Game-Changing Grad Transfers

As fast as the cross country season concluded, the ensuing winter offseason began. With National Signing Day taking place last week, we saw a few key transfers being announced -- many of whom could be impact names with their new programs. Below, we opted to dive a bit deeper into those new transfers and breakdown what their decisions could mean for their new teams over the next year or two...

It is difficult to convey just how impactful these two men will be for Florida State. The graduate transfer duo will join the Seminoles later this winter, providing their men's team with extensive championship experience and some much-needed scoring support.

Muhumed is a consistent and experienced runner. He doesn't often throw down jaw-dropping finishes or insanely fast times, but he's incredibly reliable, has underrated range and was a major reason why Boise State has continued to stay competitive over the past few years. In fact, he was listed as a "Just Missed" name in our men's preseason individual rankings.

Wildschutt, however, is the complete opposite. He has some of the best raw talent in the country and is a gutsy front-runner willing to throw down a fast pace in most of his races. That racing style hasn't always worked out for him in the past (as evidenced by his national meet performances), but when it has worked out, he has run 28:53 for 10,000 meters and has placed 5th at the Southeast Regional Championships.

This past fall, we saw the Florida State men have an up and down cross country season. They had a few decent races and saw a couple of key runners develop into quality scorers, but they still finished a disappointing 9th place at the ACC Championships.

Even so, Paul Stafford proved that he can be a legitimate low-stick while freshman Gabriel Curtis and sophomore Jacob Holmes turned out to be respectable supporting scorers behind Stafford. The 'Noles were far from perfect and they certainly needed to make adjustments, but the pieces that they did have were promising.

Of course, with Wildschutt and Muhumed now set to join this team, our view of the Seminoles has changed quite a bit.

Much of the scoring burden will now be lifted off of Stafford's shoulders and he'll be able to share those front-running duties each time he toes the line. This is also a great position for younger runners like Curtis and Holmes to be in. They can continue to develop and contribute to their team without the pressure of being top-three scorers.

Not only that, but what about some of these other names? Silas Griffith, for instance, is a 14:07 5k runner who was absent from competition this past fall. He could be thrown back into this varsity lineup and find a scoring role. The 'Noles also have long-time FSU veteran Caleb Pottorff who has proven that he can still contribute to this varsity lineup in a meaningful way.

Admittedly, Stafford, Muhumed and Wildschutt aren't elite superstars (yet), but they are runners who can flirt with our Top 50 individual rankings during a normal year. The simple introduction of two proven talents covers a ton of gaps within Florida State's lineup and would put them in our Top 25 rankings conversation during a normal year.

The ACC was a ton of fun to watch this year. There was a consistent string of races and we saw a handful of teams becoming increasingly more competitive as the season went on.

One of those teams that became increasingly more competitive were the Duke women who ended up finishing 4th at the ACC Championships, their highest team finish since 2012. However, that is only the start of the good news if you're a fan of the Blue Devils.

The Duke women are set to return all but one member of that lineup, including Micaela Reinhart who truly came into her own this season and emerged as one of the ACC's best distance talents. Her 4th place finish, alongside a 10th place result from teammate Samantha Schadler, gave this team excellent scoring potency which offset some of the gaps behind them.

This is a talented group of women, but it felt like they were one piece away from being in a legitimate national qualifying conversation during a normal year. Luckily for them, they may have found that piece.

Melia Chittenden is an experienced Princeton Tiger who has run very well in the postseason, making two appearances at the NCAA XC Championships. She'll be joining the Duke women starting next fall as a graduate transfer, so she won't be available for the winter cross country season (if there is one).

Even so, when cross country competition does return next fall, Chittenden won't necessarily need to be a star low-stick like Reinhart or even a top-10 ACC finisher like Schadler in order to have a major impact. Her being a reliable middle-lineup scorer could do wonders for a Duke team that had a couple of minor gaps last fall amongst their backend scorers, specifically at the ACC Championships.

Throwing a proven veteran like Chittenden into the mix suddenly changes the dynamic of this team and the relative scoring weight that some of these runners have compared to other programs becomes much more impactful.

It may not seem like it, but Chittenden could end up having one of the biggest impacts in the NCAA as far as transferring is concerned.

The past few months have been quite busy for LaRance who has fought to retain the men's track and field teams at Minnesota before eventually choosing Colorado State to pursue his Masters degree starting this winter.

At first glance, the move is a bit surprising given that Colorado State has traditionally focused on the longer distances rather than the middle distances. In fact, up until the 2020 indoor track season, the Rams hadn't scored a single point in the men's 800 meters at the Mountain West Indoor Championships since 2013. When looking at past Mountain West Outdoor Championship results, Colorado State hadn't scored a single point in the men's 800 meters since 2014.

Even so, the introduction of LaRance is huge for a squad that is still building back portions of it's often-competitive longer distance crew. The Billings, Montana native lived at just over 3100 feet of altitude prior to his time at Minnesota, so his transition to Fort Collins may not be quite as difficult as it would be for a few others.

LaRance will be a key name to watch as he could be a realistic challenger for the conference title on both the indoor and outdoor ovals. That could lead to some huge scoring for Colorado State in an event that rarely produces points for them.

It's only appropriate that one of the deepest teams in the NCAA will only be getting deeper once Colorado introduces graduate transfer Gabrielle Orie to their roster next fall.

The Cornell ace boasts strong personal bests of 16:20 (5k) and 10:13 (steeplechase) and was the 90th place finisher at the 2019 NCAA XC Championships, a result that would have made her the fourth scorer for the Buffaloes that day.

Based on her most recent performances, we have no reason to doubt Orie's potential as a significant contributor to this team whenever competition returns, especially with Colorado losing a couple of key scorers from last year's lineup.

Even so, this year's Colorado squad looks very different compared to last year's team. Despite racing unattached, the Oklahoma State Invitational gave us a good glimpse of what Colorado's lineup may look like with relatively new faces such as Abby Nichols, Emily Covert and Kaitlyn Barthell each toeing the line.

Truthfully, we aren't totally sure where in that varsity group Orie will be. Her regular season performances from the 2019 cross country season truthfully weren't amazing, but her postseason was very strong and she clearly carried that momentum into the 2020 indoor track season where she became the Ivy League champion in the 5000 meters.

At the very least, Colorado secured an experienced runner who has only gotten better over the last few times that she has raced. Whenever you can land a veteran with high potential, that has to be considered a major win.