One Sentence Previews: 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships Men's DMR (D2)

Additional contributions by Garrett Zatlin

The Grizzlies have all of the necessary pieces to win the NCAA title, but none are more important than their dynamic distance weapon Davonte Jett-Reynolds who opted out of the individual mile to ensure that he’d be fresh for this relay.

The division record holders are great at the 800 meters and the mile, but their success will ultimately come down to their 1200 meter leg, Gavin Smith, and how well he performs under the bright lights as just a freshman.

This race will come down to anchor leg Mason Strader and his tactical awareness because breaking 4:00 likely won’t be enough when numerous men in this field also have the ability to do the same.

Charlie Dannatt and Aaron Ahl are two elite bookends to this DMR team, but in this close of a race, the success of Aiden Good on the 800 meter leg could ultimately determine where this relay finishes.

We're not super concerned about who will be on the anchor leg of this relay (Austin Miller or Ryan Hartman), but we don't know how close this relay will be to the leaders when their final runner gets the baton.

The Lakers are likely shuffling their roster from the GLIAC Championships and as a result, we're expecting Dennis Mbuta to be part of this relay which means that Caleb Futter could slide into the mile role, giving this relay some extra strength to complement Mbuta's speed.

This UNK team may have the most consistent group of athletes in this field and while Wes Ferguson does star in their lineup, it is Luke Stuckey who we need to watch as he hasn’t run faster than 4:09 in an individual race this winter and will need to do so in order for the Lopers to be nationally competitive.

This lineup is loaded with 800 meter runners and they should be competitive through the first few legs because of that, but Nikolaus Frazmair will need to replicate the firepower of his 3:42 personal best for 1500 meters, which he ran all the way back in 2015 with Oregon, if the Thunderwolves are going to be All-Americans.

Terrell Patterson should be considered as one of the better anchors in this field, but it all comes back to how well his teammates run and how much ground he will have to make up in order to keep his team in contention.

Carson Bix declared for the 5000 meters, leaving a major hole in the Flames’ DMR lineup, but Christian Noble is still on this team and we have a hard time ruling anything out, especially after seeing how effective he was on the double a couple of weeks ago.

This Northwood relay is very underrated, but we will need to see more firepower from both their 1200 meter leg and their mile leg before we can consider them as anything other than backend All-American contenders.

The Mountaineers don't quite have the same experience or high-caliber athletes like the rest of this field, but Cade Michael is fairly underrated and has yet to have a poor race this season.