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based on how many entrants they have, but none of them are necessarily the favorites to take home the individual Marsing opened up his 2021 outdoor season with an 8:50 mark at the Hayward Premiere meet, which happened Dressel, another stellar 5k runner, ran his 13:36 PR a few weeks ago at the Hayward Premiere meet. Running Track Meet stands out amongst his teammates, as well as the field, as he leads the next-best individual this weekend and will be racing in his second 10k of the season after running 28:55 at the Hayward Premiere

Believe it or not, there is most definitely a market for NAIA analysis, something that our readers showed us after we posted yesterday's article. Now, it's time to break down many of the top NAIA programs on the women's side. Below, we evaluated a handful of top teams from last year and attempted to gauge what the expectations should be for those squads going into the fall months... NOTE: Any analysis offered in this article is not meant to be an indication of where an athlete or team will or will not be ranked in our preseason lists as new information is constantly flowing in. Any eligibility mentioned below is based off of TFRRS and any inside information that we have been able to collect. We also could not get to ALL nationally relevant teams in this article. Just because a team was not mentioned does not necessarily mean that they are less relevant than other teams which were highlighted. Let's begin our chat with the College of Idaho women, your defending NAIA team champions. The Yotes were incredible last year...and frankly, that may be underselling them. The long distance powerhouse posted just 68 points at the national meet with four women cracking the top-seven! That's insanely impressive. And if you look at how the rest of their season played out, you'll find that it wasn't too surprising to see the COI women take home gold (although their title win was far more convincing than we thought it would be). Of course, not all of those star-caliber women can stay in the NAIA forever. Long-time veteran Abby Shirts is now gone and Ellyse Tingelstad, last year's national meet runner-up finisher, is no longer listed on College of Idaho's 2024 cross country roster. And to be blunt, that is going to hurt the Yotes...a lot. Make no mistake, the return of Sage Martin and Kahea Figueira is going to ensure that this Idaho-based distance squad remains nationally competitive. On paper, they have a chance to be the best 1-2 punch in the NAIA this fall. Even so, there was a fairly significant gap after COI's top-four last year. If one of those four women had a tough outing on the national stage, then their team score would have ballooned and pushed them out of title contention. We should also mention that Charlie Duff, an excellent support scorer who has made encouraging progress in her fitness over the last year, is apparently gone as well. Molly Connor, one of COI's key support scorers, is returning. She showed promise on the oval this past year and should be able to contribute as an effective scorer on the grass. Even so, the title-winning firepower that headlined this team in 2023 has been cut in half. Admittedly, that makes it difficult to imagine this team defending their title in 2024. Could it happen? Sure, it could, but that would also require a handful of women behind Martin and Figueira to make significant jumps in their fitness. That said, I do think there is enough remaining firepower and enough recent progress from COI's support scorers to say that they will be podium contenders come November. So if the College of Idaho women aren't going to be viewed as the national title favorites this fall, then who is? * * * Well, the title favorites may be the silver medalists who were 24 points behind the Yotes at last year's national meet. I am, of course, talking about The Master's women. Yes, it's true, the Mustangs lose top-20 All-American Ellen Palmgren from last year's team. That is obviously far from ideal, especially given the top-heavy scoring nature of their competitors. Even so, the trio of Hannah Fredericks, Suzie Johnson and Rebekah Niednagel are all set to to return in 2024. Each of those women were top-25 All-Americans last fall. Oh, and Emma Nelson? She is another returning All-American who placed 40th at last year's national meet. Now, admittedly, Niednagel had the race of her life at the 2023 NAIA XC Championships, comfortably earning All-American honors after mostly being a backend support piece during the regular season. Thankfully, the breakout star did validate her unbelievable national meet race with a strong year on the track, running 4:38 (1500) and qualifying for the NAIA Outdoor Championships. If The Master's women end up winning gold this fall, it's likely going to be because Niednagel carried her momentum from last fall into 2024. Of course, with veteran Alyssa Lovett expected to be out of eligibility, the Mustangs will also need to find a stable fifth scorer who can keep any excess scoring to a minimum. That's easier said than done, but look for Brooke Cregan to be that name after a fairly solid spring campaign on the oval. We now move to St. Mary (KS), a team that is almost identical to The Master's in terms of their projected lineup structure for this upcoming fall. Long-time veteran Maddy Walter-Sherretts is no longer with the Spires, instead choosing to finish her eligibility at Savannah College of Art and Design. But even with one low-stick gone, this Kansas-based distance program will still return a trio of All-Americans in Reagan Hiebert, Kate Madsen and Riley Hiebert. Those three women all finished in the top-25 at last year's national meet with the former name emerging as a 6th place finisher. And for the most part, none of those results were flukes given how well they ran during the regular season. That simply means that we should fully expect that trio to return to their All-American ways in November. Returning veteran Carlie Gregg -- who finished 76th at the national meet and earned a sneaky-good 25th place finish at the Blazing Tiger Invite -- may end up being the most important scorer that this team has in 2024. Her ability to cut-off excess scoring and stabilize this lineup is going to be critically important. But thankfully for the St. Mary women, Gregg had a strong year on the track and should continue to make improvements. I also love the fact that both Monse Guerrero-Chapula and Josie Tyrrell, two top-102 national meet finishers, are both going to be returning as experienced juniors. On paper, St. Mary may end up being the most balanced NAIA cross country squad in the nation this fall. Of course, being a "balanced" team doesn't always mean that you can overcome another team's firepower. * * * I was initially prepared to talk about the Milligan women having a "down" year given that they lost their low-stick and a handful of valuable backend veteran scorers. But the more you look at this roster and the accompanying upside that some of these women hold, it's hard to argue that the Buffaloes aren't a podium-caliber team this fall. Low-stick ace Caitlin Dominy is out of eligibility, leaving returning All-Americans Hannah Brown and Ellen-Mary Kearney to lead the team. That's a very strong 1-2 punch, but with the top teams in the NAIA looking incredibly top-heavy, it's the rest of this squad that will need to collectively improve. The good news is that the Buffaloes do add Kirsten Geary to their roster this fall, a transfer from Georgetown College (KY). She was the 58th place finisher at last year's national meet, but has proven to be far better than what that result would suggest. After all, this is someone who won the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge XC Invitational, placed 10th in the "Silver" race at the Louisville XC Classic and was a 5k All-American in the winter! In theory, Milligan still has three All-American-caliber women who can keep them in the hunt for a podium spot. But with fourth scorer Zanelle Willemse and fifth scorer Gracie Allen not expected to return, women such as Patricia Barrera and Natalie Fellers will likely be tasked with closing out the team's scoring. Although, after seeing how well Ashlyn Haas and Anna Jones ran on the track this past spring, there's reason to believe that Milligan may have a stronger backend than you would initially project. Let's now chat about the Taylor women, a team that comes with both good and bad news. The good news for the Trojans is that they return five of their top-seven women from last fall, including one All-American (Noel VanderWall) and one near-All-American (Audrey Brinkruff who was actually an All-American in the 5k this past winter). The bad news, however, is that the two women they do lose were their first and fourth scorers at the national meet (Mollie Gamble and Ahna Neideck). Not having Gamble is a brutal blow given that she scored just four team points via her 4th place finish at the NAIA XC Championships last fall. Not only that, but Neideck was almost certainly an All-American-caliber talent last fall after placing 31st at the Louisville XC Classic and 14th at the Blazing Tiger Invite. Her 70th place finish at the national meet was not at all reflective of her true potential. Trying to replace the scoring value of someone like Mollie Gamble in just one offseason is often not a realistic goal for most teams. That, however, may not apply to the Trojans. But...why is that? That's because the Taylor women signed one of the single-most impressive high school distance recruits in the nation from the Class of 2024. I am, of course, talking about Jayne Halterman. The Tennessee native earned a tremendous 7th place finish at the Foot Locker XC National Championships last fall and owns a 5k PR of 17:01. While she did end her high school campaign as our TSR #46 recruit, Halterman was ranked as high as TSR #28 in our list. It's never easy to dissect how good new freshmen will be when they enter the collegiate realm. Even so, Halterman is a true national-caliber recruit and everything we've seen from her suggests that she can contend for a top-10 spot at the NAIA XC Championships come November. And suddenly, Taylor's up-top firepower from last year is structurally unchanged. With two top-90 national meet finishers in Lynae Ackley and Kaitlin Burden both set to return, I am actually led to believe that this team will be even better than last year and possibly a podium favorite. That is not something that I expected to say about this team when I first began my analysis. * * * We now move to Huntington, a team that I truthfully struggle to be high on. Losing the single-best runner in the NAIA, Addy Wiley, and an 11th place national meet finisher in Anna Martin (she is not listed on their 2024 cross country roster) is not something that I see the Foresters being able to overcome. Simply put, those two women made up the entirety of Huntington's identity last fall and they carried their team in the scoring. Now, in their defense, the Foresters do bring back Emily Tedder, Molly Harding and Malarie Pinwar who went 60-87-91, respectively, at the national meet. That's a solid core that this team can build around. But with their final two runners from last year's national meet being unable to crack the top-230 (and their regular season performances largely matching those results), it's hard to see the Foresters being a top-10 team in 2024. The story is distinctly different for the women of St. Francis (IL). They didn't necessarily have a true low-stick star last year. They did, however, boast tons of great depth and excellent pack-running. Not only that, but they also return everyone from last year's team! The Saints had five women finish in the top-90 at the national meet, although their top scorer was Riley Jo Ford who missed out on All-American honors by seven spots. But despite not having a true star-caliber low-stick, having so much compact depth return for another year should only make this team better. And the best part of all? Every. Single. Returner. is expected to be a senior by eligibility, per TFRRS. In other words, you're getting a high-floor team that boasts tons of experience and still has room to collectively improve. Of course, if this team really wants to solidify themselves as podium contenders, then they'll need to find far greater scoring potency come November. The Southern Oregon women are in a slightly similar situation as St. Francis. The Raiders return their entire top-four from the national meet, including two All-Americans in Alejandra Lopez and Lauren Foster. They also bring back Alyssa Johnson and Cammeo Ramirez, two top-100 national meet finishers. On paper, that is going to be SOU's core this fall. They are roughly just as talented as the core that we spoke about with St. Francis, but they are slightly more spread out, boasting better firepower, but one less returning piece. Haylee Brodahl's departure, while not ideal, will largely be nullified by the return of rising junior, Sarah Mauk. And with the aforementioned Ramirez proving to be a borderline lead scorer at the Blazing Tiger Invite, I only see this team getting better in 2024. However, simply returning their main scorers and "running it back" will only get this team so far if they want to seriously contend for the podium. If that's going to happen, then closing down on the backend of this lineup is a must. * * * Alright, let's now chat about what I believe to be the most fascinating team of the upcoming 2024 NAIA cross country season. And just like the men's article, that team is Cumberlands (KY) University. The Patriots return all seven of their women from last year's top-10 national meet squad. Of those returners, five of them were either freshmen or sophomores. What this means is that, in theory, this team should naturally get stronger as they grow older. But make no mistake, the Cumberlands (KY) women did not have a perfect team last year. The national meet highlighted significant gaps in their lineup, something that was also plenty apparent during the regular season. Simply returning everyone and relying on them to naturally mature as racers probably isn't going to be the thing that puts this team on the podium. Instead, it's going to be Sanae Hassnaoui (via Barton County CC) and Jessica Chappell (via Harding) who will give this program the scoring boost they need. The former was a JUCO standout, running as fast as 9:39 for 3000 meters. The latter was a top-10 finisher at the Great American XC Championships (an NCAA Division Two meet). Neither Hassnaoui or Chappell have to be superstar low-sticks to impact this program in October and November. By acting as solid support scorers, they'll give this team a boost closer towards the podium. And if they do meet expectations, then we're talking about two potential All-Americans, especially for Hassnaoui. As for the Dordt women, last year's 10th place national meet team, I simply don't have much to say. The Defenders no longer have the low-stick scoring services of Jessica Kampman. They also lost a support scorer in Taylor Anema. Returning women such as Isabella Webb, Jessica Opfer and Molly Mulder will give Coach Nate Wolf a solid group to build around. That trio could end up being sneaky-good given that they were either freshmen or sophomores last year and are due to naturally improve in the same way that we mentioned with Cumberlands. Of course, the real challenge will be seeing how this team fills out their scoring behind that group of women. Alright, this article is getting longer than I thought it would be. Let's wrap up this discussion with quick-take bullet-points, shall we? The Lewis-Clark women are expected to lose their top low-stick in Brooklyn Shell, but they return everyone else. With a fairly significant drop-off after their top-four throughout last fall, losing your top scorer isn't going to make overcoming that backend gap any easier. That said, I do believe that both Chloe Overberg and Geraldin Correa could realistically evolve into true low-sticks. Embry-Riddle Arizona returns everyone from their 12th place national meet team. Three of those returners finished in the top-90 at the NAIA XC Championships and nearly all of those returners are expected to be seniors. In other words, there are a lot more positives about this team than there are negatives. Indiana Wesleyan was a SUPER young team last year, but they still cracked the top-15 at the national meet. With a new coach now at the helm, it will be fascinating to see how this still-rising distance squad is able to make an impact after gaining valuable experience. Wow, the Goshen women lose A LOT of scoring and depth from last year's team, at least according to TFRRS. I'll be interested to see how Coach Rustin Nyce is able to revamp his squad in 2024.