BREAKING: Multi-Time D3 National Champion Alex Phillip To North Carolina Next Fall As Grad Transfer

Earlier today, John Carroll's Alex Phillip announced via Instagram that he will be finishing his eligibility with the University of North Carolina men next fall as a graduate transfer. Assuming that he competes attached both this winter and next spring, Phillip is expected to have one full year of eligibility across all three seasons when he ventures to Chapel Hill.

Phillip has, so far, put together one of the best distance running resumes that Division Three has ever seen. The John Carroll star is a two-time Division Three cross country national champion, the reigning indoor 3000 meter national champion, the reigning indoor 5000 meter national champion and the reigning outdoor 10,000 meter national champion.

The future Tar Heel has also earned four separate All-American honors across all three seasons of competition.

On the track, Phillip has recorded highly respectable times when looking at his overall body of work from a Division One perspective. The eventual graduate transfer has run 4:05 (mile), 8:07 (3k), 13:58 (5k) and 28:48 (10k).

This is a monumental pick up for a North Carolina men's cross country team that showed plenty of promise throughout the 2022 fall season. The Tar Heels, who were led by D1 superstar Parker Wolfe, finished 10th at the NCAA XC Championships back in November.

Of the seven men in that championship lineup, only two were seniors and only one of those seniors emerged as a scorer.

The UNC men are a very young team, but many of their returners will have matured into experienced and mostly-developed scoring threats on the grass by 2023. And while they were already going to be a threat to the top teams in the NCAA next year, the addition of an established veteran who can offer reliable scoring value could potentially put this group in an even higher tier next fall.

In fact, they could be in the podium conversation...depending on who you ask.

Phillip is a long distance juggernaut who clearly thrives in the 10k and in cross country. And although he still needs to make a few additional improvements, we were actually able to see how impactful he could have when racing with the UNC men this past fall.

At Paul Short, Phillip finished 7th place overall in the "Gold" section. In that race, he defeated names such as Zach Kreft (Walsh), Josh Phillips (Villanova) and Jack Jennings (Villanova). Phillip would have been the third Tar Heel across the line had he been donning a blue and white singlet.