Follow our 2017 FloXC Countdown, where FloTrack ranks the top ten cross country teams and individuals in the NCAA this season which will be LIVE on FloTrack. The No. 3 women's spot goes to Williams, and here's why:

Probable Top Seven:

SR Anna Harleen (4:26 1500; 17:38 5K; 10th at '17 NCAA 1500; 73rd at '16 NCAA XC)
SR Victoria Kingham (4:32 1500; 17:26 5K; 75th at '16 NCAA XC; 11th at '15 NCAA XC)
SO Emma Herrmann (17:26 5K; 36:07 10K; 94th at '16 NCAA XC)
SR Emily Sundquist (17:19 5K; 10:43 3K SC; 51st at '15 NCAA XC; 47th at '14 NCAA XC)
SO Carmen Bango (10:51 3K SC; 44th at '16 NCAA XC)
SO Anna Passannante (4:39 1500)
FR Erica Barrett (10:44 3200; 23rd at '16 CA State XC)

Impact Freshmen/Transfers:

Erica Barrett via San Diego, CA (10:44 3200; 23rd at '16 CA State XC)
Brianna Bourne via Oakland, CA (4:53 1600; 10:54 3200)

Analysis:

Williams brings back four women who have finished in the top 50 of DIII, and a fifth who's in the top 60 returners. The key to Ephs making their 16th podium since 1990 -- or maybe even winning their fourth national title -- will be keeping that group healthy.

As a freshman, Carmen Bango was Williams's top scorer at NCAAs and then ran fast enough in the steeplechase to qualify for nationals. But she didn't run there after suffering what head coach Pete Farwell termed a "bad labrum injury," and two-time top-55 national finisher Emily Sundquist missed a year of training and racing from spring 2016 to spring 2017 with a fractured calcaneus. This team will need some luck and caution with injuries.

But with that, they have incredible potential. They have the third-strongest group of four returners in the country, behind only national title contenders Johns Hopkins and WashU. And as good as that group is -- four of the top 55 returners -- that doesn't tell the full story of how much talent is on this roster. Anna Harleen was 73rd last fall, but in the top 40 in 2014 and 2015. Victoria Kingham was 75th a year ago, and 11th the year before. If Harleen, Sundquis, Bango, Kingham, and Emma Herrmann are all healthy and running well, they all have All-American potential.

Five All-Americans is a formula for winning a national championship, so even if, say, one of those women is injured and another is closer to 70th than 30th, this team still has the roster to make the podium, as they have nearly every year since Farwell took over as head women's coach in 2000. The Ephs have stood on the podium twelve times in the last sixteen years, and they should be on it again in November.

FULL WOMEN'S RANKINGS HERE