LANSING, Mich. – The Carleton College women's cross country finished fourth at the 2022 NCAA Division III Championships, the best-ever result for the program at Nationals. The Knights were the only squad in the 32-team field to put all seven runners inside the top-100, including All-America performances for Clara Mayfield (Sr./Manhattan, Kan./Manhattan) and Hannah Preisser (Fy./Chapel Hill, N.C./Carrboro). That duo finished third and 15th overall, respectively, in a field of 292 finishers.
 
"There are a lot of good cross country teams," said Carleton head coach Donna Ricks. "The difference between a good team and a great team is that a great team figures out how to put it together at the end of the season. This team did just that!
 
"Having two front runners and solid depth has been key to the success of this team. Our team understands that everyone counts and everyone matters. It showed today with the number of teams that we were able to push. Getting all seven finishers in the top-100 is what is needed to be a podium team."
 
This was the 23rd time that Carleton has qualified as a team for the national championships, and the ninth time the Knights posted a top-10 result (see chart below).
 
Racing in cold, windy conditions on a course that was ankle deep in snow at spots, No. 3-ranked Johns Hopkins successfully defended its team title from a year ago, tallying 144 points to edge No. 4 University of Chicago by only three spots. Top-ranked Wartburg College scored 148 points, one fewer than No. 6 Carleton.
 
No. 2 SUNY-Geneseo (198 points), No. 7 WashU (198), No. 8 MIT (223), No. 12 St. Olaf (256), No. 10 Williams (264), and No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (281) rounded out the rest of the top 10 in the team competition.
 
The Knights were 10th after the first mile of the race and continued to inch their way up through the ranks. They took over seventh place a mile later and moved up three more slots over the final half of the race.
 
"The elements certainly played a factor in today's race," said Ricks. "We came prepared. Our job as coaches was to get our athletes the necessary things ahead of time so their focus was on competing, not on the snow and the cold. During the week, we tried out variations of running gear, long tights, long sleeves, headbands, hats, discussed spike length all in preparation so that on competition day they could just go out and run."
 
Kassie Parker of Loras College won the individual crown with a time of 21:06.5, followed by Fiona Smith (21:49.6) of Saint Benedict and Mayfield (21:55.7).
 
Mayfield made history as the first Carleton woman to earn All-America recognition three times in cross country. Her third-place result was the best by a Knight since Shelley Scherer and Anna Prineas won back-to-back national titles in 1987 and 1988.
 
Mayfield and Preisser become the fourth pair of Knight teammates to earn All-America honors in the same year, joining Scherer and Prineas in 1987, Simone Childs-Walker and Laura Roach in 2009, and Mayfield and Amanda Mosborg in 2019 (see chart below).
 
Mayfield ran with the leaders throughout the day and held down the third spot over the last half of the race.
 
"I knew I would be happy and excited to finish my last cross country race for Carleton no matter what, but today was really special," Mayfield said. "I'm so proud of how everyone raced today. It's felt like we've had a 'champions' mentality all season, and we definitely carried that into this race. Every race, someone new stepped up and had an amazing day. Today wasn't any different from our other races; we all put out our best and got the best result we could have.
 
"I also felt really good about our attitude going into the race with abnormal weather conditions. We knew everyone would be impacted by the cold, and it seemed like we did a great job to use the conditions to our advantage. Even though none of us are actually from Minnesota, we raced like we train in Minnesota!"
 
Preisser, the top first-year in the field by more than 20 seconds, covered the 6-kilometer distance in 22:16.7. She ran between 10th-16th place for much of the race.
 
At last year's national championships, Sophie McManus (So./McCall, Idaho/McCall-Donnelly) was Carleton's seventh runner and placed 278th overall. This year, she finished 55th with a time of 22:59.4. She was 111th after the opening mile, jumped 39 spots after another mile and continued her climb through the standings. She picked up 10 key spots over the last kilometer alone.
 
Libby Rowland (So./Tulsa, Okla./Holland Hall) posted a time of 23:06.6, which was good for 68th place overall. She moved up nearly 40 spots after ranking 107th at the mile split. Like McManus, she showed great improvement from a year ago when she placed 241st in her Nationals debut.
 
"They don't give out the awards based on rankings; we run the race for a reason,"said Rowland. "We knew going into this that we were one of the toughest teams out there, and given the conditions it was really anybody's race so we just had to be the team to go for it and be the team that wanted it. I also think being constantly underestimated this season really lit a fire in all of us to prove ourselves and show that we're one of the top teams in the country."
 
Phoebe Ward (Jr./Dobbs Ferry, N.Y./Dobbs Ferry) was Carleton's fifth scorer this year, finishing in 72nd place. She improved a whopping 44 spots between the 1-mile and 2-mile splits, a surge that proved critical to the Knights' placement in the standings.
 
Although they did not factor directly in the team score, Helen Cross (Jr./Nederland, Colo./Nederland) and Mary Blanchard (Jr./Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell) played key roles for Carleton as their climbs through the ranks pushed other teams' scores higher. Cross finished at 23:21.3 to place 89th after improving 37 spots from the opening split to the end of the race. At 23:23.7, Blanchard was 92nd after jumping 51 spots over the final 2200 meters.
 
"I had so much fun running in the snow and seeing how much this team is capable of," said Blanchard. "(Like the team cheer says), we had 'the fuel, fire, and hot desire' keeping us warm out there."
 
Carleton's season already included the program's 12th MIAC Championships title overall and a first-place finish at the NCAA North Regional Championships, but the Knights were more than happy to squeeze one more trophy onto this season's résumé.
 
"So many things need to come together at the right time for a team to be in the top half of a field like this," said assistant coach Laura Albares. "The women have been on their game mentally and physically building into the national championships, and they approached the meet with a lot of competitive drive and grit, surprising a lot of people by getting onto the podium.
 
"Even though only seven athletes toed the line today, it was a total team effort and everyone played a role in the success we have had this season."
 
Best Team Finishes at NCAA Championships
4th  --  2022
5th  --  2017
5th  --  2019
6th  --  1989
7th  --  1988
7th  --  1991
8th  --  1985
8th  --  2011
10th  --  2018
 
Carleton Women's Cross Country All-Americans
1981   --   Terry Jensen (22nd place) --  AIAW All-American
1987   --   Shelley Scherer (1st place)
1987   --   Anna Prineas (7th place)
1988   --   Anna Prineas (1st place)
1989   --   Elizabeth Carpino (13th place)
2004   --   Cassie Funke (22nd place)
2009   --   Simone Childs-Walker (11th place)
2009   --   Laura Roach (25th place)
2014   --   Ruth Steinke (4th place)
2015   --   Ruth Steinke (5th place)
2017   --   Meg Mathison (6th place)
2019   --   Amanda Mosborg (13th place)
2019   --   Clara Mayfield (30th place)
2021   --   Clara Mayfield (10th place)
2022   --   Clara Mayfield (3rd place)
2022   --   Hannah Preisser (15th place)