Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Mar 19, 202114 min
Any team that competed during cross country at least once this year, regardless of whether or not they competed at the indoor national meet, was eligible to be listed in these rankings.
KEY NOTE: Theses rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships.
Was not ranked in our last update.
First number indicates how much the team has moved in the rankings.
The second number indicates where the team was ranked in our last update.
Georgetown beat Villanova at the BIG East Championships, but the Wildcats turned the tables on the Hoyas at the national meet and finished two spots ahead of them for a 20th place finish. As a result, the 'Cats secured the last spot in our rankings.
Strintzos and Phillips finished 66th and 67th overall at the national meet, giving the Wildcats a respectable-enough 1-2 punch and some stability at the top of this lineup. However, their bottom three scorers were fairly spread-out and the gaps countered the scoring spark that we saw from Villanova's top two runners.
Considering that this team almost didn't qualify for the NCAA Championships, finishing 20th at the national meet is pretty darn impressive and it says more about the actual ability of this team than their conference meet did.
Yes, they beat the Pilots earlier in the season at the WCC Championships, but Portland got the better of Gonzaga at the national meet. Naturally, that means the Bulldogs had to settle behind Portland after finishing 27th as a team in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Yacine Guermali, after posting a strong finish at his conference meet, continued to come through with a 55th place finish. Peter Hogan also showed promise after finishing 79th overall. However, James Mwaura struggled and he was one of the four Gonzaga runners who failed to crack the top-200. That fact alone should explain what happened to the Bulldogs on Monday.
A huge 2nd place finish at the BIG 10 XC Championships gave us a lot of confidence in this squad despite them losing key names from the 2019 season. However, so many of those Indiana scorers had the best races of their life at their conference meet and it was going to be difficult to have them all race that well on the same day again.
Sure enough, Indiana dropped to 26th place on Monday. Veatch (73rd) and Jha (85th) weren't bad, but the rest of the lineup, which consisted of the three breakout talents from the BIG 10 Championships, struggled a bit.
Overall, this group was unable to keep the tight time spread that we saw from the Hoosiers a few months ago. With the final two scorers barely finishing inside the top-200, it was fair to say that Indiana didn't have the firepower or the depth to salvage a top finish.
Not much to say here. A 21st place finish seem to be on par with how Portland has performed this season. Graduate transfers Zak Kirk and Jacob Klemz finished 60th and 90th, respectively, but there were significant gaps throughout the rest of their lineup.
There wasn't a lot of scoring potency from this team in Stillwater and some of the guys who we had high expectations for just never produced. Silva has been dealing with an injury, but this was a year where we were left scratching our head as to what was going on with a program that historically peaks in the postseason.
Michigan State was such a difficult team to figure out. They finished 4th at the BIG 10 XC Championships back in January, but they tied Purdue in that race and showed a lot of promise, especially without Morgan Beadlescomb.
That's why it shouldn't have been a total shock to see the Spartans finish 17th as a team with Beadlescomb back in their varsity seven. Despite their inexperience, these guys delivered and their veteran scorer gave them a scoring spark with an All-American 33rd place finish.
Now, admittedly Beadlescomb was the only man who Michigan State had who was in the top-10. However, with finishes of 102-105-144-154, the Spartans were able to avoid any crazy excess scoring.
This team was having a good season, but they didn't really do a whole lot to standout...at least, not until the national meet. The Duke Blue Devils have been a team that I have been high on for years now. However, in the one year where I finally jump off the bandwagon, they finally deliver on the lofty expectations that I had set for them in the past.
The Duke men earned a huge 16th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships on Monday. Alex Miley (68th) led the way with a solid result while Josh Romine (96th), Paul Dellinger (106th) and Zach Kinne (114th) kept a fairly tight pack and were able to keep the overall team score in tact. Their fifth scorer did drop to 153rd place, but overall, this was a team that really didn't do anything wrong on Monday.
Now, admittedly, it would've been nice to see them have a true low-stick and a key scoring spark. Miley's 68th place finish was great, but this team succeeded because everyone did their job and covered most of the gaps in their lineup.
In other words, the Blue Devil were just solid and that was enough to get the job done.
A 25th place team finish for the Washington Huskies was truthfully a disappointing end to a season that had some promise. The men from Seattle showed a spark at the Silver State XC Challenge, taking down Notre Dame and Air Force. They later ventured to the PAC-12 Championships where they finished only six point behind Colorado without Talon Hull.
However, for the second-straight NCAA Championship, the Washington men didn't have top low-stick Talon Hull in their lineup. Houser showed promise with a 51st place finish, but he was the only runner to finish inside the top-100 for the Washington men. Heck, even if Hull had toed the line, the Huskies still would've struggled.
Now, in fairness to Washington, they were a much better team than they were in 2019. Certain men stepped up, they had improved depth and they had a few moments where Green and Hull looked like true front-runners.
The Falcons' Mountain West title was huge in terms of how we viewed this team. Taking down a Utah State team that went on to finish 11th at the National Championships validates just how good this team is.
Sure, their 19th place finish at the national meet wasn't ideal, but this team is plenty deep and you saw that in Stillwater as there weren't a ton of significant gaps in that top-five. The lack of scoring potency held this team back, but that's what happens when your top scorer (Sam Gilman) has an "off" day and fails to emerge as a scorer.
We can't forget that this team was only 15 points behind Notre Dame at the ACC Championships were they finished runner-up. This is a talented group that deserves plenty of respect, but the rust in between the fall and now likely led to their 23rd place finish.
Frankly, everyone on this team could've run better. Shanklin (54th) was respectable and Hannes Burger (86th) held his own. However, key scorer JP Flavin recorded a DNF and gaps could be found between the 3-4-5 scorers in the mid-to-late 100's. With all of that happening, there was only so much that the Wolfpack could do to avoid a poor performance.
What a weird year for the Wisconsin men. They took home a convincing win at the BIG 10 XC Championships without three high-caliber veterans against a field that didn't have Michigan. Still, that conference victory without so many of their top-level runners led us to believe that Wisconsin was going to be a problem at the national meet.
Instead, Wisconsin was the team having problems at the national meet.
Shuaib Aljabaly and Jack Meijer both recorded DNF results which obviously limited how much the Badgers could do. Seth Hirsch (58th), Rowan Ellenberg (78th), Olin Hacker (98th) Jackson Sharp (120th) were solid, but they weren't able to provide this team with any firepower to allow Wisconsin to standout. With their fifth scorer nearly dropping into the 200's, it was understandable why the Badgers placed 18th overall at the national meet.
Not much to say here. A 15th place finish at the national meet seems to be on par with how Wake Forest ran all season long. They were 3rd at the ACC XC Championships and 5th at the FSU Winter XC Classic. They beat a handful of good teams, but never really stood out in a major way.
Facioni was great in Stillwater, earning a 27th place finish while sophomore Aaron Las Heras earned a solid 62nd place finish of his own. However, no one else finished inside the top-100 of this race. We thought highly of Velasco, Coughlin and Tiernan, but they were jut too far behind.
Still, this was a team that made massive strides this year and frankly, finishing 15th overall at the national meet, despite some of their best names not running their best, was pretty impressive.
Gosh, what a weird team. They struggled at times throughout the year. After a 4th place finish at the Oklahoma State Invitational in the fall behind a few powerhouse programs, we thought we had figured out Southern Utah.
However, they later went on to lose Utah State at the Dixie State Invitational and they later ventured to the FSU Winter XC Classic where they faltered to a very disappointing 9th place result. Their 4th place finish at the Battle Born XC Challenge wasn't bad, but it also didn't inspire any additional confidence.
Of course, everything changed when the Thunderbirds stunned a short-handed Northern Arizona squad to win the BIG Sky XC Championships. Now, following a huge 9th place team finish at the national meet, we have to give Southern Utah their credit. They're the real deal.
Now, admittedly, their ranking has to reflect those earlier struggles, but their national meet performance was excellent. After some up-and-down performances, Christian Ricketts finally delivered an All-American result. Osterstock continued to solidify the middle portion of this lineup while Rasmusen wasn't far behind. That trio all finished inside the top-52.
With Aidan Reed and Isaiah Labra both finishing inside the top-100, it was clear that Southern Utah had a complete top-five that peaked at the right time and was perfectly balanced.
One heck of a season for the Utah State men. They just finished 11th overall at the NCAA XC Championships after losing almost everyone from their 2019 national qualifying lineup. This team produced some promising firepower and had a handful of reliable scorers in a year where they weren't supposed to be this good.
They took down Southern Utah earlier in the season and beat a very solid Wake Forest team at the Florida State Winter XC Classic. The catch, however, is that they took a loss at the Mountain West XC Championships to Air Force, so that holds the Aggies back in our rankings just a bit.
Either way, Caleb Garnica looks like a true low-stick star, Camren Todd was nearly an All-American, Haydon Cooper quietly solidified the middle portion of this lineup and both Bridger Altice and Spencer Nelson did enough to keep this team afloat.
Their national meet performance wasn't perfect, but you have to give major props to this squad that shattered expectations this year.
We really only saw Butler compete in two true races this year. Once at the BIG East Championships and once at the national meet. Their conference title resulted in a convincing victory, but Villanova and Georgetown weren't quite the conference juggernauts that a few other conferences had.
A 13th place finish for the Bulldogs seemed to be on par with our expectations. Bedard was an All-American and Keane was just a few spots off from that same honor. Remi Schyns had a huge race (64th) to keep the scoring at a minimum, but the scoring gaps were far too large after that for the Bulldogs' backend scorers.
Overall, this is about what we expected. We knew that the top of this lineup was strong, but there were some uncertainties as to how fast they would be able to close out their scoring. In the end, that vulnerability didn't hurt Butler too much and they settled for a 13th place team finish.
We'll admit, this team really didn't give us much to work with this year. The Rebels consistently raced against Arkansas in the fall, but always settled for 2nd place. Their 1-2-3 individual sweep of the SEC XC Championships was impressive, but it didn't change the scoring structure of this lineup.
A 12th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was impressive, but this team ran pretty much how we thought they were. Bullock and Garcia Romo were top All-Americans and Suliman wasn't too far off from the same honor. However, those bottom-two scorers left a massive scoring gap and limited Ole Miss' ceiling a bit.
Gosh, this is such a tricky team to gauge and rank. Sure, a 14th place result at the NCAA Championships wasn't ideal, but they posted strong marks throughout the entirety of this season. They tied with Iowa State at the FSU Winter XC Classic, beat Washington at the PAC-12 Championships and took down what turned out to be a very talented Southern Utah team earlier in the year.
In fact, prior to the national meet, the only teams that Colorado had lost to this winter were Northern Arizona and Stanford. You can also include Iowa State into that mix if you count their tie-breaker.
In the end, the Colorado Buffaloes faced some of the best competition on a weekly basis this year. While they didn't always come out on top, they were clearly a nationally competitive team that still produced some solid results.
We didn't see much out of Iona this year, but we felt pretty confident that we knew what they had, even without Johnjack Millar and Ed Goddard. O'Leary and El-Sandali were the All-American front-runners that their past results suggested they could be. Jamie Dee was a very solid middle lineup scorer, but there was a fairly significant gap after him as the Gaels' final two runners finished 113th and 135th.
Those aren't bad results, but it explains why we thought so highly of Iona if they actually had Goddard and Millar in their lineup this year, which they didn't. Either way, a 10th place result for the Iona men is a very solid result and it matches the expectations that we had for them this season.
Not sure there is anything to talk about here. Kiptoo was a star low-stick (even if he didn't win), Mitchell Day was just one spot off from All-American honors and the rest of their lineup was scattered throughout the rest of the results. Festus Lagat (53rd) and Thomas Pollard (91st) supported the middle portion of this lineup while Chad Johnson crossed the line in 122nd place.
Despite a few guys finishing higher during last year's national meet, no one in this top-five really had a poor performance on Monday. They pretty much matched expectations and showed off a lineup structure that mimicked all of their previous results from earlier in the season.
Welp, we said that depth could be an issue for Tulsa's podium hopes and sure enough, they were left off the podium thanks to an "off" day from one of their top-five runners.
Dever and Lynch delivered the massive scoring punch that we knew they were capable of. Isaac Akers came out of nowhere to finish 19th overall while Scott Beattie finished 89th. Based on what we saw this season, those roles were supposed to be reversed, but they ultimately worked out.
However, the Golden Hurricanes' final scorer placed 151st overall which was far too large of a gap to overcome. That shouldn't take away from the outstanding 6th place team finish that we saw out of this team, but this was a very realistic scenario that we saw coming.
Coming into this meet, the only concern about Stanford was their youth. They were a young team that had numerous scorers who were only freshmen or redshirt freshmen. Surely those first-year collegiate cross country runners wouldn't be able to deliver on the national stage, right?
Wrong. Charles Hicks, Cole Sprout and Ky Robinson, who all boast freshmen eligibility, were actually the first three scorers to cross the line on Monday. Hicks and Sprout finished 14th and 15th, respectively, while Robinson was just a few spots out from All-American honors in 46th place.
Now, in fairness to the veterans of this group, they didn't perform poorly. Principe finished 72nd while Parsons was 82nd. While it would've been ideal for those two to keep the gap between them and Robinson smaller, they were still able to close out the Cardinal's team scoring in a fairly quick manner.
Overall, this was a fantastic season for Stanford. They weren't supposed to be this good after losing Ostberg, Fahy and Ratcliffe, but they actually ended up closer to the podium this year than that group did in 2019.
The future is very, very bright for the men of Palo Alto.
Yes, we know they faltered to 7th overall at the NCAA Championships, but let's not act like this team didn't make significant noise all year long. They would have taken down Oklahoma State in the fall if Clayson Shumway was counted in the results. The Cougars also secured a win over a limited Northern Arizona team, Washington, Notre Dame and Air Force.
On paper, those are super impressive performances. Brandon Garnica was a DNF during Monday's race and that explains why the Cougars struggled. Yes, they had scoring woes outside of just Garnica, but they did too much this fall to be bumped out of our top-five.
We have to give major kudos to the Razorbacks. Their fall season was strong, but outside of Ole Miss, we didn't really see them take down any big-time teams. Of course, a 4th place podium finish changed that narrative. Arkansas produced three All-Americans and had all five of their scorers finish in the top-63.
The men from Fayetteville went all-in on the transfer market to build a team that was capable of being on the podium and it clearly paid off. We knew that they had some of the best depth in the country, but we questioned if they would have enough All-Americans to finish in the top-four.
Spoiler: They did.
Yes, we know that Notre Dame placed 2nd at the national meet and not 3rd place. That, however, isn't how our rankings work.
Let me be the first to say that I am a huge Notre Dame fan. I love what they have accomplished and their turnaround ever since Coach Sean Carlson has come into the program is flat-out amazing. Their recruiting has been beyond elite and as you saw on Monday. The development has also been elite.
A runner-up performance at the national meet which featured six All-American is flat-out incredible and a wild display of both firepower and depth. It was also some of the best team running that I have ever seen, especially on a national stage.
However, if we're looking at their season as a whole, it's hard to ignore their performance at the Silver State XC Challenge. That effort just wasn't good and while I'm sure Notre Dame wasn't too concerned about that result, we do have to remember that they lost to Northern Arizona, BYU and Washington in that race.
Heck, I even remember someone saying, "Notre Dame is just not good."
Life comes at you fast, huh?
That's ultimately why we settled for putting the Irish at TSR #3, but this team rivaled the scoring prowess of a distance dynasty in incredible fashion.
This team could do no wrong this year. They were super consistent, had a perfectly balanced lineup, displayed tons of development and even addressed key weak points during the winter months.
Rodriguez was a star low-stick, Maier was so good on so many occasions, Smeeton peaked when it mattered the most, Shitsama delivered on All-American expectations and the recent rise of Mulcaire ensured that Oklahoma State's team score at Nationals didn't get out of control. Ryan Schoppe didn't have a great day at the national meet, but he played a key role in this varsity lineup throughout the year.
They took down Tulsa twice this season and even defeated a Shumway-less BYU team back in the fall. Their win over Southern Utah in that race also looks far more impressive given how the Thunderbirds have recently performed.
In the end, a 3rd place result at the NCAA XC Championships and a lack of poor results throughout the fall and the winter made them our TSR #2 team.
Absolute dominance. A 4-6-7-9 finish from Young, Ferro, Nur and Grijalva was some of the best scoring potency I can ever remember eeing in a large, nationally-competitive field. That kind of scoring was absolutely lethal and it made up for the fact that Notre Dame had six All-Americans in between Northern Arizona's fourth and fifth scorers.
The depth on NAU's lineup still wasn't perfect, but when your fifth runner (Brodey Hasty) is placing 44th overall and your sixth runner (Drew Bosley) is placing 62nd overall, then that's a pretty good problem to have.
Villanova Wildcats
Duke Blue Devils
Michigan State Spartans
Virginia Cavaliers
Michigan Wolverines
Charlotte 49ers
Furman Paladins
Georgetown Hoyas
Purdue Boilermakers
Oregon Ducks
UMass Lowell River Hawks
Texas Longhorns
Georgia Bulldogs
Syracuse Orange
Virginia Cavaliers
Michigan Wolverines
Charlotte 49ers
North Florida Ospreys
Weber State Wildcats
Boise State Broncos
California Baptist Lancers
Virginia Tech Hokies
UCLA Bruins
North Carolina Tar Heels
Tennessee Volunteers
Florida State Seminoles
Connecticut Huskies
Navy Midshipmen
South Dakota State Jackrabbits
Illinois State Redbirds
- Due to COVID-19 protocols, the Virginia men were unable to compete at the NCAA XC Championships. Their lack of a result, while unfortunate, is the main reason why they fell out of our rankings.