TSR Collaboration
Mar 17, 202218 min
Written by John Cusick & Nate Lopez
Click here to see our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.
Listed eligibility takes redshirts and Covid-related extensions into consideration.
TFRRS is used as a general guide when determining eligibility.
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.
Rugenerwa seemed to lose a little bit of his edge near the end of the season.
The middle distance ace from West Texas A&M had an interesting conference weekend which saw him take the mile title, but have a shaky performance in his primary event, the 800 meters. Granted, that didn’t seem too problematic at the time given the double that Rugenerwa was pursuing.
However, he had another lapse at the national meet where he failed to advance to the 800 meter final.
The thing with being great is that then it becomes the standard that is expected of you. Rugenerwa has a proven history of success in addition to how he came out swinging to start the indoor season, running sub-1:50 in his first outing this year.
His end to the indoor season just wasn’t up to par for him, but it doesn’t detract from what he’s already accomplished.
McCauley Franks took a shot and cashed-in big-time over the last stretch of this 2022 indoor track season.
Franks went for the indoor 800/mile double at the national meet and after getting a national qualifying ticket to the mile at GNAC Championships, he made one last push for his 800 meter qualifier at the Seattle Pacific Final Qualifier.
With a time of 1:50.07 and a victory, Franks was on fire and headed to the national meet in two different middle distance events.
At the indoor national meet, Franks didn’t advance in the mile, but he succeeded in the 800 meters, the very event he made that extra effort for. He didn’t disappoint, taking home 6th place for All-American honors and justifying that extra work he put in for the national qualifying qualifying spot.
Overall, it was hard to dislike Franks this season. He was gutsy and unafraid of competition. He peaked for the national meet beautifully and showed off a lot of poise in numerous events. He'll be a key name to watch in the national meet as his versatility offers a lot of value.
Coming into this national meet, we were admittedly not high on Duigou. His results were fine, but they were far from nationally competitive. In fact, saying that he would be an All-American seemed unlikely.
However, a pleasantly surprising 8:02 mark for 3000 meters at Boston University was enough for Duigou to sneak into the national meet at the last moment.
Still, it seemed unlikely that Duigou would be a contender. He lacked national meet experience and he had very little on his resume when it came to the 3k.
And yet, unbelievably, Duigou rallied around a 3k field with fresh legs. He attacked with the rest of the pack and looked like a poised veteran who knew when to respond. He wasn't perfect, but a new personal best of 8:00 gave him a 5th place finish this past weekend, and All-American honors.
It's hard to place Duigou any higher in our rankings given his fine, but unexciting regular season results. Even so, he deserves a top-25 spot and could be a key name to watch moving forward.
After seeing him break both the eight-minute and the 14-minute barriers, we had high hopes for Ezra Mutai on the big stage. Sadly, his competition got the better of the American International runner this past weekend.
Before that, however, Mutai did snag the 3k/5k double-crown at the NE-10 Indoor Championships. He attempted the same double on the big stage, but fell short.
For the 5k, Mutai made an effort to stay towards the front from the start. He wasn’t trying to lead, but he seemed to make sure that he was part of that front-third of the field. Those efforts could possibly be what cost him an All-American finish as he may have expended more energy than necessary. In the last two kilometers of the race, Mutai was gradually overtaken by the rest of the field.
In the 3k, Mutai had positioned himself pretty well in the latter stages of the race. However, he became prey the last 600 meters and was just unable to respond to the moves being made around him, forcing him to fall back drastically as a result.
Mutai has some of the best strength in the NCAA as evidenced by his past marks. However, it just didn’t seem like this past weekend was his weekend at all. Could he have improved tactically? Maybe, but it's hard to point to anything in particular and say that he did something wrong.
Kyle Moran came back down to Earth at the end of this indoor campaign. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. We won’t linger too much on the 3k given his DQ.
As for the 5k, things were somewhat tactical with the race picking up in the second-half. Moran just didn’t seem to ever pick things up or really switch gears as he notched pretty consistent laps throughout the entirety of the race.
We know he can do better and we’re sure to see that on the outdoor oval, especially when the 10k is introduced to the racing circuit. However, for now, he needs to take a pretty major tumble in our rankings given how his national meet went.
That said, his jaw-dropping 13:35 effort from last month makes it hard to bump him out of our rankings.
Afewerki Zeru put together a solid finish to his indoor season.
Zeru took home more than just hardware at RMAC Championships as he notched marks in the 3k and 5k which got him to the national meet. With those national qualifying marks, he took the RMAC crown in the 5k with his converted time of 13:54.
Zeru then took runner-up in the 3k with a converted 8:00.12. These marks came just in time to beat the end of the national qualifying window.
Then on the big stage, Zeru really got in the mix with 1500 meters left to go in the 5k. Zeru’s efforts were good enough for 7th place, giving him his All-American honors for the weekend. He held strong and let his raw fitness carry him to a top finish in a race that favored his strengths.
In the 3k, we saw Zeru get lost in the mix, particularly over the last lap. There’s not much else to say about that. The winner (Titus Winders) took out both the facility and the championship records in the process, so it’s really hard to hold that against Zeru.
Ryan Riddle proved to us that he is human this past weekend. After opting for the 5k/3k double, Riddle fell a little flat in both races.
In the 5k, Riddle just seemed to be disengaged and unable to make a move, never really leaving the back of the pack. We know that he is capable of more based on his cross country strength and his mile speed.
On paper, that makes him a lethal contender.
Regardless, Riddle still had the 3k left for day two.
Riddle must have been incredibly determined to bounce-back as he took the race out and did most of the work almost the entire way, gapping the field by six to seven seconds for most of the race.
Unfortunately for him, he fell victim to the chase pack at the end, but was able to stave them off enough for a 7th place finish.
It’s really hard to be disappointed with an All-American finish, but Riddle has proven that he’s far better than backend All-American result shows. He has shown us that he can win and that he can also run fast. He just has to be more patient in those championship races going forward, even if he’s frustrated with a prior performance.
A member of Simon Fraser’s regiment of middle distance runners, Dannatt closed his indoor campaign out in strong fashion.
With his win at GNAC Championships, he managed to not only take a conference crown, but he also firmly got himself a qualifying spot for the national meet in the mile. He then followed that up by advancing to the mile final, being part of the runner-up DMR team and finishing 5th place in the mile finals the next day.
All in all, this was a very successful postseason for Dannatt. It took him a while to get going, but he really began to pick up momentum in the latter half of the season. His performances at the national meet were excellent and he showed a lot of great poise in terms of where he was positioned.
However, his success on the 1200 meter leg of Simon Fraser's DMR was arguably the most impressive race that we saw from him this past weekend.
Ko’s performances at the national meet were fairly interesting to analyze.
Looking at day one, you could try to say that Ko fell a little flat in the 5k.
The Colorado Mines ace did a good amount of work staying towards the front of the pack early-on, and that may have come back to bite him in the latter stages of the race. However, the field was just too strong this year.
Day two, in a sense, affirms that sentiment.
Despite notching a personal best, Ko placed 10th in the 3k. He missed All-American honors by three tenths of a second and missed winning by roughly five seconds. That’s with the winner running a facility record and almost breaking the championship record!
And there were still eight other individuals between him and first!
If that doesn’t prove the strength of the field this season, then we’re not sure what will.
Looking at Ko’s marks from the weekend, he did just fine and should be looking forward to what comes next. However, we do have to bump him down in our rankings.
Luke Julian’s indoor season can be looked at in one of two ways: glass half-empty or glass half-full.
After falling just shy of breaking the coveted four-minute barrier at Boston University, Julian bounced back to claim the RMAC mile crown and keep the ball rolling going into the national meet
On the big stage, Julian did what he needed to do in order to advance to the mile final where things were, of course, tactical. Julian stayed patient, and was right in the thick of it for most of the last lap, he just didn’t seem to have the gas to cover the move at the end.
Julian still takes home an All-American finish. Is it the finish that he wanted? Or the finish that he's capable of? Maybe not, but he's still incredibly talented and a strength-based race likely would have benefitted him a bit more.
For the most part, I'm not sure that we learned anything about Julian this weekend which is why he stays at TSR #16.
Everybody’s favorite middle distance D2 workhorse contested the DMR and the mile at the Big Dance this past weekend. While some know Miller for his success in the 800 meters, it was actually other events where he stood out this past weekend.
Miller took the surest approach to making the mile final by winning his prelim heat to start his day. Then, he took part in the DMR which finished 6th place to nab some points in a field that saw the top-two teams break the D2 national record.
Day two saw it all come together for Miller as he managed to throw down the fastest final lap to move up five spots in the mile finals. After a DQ, he finished in the runner-up spot.
Miller has shown us time and time again that he has the tools to be an absolutely lethal name on the track. His versatility is elite, his kick is lethal, his tactics are top-notch and he's very experienced.
This Augustana veteran is a special talent who isn't appreciated often enough.
Cardenas closed his indoor campaign with a strong postseason push.
The Adams State runner took the RMAC crown in the 800 meters. Then had a solid weekend at the national meet, showing off strength and poise that made him look like one of the best runners in the nation.
Cardenas safely advanced through the 800 meter prelims, taking one of the two auto-bids in his heat. He later came back on day two, did a decent job of staying out of trouble and avoided any excessive covering of moves.
The Grizzlies’ middle distance runner may have fallen victim to some strong moves heading into the final lap, but his 4th place finish was still very impressive. Cardenas was very clearly one of the nation's best middle distance runners this postseason and with a little more refinement, he may be able to contend for a future national title.
Patience was the theme of the weekend for Mitchem.
In the 5k, the Oredigger hung around the rear of the pack before slowly moving up at the halfway point. Then, with roughly 1000 meters to go, Mitchem put himself into the scoring picture, snagging 5th place. It was a beautiful display of composure and optimal positioning.
The Colorado Mines runner came back on day two to contest the 3k. In that race, Mitchem just wasn’t able to respond quickly enough to strongly cover the pack’s move on Riddle.
Regardless, Mitchem was in the mix until the end. An All-American finish in the 5k to put the lid on his indoor season should serve as great momentum heading into the outdoor season.
We had lots of questions about this Minnesota State athlete coming into the national meet, but now it’s safe to say that he answered any and all questions while also quelling any and all doubts.
In his first-ever national meet on the track, Maier finished 3rd in the 800 meters and had the most consistent racing of his young career so far.
He nearly set a personal best in the preliminary rounds this past weekend and had the fastest seed time heading into the finals. In that final round, Maier raced liked a veteran and he was rewarded for his efforts. His time of 1:50.57 is nothing to shout about right now, but it comes a day after running 1:50.40.
That is impressive consistency.
This Maverick athlete is in the middle of a breakout year and as we head into the outdoor season, his stock is only beginning to rise.
Stimpfel reminded us once (again) that he may be one of the most underrated runners in Division Two right now. After barely getting into the national meet, Stimpfel finished much higher than his seed time and took home his first two All-American honors on the track.
Stimpfel started with a 4th place finish in the 5000 meters, running 13:47, just two seconds off of his outright personal best of 13:45. He then came back on day two and finished 8th overall in the 3000 meters with a time of 8:01, just three seconds off his best.
In case it wasn't obvious, Stimpfel has improved in every aspect of his running and that was on clear display for everyone to see this weekend. The improved tactics from last year (10th in both the 5k and 3k), plus his improved strength, makes Stimpfel a potential national title contender moving forward...in the right setting.
It may not have been the storybook ending that Strader was likely hoping for, but there is still plenty for him to be happy about.
Last year, he finished 6th in this mile race. This year, he placed 4th. He was also the anchor on the distance medley relay team that finished 5th overall this past weekend in the greatest DMR field we’ve ever seen.
While expectations were obviously higher this season, Strader solidified himself as one of the nation’s best milers. In a year where we saw more men break 4:00 in the mile than ever before, you will find Strader’s amongst the very best in history.
The Pittsburg State star added two more All-American honors to his trophy shelf this past weekend and as we head into the outdoor season and there’s zero reason to believe that Strader won't be towards the top again.
He may not need to further refine his speed or be better prepared for intermittent in-race surges, but Strader is clearly talented enough to be amongst the best in D2. His 3:58 mile solidifies that idea.
Chada, much like his GLIAC counterparts, finished the weekend with two All-American honors and continues to impress when it comes to racing on the national stage.
Despite the shaky start to the season, Chada found himself national qualified in the 5k/3k this past weekend where he ran 13:48 and 8:00, respectively. Those times were good enough for 6th and 3rd place finishes, bringing his All-American count to six on the track.
Chada has proven that he can handle himself in any kind of race, but he certainly seems to thrive more often in a hot race. The Grand Valley State star appears that he has increased his aerobic strength, allowing him to keep pace and use that mile speed at the end of races.
The outdoor season certainly feels like we will see Chada finally finish higher than 3rd in a national meet and when that happens, it could very well be a national title.
Paillon finished 2nd in the 800 meters this past weekend and it feels odd moving him down one spot. When you watch the race, he did everything that was necessary to compete for the title. He just happened to be up against someone who had a better race plan.
Headed into the national meet as a favorite puts the target on your back and Paillon seemed to be okay with that. Outside of the final home stretch, the Yellow Jacket athlete executed a perfect race.
His 2nd place finish is the highest of his career and he can pair that result with American International’s 4th place finish in the distance medley relay.
There’s no telling how much the DMR may have taken out of his legs for the final, but regardless, Paillon showed us a very sharp racing ability and plenty of newfound strength.
He won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, so expect to see his name when we start talking about outdoors.
We mentioned that someone had a better race plan than Clement Paillon and it just so happens that the man in question was Wes Ferguson. He opted to stay out of the DMR altogether and that was clearly the right move.
Ferguson tailed Paillon for 725 meters and made a final late charge to the front and won his first NCAA title, running away with nearly half a second between him and 2nd place. While Ferguson isn’t a rookie on the national stage, we did have some questions about his racing ability and if he was a serious 800 meter title threat.
After all, seeing him at this level of dominance was so new and for some, it was unexpected.
However, Ferguson gave us a definitive answer this past weekend that he belongs in the title conversation whenever he toes the line. He’s currently your favorite heading into the outdoor season and we’re only expecting him to run faster as it goes on.
It’s safe to say that Ahl did not have the weekend that he (or we) expected.
The Simon Fraser star started the meet off by not qualifying for the mile final despite having the NCAA #2 seed coming into the meet. It came by way of a very tactical race where Ahl seemingly didn’t have the same kind of kick that he expected. He finished 11th in that race when it was all said and done.
Luckily, Ahl did bounce back as he anchored the SFU men to a 2nd place finish in the DMR. And without an incredible leg from Christian Noble, we’d likely be talking about Ahl and his teammates as national championships.
Ahl did come back on day two in the 3000 meters and finished 4th place overall, reminding us of the patience, poise, turnover and underrated stamina that he has. He walks away with the first two All-American honors of his career, but he’ll be looking to get that bad taste out of his mouth as soon as possible.
He may be ranked at TSR #6, but make no mistake, this guy is capable of winning a national title.
Here’s the thing about the way Powell races: You win some and you lose some. That was very much the case for him this weekend.
Starting with the 5000 meters, we saw Powell take the lead in the later stages of the race and hammer away, hoping to run everyone’s legs out from underneath them. Frankly, that would have been our plan as well. He just also happened to do it to himself.
Powell finished 2nd overall and we saw him have the fastest lap out of everyone except for one athlete.
This was always our concern with Powell winning a national title. He has the ability to push the pace, but if he does all the work, we aren’t so sure he will be able to hang on that final lap and that was the case this weekend.
At the same time, it's hard to know what else he could have done. In theory, this racing approach gave him the best chance for the success and you can't blame him for trying.
Day two may not have gone according to plan, but Powell did set a personal best (running 8:10), but finished outside of the coveted top-eight spots.
It’s not a surprise that he struggled in the 3000 meters as Powell’s best races are the 5k and 10k. However, after seeing how well he ran in the 5000 meters, we were hoping for a bit more from him in a shorter race.
It was an interesting weekend for Elson who experienced his first indoor national meet as part of the American International team. On day one, in the highly touted distance medley relay, he anchored the Yellow Jackets to a 4th place finish shortly after qualifying for the mile finals.
Elson went on to win the mile national title, showing off tremendous speed in a very tactical race which saw him close in sub-40 for the last 300 meter lap.
Yes, there was some oddities in that race which ended with a surprising DQ (filed by an official), but Elson proved that he was ready for the challenge. He was not afraid of anyone in this race and he raced like it. He made a strong move to the front and held off everyone in that field.
He didn’t have quite the same success in the 3k as he ended up not finishing the race. While that wasn’t entirely expected, it also doesn’t come as a surprise as it's not atypical to see a DNF after a long weekend of racing.
Despite that. Elson proved to be the real deal. His tactics this weekend validated his excellence throughout the season and for the most part, it's hard to find a flaw on his resume.
Harding just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to winning a national title during the indoor circuit. After being held off in 2021 for two runner-up finishes, Harding comes away with a 3rd place finish in the 5000 meters and a 2nd place finish in the 3000 meters (again).
In the 5k, he was right there with two laps to go before Titus Winders injected a jolt of energy into the final laps. From that point, it was clear that Harding was just hanging on. He closed in 47 seconds and was able to hold off GLIAC foe, CarLee Stimpfel, in the process.
In the 3k, Harding and the entire field took a chance by not going with the early hot pace established by Riddle. That decision paid dividends as Harding was able to close in 41 seconds, but it wasn’t fast enough to catch Titus Winders, giving him his fourth 2nd place national meet finish in the past year.
Harding is in the mix for every single big race he enters. Frankly, it’s a shame that he’s not ever really rewarded for it. As we head to outdoors, Harding will be looking to snag back-to-back titles in the 5000 meters, but he will have his work cut out for him.
Winders came into this meet as a serious All-American contender. That’s really all we expected him to be. A top-eight guy. Winders, however, clearly had other plans in store for his weekend.
In two of the best tactical performances that I have ever seen, Winders became one of the few men to take home double victories in the 5000 meters and 3000 meters. Winders bided his time in the 5k and in one swift move, he was at the front with two laps to go.
Before anyone had realized what was happening, Winders had gained a second on 2nd place finisher Dillon Powell and four seconds on the entire field. Winders ultimately finished four seconds ahead of Powell and was nowhere close to being caught.
The race plan was the same in the 3000 and he was helped when Riddle decided to take the early lead, leaving the rest of the field as a chase pack. This likely helped when it came to surprising the field as he was in 7th place through 2400 meters. With two laps to go Winders made the same move as before and it was too little too late for the rest of the field.
There’s reason to believe that had Winders just won one these races, it could have been considered a fluke. But to win both races tells us that he’s the real deal.
We thought there was the possibility of Winders eventually winning an NCAA title, but it was certainly not this weekend. If he races like this during outdoors, then it's hard to see him losing.
Christian Noble finds himself at the top of our rankings and that might raise some eyebrows after his weekend. We understand that Noble got disqualified in the mile after taking home the victory. We can continue to hash that out, but we do need to look at his other performances.
After qualifying for the mile final, Noble found himself on the track for the DMR and his team was far from the front. We had warned that this might be possible and we didn’t know how much ground was too much ground for Noble to make up.
In the grand scheme of things, it may have never mattered as Noble ran down the rest of his opponents and out-kicked the field to lead the Flames to a DMR title.
The rumored time for that anchor leg? 3:53 or 3:54 (give or take).
If you look at the gap when Noble received the baton, it’s feasible that he had to run that fast for their win to even be possible.
Noble came back on day two and ran a 4:08 mile in a tactical race to take home gold before ultimately being disqualified.
Later that day, Noble capped off his indoor career at Lee with a 6th place finish in the 3000 meters, running 8:01. While it’s not defending his title, it’s certainly an admirable run after his prior racing during the weekend.
Whether or not you include the mile DQ, Noble would still find himself atop these rankings regardless. He’s the fastest miler in D2 history and he’s also the fastest 3000 meter runner in D2 history. And while we can’t say that he won indoor titles in the mile/3000/5000 title officially, it’d be hard to think he’s anything other than the best ever at D2.
Terrell Patterson (Southern Connecticut State)
Dennis Mbuta (Grand Valley State)
Titus Lagat (Lee (Tenn.))
Tony Torres (Colorado Mesa)
Cole WIllis (Nebraska-Kearney)
Carson Bix (Lee (Tenn.))
McCauley Franks (Western Washington)
Afewerki Zeru (UC-Colorado Springs)
Charlie Dannatt (Simon Fraser)
Austin Miller (Augustana (S.D.))
CarLee Stimpfel (Saginaw Valley)
Clement Duigou (Adams State)
Terrell Patterson (Southern Connecticut State)
Stephen Barker (Northwood (MI))
Mitch Cox (Queens (NC))
Mikah Paiz (Adams State)
Awet Beraki (Adams State)
Jared Gilley (Dallas Baptist)
Carson Bix (Lee (Tenn.))
Jan Lukas Becker (Queens (N.C.))
Hunter Kurz (Mississippi College)
Tony Torres (Colorado Mesa)
Dennis Mbuta (Grand Valley)