2025 NCAA DIII Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Preseason
NEW ORLEANS – Cross country is back!
Here is the 2025 preseason edition of the NCAA DIII Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll, as released by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Tuesday. USTFCCCA polls and rankings are presented by AthleticNET.
NCAA Division III — Women's Cross Country
This Week's National Top Five
1
MIT
MIT
2
Williams
Williams
3
Chicago
Chicago
4
NYU
NYU
5
Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins
Cross Country Polls & Rankings
Defending champion MIT starts the year on top for the first time in program history. The Engineers, who earned all ten first-place votes, return six of their top-seven runners from last year’s squad, including two athletes who earned All-America honors, Kate Sanderson (16th place) and Rjuta Sane (19th place). Don’t forget about Liv Girand or Lexi Fernandez, either. Both Sanderson and Sane lowered their 5k PRs to sub-16:45 this past track season: Sanderson to 16:37.54; Sane to 16:42.26.
Williams, which finished third last year at the NCAA Championships, sits second. The Ephs edged UChicago for this position by two ranking points, 281-279. Williams welcomes back four of its top-five runners from 2024, namely Kate Tuttle. The rising sophomore had a standout freshman campaign on the grass circuit, capped by an eighth-place showing at the NCAA meet. This is the best preseason rank for Williams since it was No. 1 going into the 2016 campaign.
2024 runner-up UChicago finds itself ranked third to begin the season. The Maroons only return two of their top-five runners from last year in Nora Holmes and Estelle Snider. However, Holmes and Snider stood out on the track, as they lowered their respective 5k PRs to 16:51.12 and 17:06.07. Snider also ran a 10k PR of 35:29.90 to finish 12th at the NCAA Championships.
NYU finished fourth in 2024 – and begins 2025 in the same spot. The Violets return a strong contingent led by All-Americans Janie Cooper and Lucy Gott. Cooper, who finished 14th last year, parlayed that success on the grass circuit into an eventual seventh-place effort in the 5k at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Gott lowered her 10k PR to 35:39.75 and qualified for the NCAA Championships in that event. Also, look out for rising sophomore Stella Kuttner.
Johns Hopkins holds down the No. 5 spot in the preseason. The Blue Jays have a wealth of depth at their disposal, led by 2024 All-American Carter Brotherton. Brotherton and teammate Adriana Catalano turned heads outdoors with near identical 5k PRs of 16:37.31 and 16:37.30. Catalano also went sub-4:30 over 1500 meters outdoors, just like teammate Emma Kothari.
Here are the rest of the top-ten teams in the preseason: No. 6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, No. 7 Washington (Mo.), No. 8 Amherst, No. 9 Carnegie Mellon, and No. 10 UW-La Crosse.
Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 22, because that’s when the 2025 NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships will be held at the Roger Millikin Cross Country Course in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
