Summer is quickly coming to a close. As the days shorten, the air cools, bringing with it the promise of shiny new spikes traversing grass, mud, and mulch. Soon, these glistening pyramids of anticipation will be shiny no more, and cross country season will be in full swing.

Though the summer slipped by quickly, it was not without adequate time to reflect on and relish in the successes of last season. The 2022-23 year in running culminated in late May at the NCAA D3 national championships in Rochester, NY. All the stars came out to shine, and some shone brighter than expected.

In a look back in time, here are just a few of the most exciting distance moments from the championships:

• MIT’s Ryan Wilson swept titles in the men’s 800 and 1500.

• JCU’s Alex Phillip captured his sixth and seventh national titles in some of the most stacked men’s 5k and 10k fields in D3 history.

• In the 5k, Williams’s Elias Lindgren resurfaced to national runner-up status after his 2021 XC second-place finish. North Central captured three All-American honors in this event, reasserting their dominance in men’s distance excellence.

• Nine men ran 8:55 or faster in the steeplechase final. Whitewater’s Christian Patzka overtook national record holder Christopher Collet of Wartburg after an unfortunate fall. Collet’s teammate Lance Sobaski kicked it in for third to give Wartburg two All-Americans.

• WashU’s Emma Kelley cruised to a comfortable 800 victory in 2:06.47. She led two of her teammates to All-American honors.

• In a tight women’s 1500 finish, Emory’s Annika Urban captured gold over U of Chicago’s Maddie Kelley, both in a time of 4:22. It took 4:26 to be All-American.

• Loras’s Kassie Parker secured her 6th and 7th national titles in the women’s 5k and 10k by two excitingly narrow finishes with St. Benedict’s Fiona Smith.

• Wittenberg’s Sydney Khosla took Wartburg’s Aubrie Fisher to the line in the women’s steeplechase. Fisher won the title by a mere half of a second in 10:15.34.

Outside of distance events, there were plenty more exciting moments. Seven national records fell, including the men’s and women’s 4x100m relays, men’s and women’s 100m dashes, men’s 200m dash, men’s 4x400m relay, and women’s triple jump. All this to say, the state of D3 track and field is in an exciting place of growth and competitiveness.

Track and field, however, is a tale for another time. During the fall months, while jumps, throws, sprints, and hurdles athletes endure the dreadful conditioning phase of training, cross country runners begin what becomes a three-season saga of competition. They take to the 6-kilometer and 8-kilometer grass cross country courses that precede the synthetic rubber laps they will eventually take in the winter and spring.

With several key runners out of the competition this year, the season renders itself to the successes of the youngsters, the up-and-comers, and the understudies of the 2022 stars. With 2022 men’s national champion Alex Phillip taking his talents to D1 program UNC and women’s national champion Kassie Parker moving into her professional career with Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, the individual title is open for the taking. On the team front, the podium teams from last season return strong rosters but also lose key runners, making more room for bubble-podium teams to rise to glory.

As several teams took to the courses for their first meets over Labor Day weekend, they began the season-long expedition to the 2023 national championship meet, where anything can happen. As you scour results from opening weekend and the weekends to come, here’s what to look for this upcoming season.

Men’s season

The men’s championship race will be an undeniable showdown between WIAC standouts Ethan Gregg and Christian Patzka. Both return to competition this year after capturing their own titles in track last year–Patzka in the indoor 5k and outdoor steeple and Gregg in the indoor 3k. Gregg, known for the gutsy way he takes races out fast and honest, comes back hungry after a fourth place finish. Patzka, who finished runner-up to Phillip last year, comes back as the top returner and will look to claim the title he observed from a distance last year. We will see the season’s first matchup between Gregg and Patzka at the UW Eau Claire Blue Gold Invitational on Sept 29.

Also returning to competition this year is third place cross finisher Sam Acquaviva of MIT. He was one of four men to dip under 14 minutes in the 5k last indoor season, but spent most of the season out of competition last spring. If he can get to the start line healthy, he will certainly be a threat running at the head of the national title team MIT.

Other top XC returners include Geneseo’s Nick Andrews, Wartburg’s Christopher Collet, Simpson’s Spencer Moon, La Crosse’s Isaac Wegner, St. Olaf’s Will Kelly, and Wilmington’s Simon Heys. Whitewater’s Gunner Schlender, Manchester’s Enrique Salazar, and Colorado College’s James Settles will also return after impressive nationals showings in track.

The team battle has the potential to be just as exciting this year as it was in 2022. Last fall, Acquaviva led an astounding pack of six runners into the top 50 of the nation. As a result, MIT captured a sweeping national victory, finishing 47 points ahead of runners-up Wartburg. While MIT will look to contend for the top podium spot once again, they will attempt to do so without fifth place finisher Ryan Wilson, 14th place finisher Matt Kearney, or 36th place finisher Andrew Mah.

Acquaviva and Henry Hardart remain MIT’s sole returning All-Americans, but Vedang Lad and Lowell Hensgen, both of whom finished just outside of XC All-American status, bring back valuable experience from the national stage. Pepper in 9-minute steeplechaser Pablo Arroyo and a strong freshman recruiting class–which includes 15:26 Oregon high school cross country 5ker Charlie Black–and the Engineers might just have the cards to defend their title in 2023.

Other returning podium-contending teams include Wartburg (second), SUNY Geneseo (third), and John Carroll (fourth), all of whom will look to place as highly as possible this year. Wartbug and Geneseo come into the new year with more favorable odds, as both return stacked teams.

Wartburg only loses Morgan Shirley-Fairbairn from their lineup of national scorers and retains steeple All-American Sobaski, who comes off of a hot track season. Similarly, Geneseo returns All-Americans Nick Andrews (sixth) and Alex Hillyard (39th) as well as scorers William Hall and Dillon McClary, but loses All-American Ezra Ruggles in their roster. Losing Ruggles and Shirley-Fairbairn hurts, but both teams should return enough talent to make another attempt at the podium this year.

John Carroll’s biggest downfall is the loss of low-stick national champion Alex Phillip, but they also lose almost their entire scoring roster after Phillip from last year. The Blue Streaks will have to rely heavily on the more inexperienced athletes on their roster this year, but do return some talent in Ethan Domitrovich, Ryan Champa, Tommy Naiman, Dominic Delmoro, and Cormac Peppard-Kramer, the steeplechase All-American who was out all of last year and returns to competition this year.

With uncertainty as to how strong returning contenders will be under new team dynamics this year, there are several teams on the rise who could look to perform well this year. North Central returns the 5k All-American trio of Connor Riss, Max Svienty, and Braden Nicholson to the cross country course this year, as well as scorers Andrew Guimond, Nigel Neibel, and James McGlashon.

Last year, the Cardinals finished seventh at nationals following a few uncharacteristically bad races from some of their heaviest hitters. With a full roster returning, they could be the biggest threat to the nation when it comes to the national team title. To open the season, they put 10 athletes under 16 minutes in the 5k at the John Kurtt Invitational to beat a partial-strength Wartburg by 25 points. Lately, this type of distance depth in the regular season has only been heavily showcased by the western powerhouse Pomona-Pitzer.

Speaking of Pomona-Pitzer, the Sagehens return to competition this year after a bitter finish to the 2022 cross country season. As the first ones off the podium following their dominating victory in 2021, they will look to take their revenge. The return of names like Lucas Florsheim, Ian Horsburgh, Cameron Hatler, Owen Kobett, Derek Fearon, and Colin Kirkpatrick suggests this team has all the pieces to be a threat again this year, so don’t forget to follow results from the team out west throughout the regular season.

Other men’s squads to keep a special eye on this year include Mid-Atlantic team Carnegie Mellon, North school UW-La Crosse, and Mideast program RPI.

UW-La Crosse returns their scorers from last year and should be in the conversation for a trophy come November. Isaac Wegner was injured during the track season but returns healthy for XC. The Matthai Twins have a year of experience at the college level to help them make the leap they’ll need. Add in Adam Loesner fresh off an All-American performance in the steeple and UWL is scary.

Women’s season

With the recent graduation of Loras’s Parker, a new star steps into the spotlight in women’s D3 cross country. Saint Benedict’s Smith showed she has the grit to run with D3’s best when she took two narrow runner-up finishes in the 10k and the 5k to the seven-time national champion, Parker last spring. Before the outdoor season, she took runner-up in cross country last fall, then captured a pair of national titles indoors in Parker’s absence. Now, it is Smith’s turn to shine once again, as she comes into this season as the top returner by a very large margin.

Though in the past many have viewed Smith as somewhat of a second fiddle to Parker, what they have failed to realize is just how dominant both women were over the remainder of the field last year. In the outdoor 10k, Smith finished 42 seconds ahead of third place. She won the indoor 3k by five seconds and the indoor 5k by seven. In cross last year, she finished a full 22 seconds ahead of this year’s top returner, Sara Stephenson of Johns Hopkins. This year is for Smith and Smith alone and could help her to add her first cross country national title to her resume.

Stephenson may be Smith’s biggest challenger, having just opened up her season with an impressive sub-18 victory in Baltimore over several D1 athletes. She will be fueled by her team, who will look to capture their fourth consecutive national title this year.

Other top returners include MIT’s Olivia Rosenstein, Wartburg’s Aubrie Fisher and Lexi Brown, Carleton’s Hannah Preisser, and Williams’s Molly FitzGibbons. Wartburg’s Shaelyn Hostager, St. Olaf’s Alison Bode, and WPI’s Grace Hadley return after impressive outdoor performances in the distance events last year.

Last year, Johns Hopkins won their eighth team title, a victory that came as somewhat of a surprise given the team’s low-key season. They overtook powerhouses U of Chicago, Wartburg, and Carleton, who rounded out the podium finishers. Once again, many of these teams will look to repeat or better their successes, but will attempt to do so with new faces and dynamics.

Hopkins suffers sizable losses in Alex Ross and Sydney Friedel. Ross was fifth last year in cross, and Friedel was a 30th-place All-American. They do, however, return all remaining national team members including Katharine Priu, Isis Diaz, Triya Roy, and, hopefully, Paloma Hancock, who did not run track last year. They also add to their arsenal grad transfers Jenna Lange (Pomona-Pitzer) and Sarah Conant (UMass), as well as sub-22 6ker Callie Jones, who returns after two years on the Johns Hopkins soccer roster. With a low-stick like Stephenson and the depth of the rest of the roster, Hopkins could once again be a threat on the podium.

The list of notable returning individuals might as well be a Wartburg roster as this team retains several heavy hitters on their roster this year. The Knights return four All-Americans from last year in Fisher, Hostager, Brown, and Ellie Meyer. In fact, they return every member from their nationals roster with the exception of one. With a strong performance from their fifth runner, who may just be Lily Boge after opening up her season with a 19:21 5k victory at the John Kurtt Invitational, Wartburg may just have the best recipe for success.

U of Chicago opened their season up with a bang, placing an entire scoring top five under 18 minutes for 5k in the St. Francis Saints Twilight Invite. They return names from last year’s star-studded roster such as All-Americans Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel and Maddie Kelley, cross country nationals competitors Sophie Tedesco and Caitlin Jorgensen, and 17:00 5ker Cat Wimmer. Add to the mix a seriously improved Elisabeth Camic and U of Chicago women will return an incredibly deep roster once again. Known for their incredibly tight pack times throughout the regular season last year, look for these women to impress all fall long.

Rounding out the podium is the team from Carleton, who loses low-stick All-American Clara Mayfield, but returns a strong frontrunner in Preisser. Preisser is joined by all of her nationals teammates from last year, including Sophie McManus and Phoebe Ward, both of whom finished ahead of Preisser in Carleton’s opener this past weekend. Now another year wiser and with little change to the team dynamic, Carleton will return to the national stage as a force to be reckoned with.

Other teams to watch out for this season include East region school MIT, Mideast team Williams, and Niagara powerhouse SUNY Geneseo.

As athletes ease back into competition with previews of full-distance races in the form of 4k’s and 5k’s, the drama begins to unfold. Regular season pack times and upsets keep us at the edge of our seats until November, but ultimately mean nothing when the gun goes off this year in Newville, Penn. Stay tuned for all the latest updates, including something new–the D3GD Runner/Team of the Week–all brought to you by D3 Glory Days.