John Cusick
Nov 19, 20208 min
The Stride Report has opted to only rank teams that have competed this season (i.e. results are posted on TFRRS).
It might be safe to say that the Mavericks finishing 2nd at the D2 National Invite was the biggest surprise from last weekend. They placed three runners inside the top-four en route to a tie-breaking win over West Texas A&M.
Tony Torres took home the individual crown as he ran away from the pre-race favorite, Nicodemus Rotich. Jerod Kuhn finished in 3rd place with teammate Mark Testa right behind him in 4th place. Triston Charles was 32nd and Ian Cropp was 46th to round out the scoring. We saw this team run well at the RMAC Championships a couple of weeks ago, but I don’t think anyone anticipated them running this well.
That top three is absolutely lethal and if that trio can replicate their performances in a larger invitational, then they would have to feel pretty good about their chances at upsetting some talented teams.
The backend of their scoring lineup could still make some improvements, and gaps could certainly be closed, but Mesa could be a team watch for as we head into 2021.
Lewis is another team that didn’t compete at the D2 National Invite, but they had a really strong showing at their conference meet. The Flyers took home the GLVC title with a performance of 51 points, taking home the victory over Southern Indiana.
A big reason why the Flyers are...well..."flying", is because of the scoring potency that we have seen from Anthony Farmer and Dustin Macuiba. We’ve talked about these two men extensively this season and they once again shined as they finished 2nd and 3rd at their conference meet. Patrick Hennessey (13th), Daniel Arimi (14th) and Ricardo Del Toro (19th) did enough to hold onto the victory and they finished just 11 seconds apart from each other.
This team has two really good low-sticks and a solid backend scoring rotation. The only knock is that their depth probably doesn’t match some of the better teams in the country. However, a heavy portion of this team should be able to return next year, theoretically leaving the Flyers with a little more depth since they'll have more time to develop.
The last time we saw the Flames toe the line was at their conference meet where they finished 2nd behind Alabama-Huntsville. Christian Noble did his thing and took home his third straight individual title while pacing the Flames.
Caleb Eagleson was 5th, Adan Rodriguez was 9th and Silas Eckenroad was 10th. On paper, that is everything you would want at a conference meet, but it wasn’t enough as UAH had four men cross the line before Lee even had three.
Even so, this was actually one of the better performances that we have seen from Lee this season which gives us a better feeling about where they might be at this time next year depending on who returns.
That said, we were expecting some pretty big things from this group in 2020 and they didn’t quite live up to that. Even so, they're still top team in the NCAA and there’s no reason to believe that we won’t be talking about them in the near future.
When Walsh had their best lineup, they were the best team in the G-MAC. That was something that they proved a few weeks ago when they took down runner-up Hillsdale by a huge 57-point margin. We knew that the Cavaliers were going to be good, but I don't think we expected them to win in such a dominating fashion.
The 1-2 punch of Noah Murray (1st) and Drew Roberts (2nd) is quietly emerging as the one of the better duos in the country while the rest of their lineup was simply no match for their competition. The final three scorers of Bugaj, Boyden and Foehl all finished inside the top-10 while their entire varsity seven finished inside the top-13.
The full firepower and depth of this team was on display at their conference meet and as a result, we have no reason to rank this group any worse than TSR #7.
The Cougars opted out of the D2 National Invite, but they remain in our rankings in large part because of their strong performance at the RMAC Championships from a few weeks ago where they finished 3rd.
Yes, you read that correctly. The Cougars finished only behind Colorado Mines and Western Colorado at the best D2 conference meet in the NCAA. Just behind them were Adams State.
Josh Pierantoni (9th), Ryder Searle (11th) and Trent Cochran (17th) all finished inside the top-20 on their way to that bronze-medal performance. Alexander Vance was 23rd and Robbie Jordano was 32nd. Those five men combined for 89 points, six points better than the Grizzlies.
It would have been really interesting to see this team compete at the D2 National Invite, but their race at the RMAC Championships was still a really strong performance for this program. This is a team that is trending upwards and we’ll surely be talking more about them (and the job that coach Poag has done) in the near future.
It feels odd ranking this team at our TSR #5 spot, but all things considered, I'm not sure where else we would put them. They only raced twice this season, and to be frank, they didn't look great in either meet. Their most recent outing was at the RMAC Championships where they finished 4th as a team.
However, a big reason why they were 4th as a team was because Carson Bix was not racing for them at their conference meet, a huge name who could have offered massive scoring potency. That said, teammate Isaiah Rodarte did finish 2nd overall, so some of their firepower was still there.
Davonte Jett-Reynolds finished 14th, but outside of him there weren't a ton of great performances from the Grizzlies like we have grown used to seeing. Miguel Coca was 24th, Yonas Haile was 28th and David Cardenas was 31st.
Bix theoretically entering their varsity rotation changes things, but by how much? There are some extremely deep teams in the country right now and Adams just doesn’t have the options that we are used to seeing from them.
The depth will eventually come back for this team, but until then, they'll sit at TSR #5.
Augusta toed the line for the Peach Belt Conference Championships this past weekend in an effort to defend last year's title. Sure enough, the Jaguars took home the win with a dominant score of 24 points. It would have been very interesting to see this team in a rematch against UAH at the D2 National Invite, but it is what it is.
Augusta placed their top five runners inside the top seven places of the race. Jacob Poston was 2nd, Brennan Silliman was 4th, Hunter Kimball was 5th, Hans Troyer was 6th and Kai Brickey capped the day in 7th place.
Their top five time spread was 1:11, but if you remove Poston, that 2-3-4-5 time spread becomes just 28 seconds. In other words, Poston continues to be an excellent low-stick threat while their backend continues to offer steady and reliable scoring.
It’s a bummer that 2020 held us back from seeing what this Augusta team is capable of doing in larger national meet as they looked stronger than last year. Regardless, they made the most of what they were given this season and they are a program that continues to be successful.
We were supposed to see this team race at the D2 National Invite, but due to a COVID outbreak at their school, they unfortunately had to opt out of the meet.
The Mountaineers really shined at the Colorado Mesa Maverick Invitational earlier this season where they took home the team title and finished 1-2-3 in the individual race. They followed up that performance with a 2nd place team finish at the RMAC Championships. While the placement of their runners was somewhat surprising, the team result was what we expected.
Charlie Sweeney led the Mountaineers at the conference meet with a 5th place finish with teammate Taylor Stack finishing in 7th place. Evan Sutherland didn’t replicate his performance from a few weeks earlier at the Maverick Invitational, but he finished a respectable 15th place with teammate Simon Kelati right behind him in 16th. Cade Michael rounded out the scoring in 20th place.
A runner-up result is always a nice thing to bring home in a conference as loaded as the RMAC. This team has the scoring potency necessary to be an elite program and the depth is slowly coming into form. However, as many of their runners begin to age, they'll need to (eventually) wonder where their future scoring potency will come from.
Alabama-Huntsville has been one of the bigger stories of this weird 2020 cross country season. The Chargers have put together one of the best teams in the country in terms of their depth as well as their ability to run as a team. We briefly mentioned how they won the GSC title over the Flames and that’s the second year in a row they took down a Lee (Tenn.) team that looks better (on paper) when comparing rosters.
They followed up that strong performance with a very convincing win at the D2 National Invite where they scored just 46 points en route to a convincing win. Jay Day and Harold LaCroix led the team once again as they finished in 5th and 6th place, proving their value as reliable front-runners in a respectable field. Alex Herbst was 10th while Caleb Boys and Allan Anderson finished 12th and 13th, respectively.
That top five time spread? 35 seconds. That’s impressive in it’s own right and it makes this team competitive on almost every level of D2 distance running.
This has been a fun group to keep track of this season as they have truly embodied what it means to race as a team. They know where their flaws are and they know where their strengths are. The Chargers showed up to every meet and answered every call and it’s about time that they got the respect that they deserve.
The Orediggers raced just one time (officially) this season and that was enough for us to place them at our top spot. At the RMAC Championships, Colorado Mines made sure to remind everyone why they (easily) won the national title last year.
The Orediggers placed six runners inside the top-10 at their conference meet and ran away with the team title. They scored 22 points and won by 38 points over the next best team, Western Colorado. Like many others, the Orediggers opted out of the D2 National Invite, but that doesn't make their dominating win over top-tier competition any less impressive.
Dylan Ko won the individual title with Kyle Moran finishing 3rd, Chris Cathcart finishing 4th, Loic Scomparin finishing 6th and Luke Julian placing 8th. And for fun, Dillon Powell was 10th, Bo Raadam was 12th and Max Sevcik finished 13th. If you’re counting, that is eight runners inside the top-15 in the toughest conference in the country.
This team is not going anywhere. In fact, they are likely to put together one of the best five to seven year runs in D2 cross country history. Let’s hope we get back to the regular NCAA format in the near future to see this team face off with Grand Valley State.