Brett Haffner
Nov 30, 20196 min
Updated: Jan 13, 2020
Was not ranked the week before.
First number indicates how much the individual has moved in the rankings.
The second number indicates where they were ranked the week before.
Klokow enters our final set of rankings after a strong close to the end of his season. After taking 5th in the Midwest region, he followed up last year’s All-American performance by adding another honor to his collection, taking 13th overall at NCAA's. He was the 4th runner from the WIAC to cross the line. He was consistently competitive in a handful of meets this year and peaked perfectly on time for the postseason.
Hampton had a good season this year, placing no worse than 6th at any meet other than Nationals. After winning the Great Lakes regional meet in a time of 24:02, he certainly made a statement for himself, backing up his 4th place finish at Pre-Nats and 6th place finish at Oberlin. He capitalized on his season with a 12th place finish at Nationals showing that he can be competitive in any race he toes the line for.
After establishing himself as one of the better names of the East coast, McAneny seemed to be primed for success at the national meet, with the potential to challenge for a top five finish. After positioning himself incredibly well just one kilometer in, he would end up dropping over 180 places to finish an unexpected 196th. While this result wasn’t one that many would have expected, he still had a solid regular season which saw him staying super competitive against solid competition. The SUNY Geneseo senior drops in our rankings, but he was still a Top 15 talent this year despite the off day at Nationals.
North Central employed a bold strategy at Nationals, opting to get out conservatively. Osmulski was not in All-American position until over halfway into the race. He was 143rd in the first kilometer and ended up 11th for the second straight year when everything was said and done.
He was the low-stick North Central needed, as he has been all year, finishing right with the best of the Midwest all year. If he had gotten out more aggressively, would he have earned a better finish? Potentially, but he still had a nice overall season.
The top sophomore in the field did a great part in helping his team earn the title. Sitting on the edge of our rankings all season, Widlansky had a huge day, placing 7th. The Sagehens only lose one guy in their top seven, and Widlansky should continue to be at the forefront of Pomona Pitzer’s squad. He’ll be exciting to watch these next few years.
Fassbender earned his second straight All-American performance after taking 6th in Louisville last weekend, continuing his season of rolling with the big dogs. When him and Matthew Wilkinson duked it out at the Blugold and Connecticut College Invites, they both showed that they were ready for some fast postseason racing. Fassbender will be one of the favorites for next year’s cross country season.
While his 20th place finish at Nationals wasn’t representative of his fitness, Matteucci still provided the Bears with a reputable low-stick, which was crucial in helping his teammates onto the podium with a 4th place team finish. Using his renowned conservative racing strategy, Matteucci seemingly would find his way into the lead pack very late into each race and end up near the front each time. His expansive range made for some good finishes on the grass, and should bode well across the board on the track.
Cutter stuck to his guns at Nationals, sticking right with the front guys for the first half of the race before they pulled away. He was still able to hold on for a strong 9th place finish, a nice improvement over last year’s 20th place result. His wins at the UAA Championships and Midwest regional meet were impressive, along with two other regular season wins. The junior will be another one of the top guys to watch for the next year and a half.
These two Eagles capped off their cross country careers together in Louisville with Schraeder taking 5th and Nault taking 8th. The order between these two seemed to change almost every meet, and they were able to finish as the best duo in D3 this year. It’ll be interesting to see if these two work together in track like they did on the grass this fall. They were consistently a threat in every race they toed the line for.
Although Schraeder finished 5th at Nationals, we opted to bump him back one spot after finishing 8th in the Midwest region. That said, he put together a spectacular performance at NCAA's and capped off a great season alongside Nault.
The women of Johns Hopkins might be the perennial stars of D3, but Pangallozzi certainly proved himself to be a star for the Blue Jay men this year. The junior was the closest to beating Patrick Watson this season while at the Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle and was a dominant force through the rest of the season. His 4th place finish at Nationals was a solid improvement over last year’s 12th place finish.
We knew that D’Anieri was good, we just didn't know how good. However, his postseason performances as CMS’ front-runner proved that he belonged with the D3 elites. He raced incredibly well in the second half of the race, going from 14th at the halfway point to 3rd by the race’s end. That is not easy to do, considering the muddy conditions and the caliber of the guys who were ahead of him. He’ll be a strong force to be reckoned for his senior track season.
With teammate Lucas Mueller making a slow and steady comeback, it was up to Wilkinson to be the low-stick for Carleton this year. Boy oh boy, he sure did that. He finished 1st or 2nd in every race he competed in this season other than the Connecticut College Invite (in which he finished 4th). He dominated the MIAC and the Central region, then continued those same front-running tactics at the national meet, holding the lead through the first half of the race and finishing an impressive runner-up to Watson.
Wilkinson stepped up in a big way this season and he’s only a junior. We’ll see him for another cross season next year as a title contender, but first he’s got track to tackle before then.
There wasn’t much of an indication that Aidan Ryan would finish outside of the top five at Nationals: he steamrolled his competition, going undefeated this year, and was looking like a prime title contender. However, not everyone can have their best day every time out on the course. He would end up finishing 10th last weekend, which is a large improvement over last year’s 42nd place finish, but not seeing him at the front was a little disappointing.
The defending 1500 meter champion has a great resume of range on the track, and we should see him put up some big time performances this upcoming indoor track season.
There were two undefeated contenders heading into Nationals: Aidan Ryan and Patrick Watson. There was a good chance we were going to see one of those two take the win.
In the end, it was Watson who took a convincing victory over the field as he established a gap around the 5k mark to which nobody was able to hang on to. He was able to defeat many regular season opponents without trouble (except for Pangallozzi, once), and when it came to the biggest stage, he did more of the same.
The steeplechase All-American should have a lot to look forward to after his first NCAA title. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see another on the track...
Thomas D’Anieri (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps)
Chase Hampton (Otterbein)
Zach Klokow (UW-Platteville)
Joe Frieburger (Wartburg)
Danny Aschale (Connecticut College)
Alec Beutel (North Central)
Danny Aschale (Connecticut College)
Jack Whetstone (Emory)
Alex Phillip (John Carroll)
Dante Paszkeicz (Pomona Pitzer)
Alec Beutel (North Central)
Gabriel Pommier (North Central)
Joe Domanico (RPI)
Johathan Ellis (Calvin)
Ryan Cox (Williams)
Lucas Mueller (Carleton)
- Remember, this is a gauge of how an athlete performed throughout the season. This is not a reflection of the National Championships results nor is this supposed to emulate any kind of prediction. There were many tough decisions that we had to make when establishing the order of these rankings.