TSR Collaboration
Mar 3, 202111 min
TSR contributors may value certain aspects and ranking criteria differently between men and women when constructing our Indoor Top 25...
Was not ranked in our last update.
First number indicates how much the individual has moved in the rankings.
The second number indicates where they were ranked in our last update.
Caleb Futter had already cemented his status as one of Division 2’s elite distance talents in his debut season for GVSU earlier this winter. Now, the redshirt freshman had added a conference title to what was already an impressive year with a clutch win in the GLIAC mile.
Futter ran a personal best 4:04 to secure a victory of over Ashland’s Ian Johnson, a dynamic middle distance talent, as well as fellow Lakers Dennis Mbuta and Colin DeYoung.
With this, Futter put himself firmly among national qualifiers in the mile. Not only that, but he had double race duties, placing 5th in the 3000 meters to help in the conference team title race.
Despite his relative inexperience, Futter has been pretty consistent all year up and to this point. On paper, he is firmly in the mix to be a national contender and could shake things up in the championship mile if he survives and advances through the prelims.
Ahmed Sado, the Grizzlies’ redshirt freshman, toed the line for a distance double at the RMAC Championships and held his own, going home with two podium finishes in the 3k and 5k.
Sado finished runner-up in the 5k to UCCS’s Afewerki Zeru before taking 3rd in the 3000 meters. It’ll be interesting to see what the Adams State rook does at Nationals when you consider that Sado is qualified in the mile, an event that he hasn’t raced in about a month.
The fact that his mark from almost a month ago has held up over that time span is a testament to his talent and it's interesting to think about what could happens if is still able to peak in the postseason. After all, his recent 3k and 5k marks were very encouraging.
The Adams State ace has only gotten stronger as the season has gone on and is clear very fit right now. Depending on how that fitness translates to his mile, Sado could really rain on someone’s parade on the big stage.
Workman has not raced since the last iteration of these rankings.
Josh Pierantoni’s only race since our last update appears to be a DNF at the latest Mines’ Front Range Open in mid/late February. The circumstances surrounding that DNF are unclear, but the Colorado Christian junior has been on a roll this season and will hopefully shake off that DNF before the national meet.
Austin Nolan had been staying quiet until a recent 3k at the Kentucky Collegiate Indoor Invitational. The time was nothing too spectacular compared to a few others this year, but to his credit, Nolan did take home the win. He finished 10 seconds ahead of teammate Titus Winders in a time 8:17.
It’s also worth noting that Nolan’s 5k performance from earlier in the year (13:58) still sits among the top in Division 2 as he hit the auto-qualifying mark back in January. While his 3k performance may come off as lackluster, it was only his second race of the season.
His 5k time from earlier in the year was impressive, but we how he handles his second attempt in that race remains to be seen and should be something to keep an eye on heading into Nationals.
Austin Miller dropped back down in distance in this last stretch of the season before the nationals meet and didn’t disappoint. The Augustana (S.D.) senior ran his first 800 meter race of the year at the SDSU Last Chance Meet, winning it in a time of 1:53,before putting on a show at the NSIC Championships.
Miller tripled up on events and took home the crown in all three races he suited up for. He won the mile in 4:08 before coming back to win the 800 meters in a time of 1:51. Then, to add the cherry on top, Miller anchored the winning DMR.
Oh, and this all happened on the same day.
Miller displayed true workhorse capability and he’ll be someone to keep an eye on now that he gets to focus on just one event. There are a bunch of guys barely sitting on the wrong side of that 1:50 barrier with him and it’s probably safe to say that they’re all just as eager to change that in Birmingham.
West Texas A&M’s 800 meter specialist has consistently been amongst the top runners in his event this year, and he followed suit this past weekend. Taki placed 2nd at the Lone Star Conference Championships to Ayman Zahafi, running a time of 1:50 in the process. While he may not have taken the title, Taki did walk away with a personal best and extra motivation.
Taki’s finishing time was just short of receiving a conversion that would’ve had him under 1:50, but it’s doubtful that he’s losing much sleep over it. After all, he’ll have another chance to dip under 1:50 at the NCAA Championships.
Plus with his consistency, Taki is due for a breakthrough sooner or later. What better time to potentially have it than when a national title is on the line?
Becker managed to get even better since our last update. The Queens (N.C.) sophomore raced the Camel City 3k and notched a strong 8:04 (converted) mark. We had concerns about his leg speed before, but that performance helps mitigate those worries a good bit.
Becker has improved greatly since his prior 3k and also snagged a spot in another event at the NCAA Championships with his recent efforts. His 5k is still his better event of the two distances, but he could opt to go for the double if he wants to. Becker would have about a full day in between both events with his current competition schedule.
Jonathan Groendyk, unfortunately, faced a minor setback at the GLIAC Championships (if you even want to call it that).
The Grand Valley State junior ran the 800 meter leg on the winning DMR team on day one. But on day two, the Laker ace took 7th in what was a close race that surprisingly didn’t have a GVSU athlete come out on top. Instead, Ashland’s Ian Johnson took a very narrow win over Groendyk and his teammates, including Dennis Mbuta.
In the grand scheme of things, Groendyk was competitive in this field and it wasn’t really a big loss, so it’s hard to fault him. However, he'll need to refine his race tactics and positioning for the indoor national meet.
Powell has not raced since the last iteration of these rankings.
Scomparin bounced back magnificently at Colorado Mines’ fourth Front Range Open of the season, giving him a boost in our rankings that better signifies his true potential.
In the last Front Range Open he ran in, Scomparin was a little flat in the 5k. However, things would be very different in his future races. After a week away from racing, Scomparin came out and ran a 13:53 (converted) 5k mark, securing an auto-qualifying mark for himself and pulling teammate John O’Malley to an auto ark as well.
While the redshirt freshman is unproven on the national stage, it feels like this turnaround performance warrants some credit for his TSR ranking. It takes some poise to be able to shake off what was probably a deflating 5k performance, go back to the grindstone, and then come out and drop a scorcher like that.
Hopefully for the Oredigger, that resiliency carries over to the national meet and proves to be legitimate. If it does, then Scomparin may do something special.
Ayman Zahafi resurfaced and made sure to let everyone know that he was back. The TAMU-Kingsville junior used the Lone Star Conference Championships as his debut race, taking the top qualifying spot for the final before winning the conference crown over West Texas A&M’s Arnaud Taki in 1:49 (converted).
Zahafi is no stranger to the national stage, having finished 3rd at the indoor national meet and 2nd at the outdoor national meet in 2019. He’s back in prime position for another podium finish, sitting neck-and-neck with the top two 800m meter runners in the country, Dennis Mbuta and Butare Ruganerwa, as the only ones who have run under the 1:50 barrier this year.
If Zahafi’s trend of progression in national finishes from 2019 continues, this could be the year where he pulls out NCAA gold.
On paper, Zeru is going to sneak his way into the national meet. He is ranked at NCAA #12 in the 5k and NCAA #13 in the 3k, both good enough to get him in, but only by a couple of places. So how does a guy who was barely making the meet land this high in the rankings?
Well, with two big races at the RMAC Championships.
Zeru came away with two wins in two races this weekend, claiming both the 3k and 5k titles. His 3k came down to the wire, but he managed to edge out Carson Bix by a tenth of a second and snag the win.
The 5k, however, was a different story. Zeru essentially ran away with the title, winning by 24 seconds. While his marks from the season may not be as strong as others, his performances in championship racing gives him exciting momentum heading into the National Championships, and that may be just as dangerous top-ranked times.
Rugenerwa’s inconsistency is the primary factor holding him out of the top-10 of our rankings. He leads the NCAA in the 800 meters with a mark of 1:48.17, almost a full second better than the next guy. He won the mile and the DMR at the Lone Star Championships this past weekend, but also ran 1:57.49 to finish 5th in the 800 meters, his best event, at that same meet.
Looking too much into that poor result can be a trap. Rugenerwa is not suddenly that much worse and when you consider that he has run the NCAA's leading time in the 800 meters, he is an obvious force in the event.
With that in mind, we have to question what happened this past weekend. His 800 final was a disaster. He was three seconds back of the 4th place finisher and over seven seconds behind the winner. Now, admittedly, he was tripling, which is why we're not overreacting, but it was still an uncharacteristically poor result.
Still, it's almost better that Rugenerwa had that "off" day at his conference meet rather than then national meet.
On the topic of guys who underperformed at their conference meets, enter Dennis Mbuta. In what should have been his 800 title to win, Mbuta was bested by Ian Johnson of Ashland and finished runner-up instead. The mile was not much better with Caleb Futter and Johnson both finishing ahead of Mbuta as well.
In the bigger picture, his recent results might mean nothing. Mbuta is still one of the best 800 runners and is solidly in the NCAA #2 position with his 1:49.03 mark. He also runs on the DMR team that is six seconds ahead of anyone else in the country. He could win two national titles and no one would remember his GLIAC performance.
So no, don’t suddenly write off Mbuta for a weekend that wasn't his best. Just keep his performances in mind when Nationals roll around.
Stimpfel had already solidified his status amongst the elites with his monumental 13:51 (5k) effort from a few weeks back, a race in which he took down the GVSU duo of Isaac Harding and Tanner Chada. In case there were any doubts, he beat them both again this past weekend en route to winning the GLIAC 3k title.
The Saginaw Valley sophomore has looked strong all season long and is set for the 3k/5k double at the NCAA Championships. On paper, he looks better in the 5k, but his win in the 3k this weekend was reassuring of his abilities to handle some more tactical racing.
It’s also worth noting tht he also helped Saginaw Valley to a runner-up finish in the DMR at the GLIAC Championships.
Riddle’s best performance from this weekend was arguably the only race he didn’t win. The Missouri Southern sophomore won both the mile and 3k at his conference meet, but had a huge race to finish runner-up in the 5k. Why was that such a big race? Well, he ran 14:09 to finish only five seconds behind Gideon Kimutai...but he did it from the slow heat.
Riddle won his heat by almost 50 seconds, soloing the NCAA #20 mark. When it comes to the indoor national meet, Riddle will be a key contender in the mile as he currently ranks at NCAA #3 in the event, but the range he showed off this past weekend was incredible.
The Missouri Southern star will likely compete as part of the Lions' DMR at the NCAA Championships as they currently sit at NCAA #6 (and NCAA #5 if you remove GVSU’s "B" team from the rankings).
Stack’s stock went up when he ran a monster 3k at the Camel City Invitational. His converted time came in at 7:52.25, the third-fastest mark in the NCAA and less than two seconds off of Noble’s NCAA's lead and D2 collegiate record.
Despite such a strong performance in the 3k, Stack stayed somewhat lower in the rankings due to his lack of performances in other events. He has the NCAA #16 time in the 5k and will make it the NCAA Championships thanks to the auto-qualifying standard. Based on his 3k, he should be in better shape than his 14:03 (5k) might suggest.
Ko has not raced since the last iteration of these rankings.
Moran has not raced since the last iteration of these rankings.
If you run the 3k for Western Colorado and your last name starts with an "S", the past few weeks have probably been good to you. Coming across the line just ahead of his teammate, Charlie Sweeney blitzed an NCAA #2 mark of 7:51.71 (converted) at the Camel City Invitational.
Both Sweeney and Stack set their 5k marks in the week prior to their blazing 3k times. It wouldn’t be surprising if they could run substantially faster, but as things are, they are roughly 24 seconds off of the NCAA lead.
Either way, Sweeney looks super sharp right now and could be primed to make some noise and maybe challenge the best overall distance runner in the country when it comes to the indoor national meet.
Julian was a member of the Colorado Mines DMR team that ran a converted 9:49 at their Mines Front Range series which places them at NCAA #10.
Is it possible that we see Julian triple? He's entered in both the 3k and the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships and he's probably the best piece of Colorado Mines' DMR. All of that racing will have to be taken into consideration when he toes the line less than two weeks from now, but he's capable of coming with a national title in the mile. In fact, we would argue that he's the national title favorite.
The GVSU duo had almost an identical weekend at the GLIAC Championships, and truthfully, it was a little disappointing. The pair finished 3rd and 4th in the 3k, a race they realistically should have gone 1-2 in. The DMR provided a bit of redemption as they came away with the team win, but the fact they were not particularly close in the 3k does raise some questions.
Similar to Mbuta, there’s probably nothing to worry about. Chada and Harding are set to double down in the 3k and 5k and will be contenders in both events. One poor race at GLIAC's shouldn’t be anything but a blip on the radar heading into NCAA's for these two.
Noble has not raced since the last iteration of the rankings. He was set to compete in the 5k at the Trials Of Miles meet in Texas this past weekend, but was forced to withdraw due to COVID contact tracing precautions.
Ayman Zahafi (TAMU Kingsville)
Austin Miller (Augustana (S.D.))
Caleb Futter (Grand Valley State)
Seb Anthony (Queens (N.C.))
Nathan Hood (CSU-Pueblo)
Wes Ferguson (Nebraska-Kearney)
Tony Torres (Colorado Mines)
David Cardenas (Adams State)
James Young (Academy of Art)
Ian Johnson (Ashland)
Seb Anthony (Queens (N.C.))
Nathan Hood (CSU-Pueblo)
Wes Ferguson (Nebraska-Kearney)
Tanner Maier (Minnesota State)
Seth Simonson (Nebraska-Kearney)
Alec Kray (Augustana)
Blake Jones (Illinois-Springfield)
Nadir Yusuf (MSU-Moorehead)