday.
The individual battle will be one of D3’s favorite showdowns: Christian Patzka versus Ethan Gregg. Patzka comes in as the favorite, with an undefeated resume this season (his only loss was to teammates during an apparent workout race), including two wins against Gregg. As we saw last year and several times during track, Gregg is not afraid to take the field out at an honest pace, and if he can hold a lead over the hilly course, he could outrun Patzka. More likely, however, Gregg and Patzka will run within striking distance of each other, knowing what’s at stake for them both as individuals and as a team.
Other individuals who we could see separate from the chase pack are Wartburg’s Collet, the seventh place XC All-American who knows Patzka well from an ongoing rivalry in the men’s steeplechase (one that is currently tied at 1-1), Colorado College’s James Settles, who is undefeated besides one loss to Patzka at Augustana, MIT’s Acquaviva, who finished third overall last year, two-time top-15 XC All-American Simon Heys of Wilmington, sixth place All-American from 2022 Nicky Andrews from SUNY Geneseo, and La Crosse’s Isaac Wegner, who has been running stride-for-stride with Gregg all year.
Other notable returners to keep an eye on are Simpson’s Spencer Moon, Williams’s John Lucey, Lynchburg’s Frank Csorba, Will Kelly of St. Olaf and North Central’s Max Svienty and Braden Nicholson. The list could truly go on forever if we let it. A big pack will likely exist after the top 5, meaning All-American status could come down to the milliseconds. Saturday’s men’s race will truly be one for the history books.
Team Notes
While we’ve talked about who to look for and who’s contending for a trophy, here are some new faces at the meet:
Colorado College makes their first appearance since 2011
Central College makes their first appearance since 2015
Second time in program history, George Fox will be at the National meet. Their first was last year.
This is UW-Stout’s sixth ever team appearance.
Carleton is back at the meet for the first time since 2019.
NYU is back for the first time since 2017
Washington and Lee is back for the first time since 2016
Women’s Preview
The women’s race is sure to be a tight and exciting race for glory, as six teams stand out most to us in the battle for the team title and only four will stand atop the podium. Last year, the women’s race was similar in that its depth left the door open for tight scores and sneaky finishes, which ultimately gave Johns Hopkins the opportunity to step up and defend their national title, their eighth one since 2012. Just three points back, U of Chicago finished runners-up, Wartburg finished in third, and Carleton snuck up into fourth.
This year, all four teams, particularly Chicago, Wartburg, and Carlton return as main characters in the narrative surrounding the national title. Add to the mix the likes of Niagara region powerhouses NYU and SUNY Geneseo and West region standout program CMS, and first through seventh place could be seriously close.
NYU, the young, up-and-coming program from the Big Apple comes in as the No. 1 ranked team, and looking at their season’s resume, it’s no wonder why. They started the season with a runner-up finish to D1 program Quinnipiac at the Jasper Fall Invitational, followed it up with a sweeping victory at Paul Short against ranked Lynchburg and D1 Duquesne, backed that up with a win at Conn College in which they beat the second place team, Central College, by almost 100 points, and rounded out the postseason with their first ever UAA victory over top-ranked Chicago and a runner-up finish to Geneseo at regionals.
In taking a closer look at regionals, it appears that NYU packed it up in the top 10 to post a high enough finish to advance, while also potentially conserving some energy for this week’s big dance. NYU sees themselves in a unique position in that they got to see two of the nation’s best teams on separate weekends for conference and regionals, and therefore have been putting forth some pretty hard efforts in the postseason. With their sights on the prize, taking the conservative approach at the end of a long and emotional season is not the worst idea.
This squad is led by veteran Grace Richardson, who won UAAs and has placed no higher than seventh all season, and adds to the mix rookie Morgan Uhlhorn, second-year Vivian Kane, and junior Kate Cochran. Their fifth at UAAs and Conn College, Janie Cooper, did not race regionals, but hopefully plugs back into the national lineup. The key to a good race for this crew might fall on the shoulders of their fifth runner. Regardless of how they finish, however, it will likely far exceed their 26th place national finish from a year ago.
Geneseo, the team that took down NYU at regionals, did so in dominant fashion, sweeping the top four finishing positions and placing all five scorers in the top ten. Their spread from 1-5 was 56 seconds. Regardless of what NYU’s racing strategy was that weekend, it’s always good momentum to enter nationals weekend with a win against a reputable team, and Geneseo did just that. Led by Penelope Greene, who has had somewhat of a breakout year, the squad of Rachel Hirschkind, Lily Fowler-Conner, Kaitlyn Grossman, and Sierra Doody have posted several impressive performances that show they are ready to follow-up last year’s fifth place finish with a little redemption. Something tells us Geneseo won’t stop until they are on top of the national podium.
U of Chicago spent much of the regular season ranked in the No. 1 spot. It started when they posted a perfect score at Gil Dodds with a 36-second split. They went on to take a narrow third place finish at Joe Piane, losing only to two D1 programs, and then followed this performance up with a statement win over Wartburg at Augustana. Though suffering no D3 losses all season, they finally fell in the postseason, losing to NYU at UAAs and Wartburg at regionals. If you’re going to have some losses over the season, it’s better that both losses come from other programs who have held a number one ranking this season.
Though seeming to struggle a bit in the postseason, the fact remains that U of Chicago women are the defending national runners up with their sights on something bigger. The key for this group will be patience early on in the race and short term memory from the losses at conference and regionals. Chalk this up with the big performances we know Maddie Kelly, Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel, Caitlin Jorgensen, Sophie Tedesco, and Elisabeth Camic are capable of having, and U of Chicago has a shot at gold.
Wartburg, the Midwest regional champions, were ranked No. 1 in the preseason polls and have fought all year to prove it is a ranking they are deserving of. They put eight in the top 10 in their season opener, all athletes finishing within one minute of one another, took a narrow second at Redbird behind D1 program Illinois State, won Dan Huston comfortably over Central, and placed second at Augustana. Their postseason has consisted of an ARC victory and a 10-point regional victory, making this team undefeated so far in D3. Led by Lexi Brown, who has the potential to be a top-five finisher in the country, the team of Shaelyn Hostager, national steeple champion Aubrie Fisher, Ellie Meyer, and Haley Meyer are a team you’re not going to want to count out.
The team that deserves a bit more recognition following their big win over Geneseo on interregional weekend is that of the Carleton Knights. They come off of a 20-point regional victory over Eau Claire in which four of their scorers finished inside the top ten. Hannah Preisser, Phoebe Ward, Helen Cross, Aliya Larsen, and Sophie McManus are the five making the magic happen, with contribution from Mary Blanchard at regionals in Cross’s absence. With many teams sitting out individuals on their regional rosters, fans wonder if sickness or injury led to a game-time call for the sake of prepping for nationals. Hopefully with the return of Cross this weekend, this team puts up a battle against their southern foes.
Not to be counted out from their positions out west is the team from CMS who has skirted mostly under the radar this season. Their shining moment came from their Pre-Nats win in October, which perhaps gives the Athenas the upperhand in terms of knowing what to expect on the hilly Pennsylvania course. At Pre-Nats, CMS was led by Natalie Bitetti (second) and Elle Marsyla (fifth), with returners Riley Capuano, Angela Gushue, and Laura Zimmer rounding out the scoring positions for a total of 51 points. They beat No. 7-ranked MIT by nearly 50 points, indicating the team from out west is showing up meaning business. In their postseason, the Athenas scored 19 points to win their conference meet and took the West regional title by 42 points. They finished tenth last year, but likely have their eyes fixed to something much bigger in 2023.
To think that two of the six aforementioned teams will finish outside of podium finishing positions is truly outrageous with the amount of talent in women’s D3 running right now, but that’s what the national meet is for. Look out for MIT, Williams, Johns Hopkins, and Lynchburg to also have a shot at top finishes.
The individual race will feature one name and one name alone: Fiona Smith. After coming off of a runner-up finish in cross country, two national titles in indoor track, and two narrow runner-up finishes in outdoor track, Smith appears to have changed levels yet again this year. The worst she’s ever finished in a cross country national race is fifth, but she has never won a national title in cross. This weekend, that changes. Smith has run 6k in under 20 minutes two separate times this year, a feat only accomplished by the legendary Missy Rock (nee Buttry). She has not lost a single race and has run comfortably up front alone all year. She won Conn College in a time of 19:51 and just a week later won conference in 19:55. As someone who is used to taking the race out honestly, look to Smith to do just that on Saturday.
The question for Smith then becomes: just how fast can she cover the hilly Pennsylvania course? Williams’s Genna Girard covered the Pre-Nats 6k course in 21:29. Rock has the fastest recorded women’s 6k time for a national championship meet at 20:00, meaning no one in D3 history has run under 20 minutes at the championships. With conditions looking to be good weather-wise mixed with the potential for speed on the downhill, Smith could just get close to this record time.
Women to watch in the chase pack include Williams’s Girard, CMS’s Bitetti, Hopkins’s Stephenson, NYU’s Richardson, Wartburg’s Brown, Chicago’s Battleson-Gunkel, and Geneseo’s Greene. All seven of these athletes have skin in the team race, so it will be interesting to see if they go for it up front or try to pack up with teammates. Other individuals running as number ones for their team that could be up front include Eau Claire’s Carolyn Shult and Central’s Caroline McMartin.
Though not necessarily likely to be in the first chase pack, there are a handful of freshmen who have had impressive seasons so far that you should also keep an eye on. Ramapo’s Dale Leonard just won the Metro regional, Middlebury’s Audrey Maclean took runner-up at the Mideast regional, and Calvin’s Hailey Erickson finished ninth at the Great Lakes regional. Only 15 women in D3 history have earned All-American honors all four years of their college careers, so any of these three have the chance to embark on beginning this streak this weekend.
Team Notes
While we’ve talked about who to look for and who’s contending for a trophy, here are some new faces at the meet:
For the first time in program history, Connecticut College has qualified for the meet
WPI also qualified for the first time in program history
Coast Guard is back as a team for the first time since 1992
DePauw is back for the first time since 2009
TCNJ won their first regional title since 2003 and will be back as a team for the first time since 2018
Vassar earned their second ever At-Large bid. 2019 was the only other time they’ve qualified
This is Central College’s third ever time qualifying as a team, their first since 2009
Second time in program history, George Fox will be at the National meet. Their first was last year
Final Words
Whether a team places first or 32nd and whether an individual is All-American or not, the athletes lining up in Newville this weekend are among some of the best in the nation D3 has to offer this year. While last year was remembered by it’s harsh cold and shocking team finishes, this year has the potential to make a bit of history. No one in the individual race has ever won an individual title in cross country. On the women’s side, neither NYU nor Chicago nor Carleton nor Wartburg nor CMS have ever won a team title in cross. On the men’s side, neither Wartburg nor Whitewater nor Carnegie Mellon have ever won. Now is the time for history to be made, and all of it will be happening as the sun shines down on the athletes of D3, traversing the hills of Newville, Pennsylvania with fire in their eyes.