Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Nov 23, 202226 min
NOTE: These rankings are based on how an individual fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships or at a singular meet. You will notice that these rankings may mirror the national meet results, but not precisely. That is intentional. These rankings are intended to be an aggregate. They are not recency lists.
Was not ranked in our last update.
First number indicates how much the athlete has moved in the rankings.
The second number indicates where the athlete was ranked in our last update.
Look, I don't know if Isaac Akers is the right answer for our TSR #50 spot. You could make arguments for Aidan Troutner, Nathan Lawler, Matthew Richtman, George Kusche, Yacine Guermali or Luke Houser...and I probably wouldn't put up too much of an argument.
But when you look at Isaac Akers' resume, he doesn't have any legitimately poor performances. His national meet finish (44th) is still a competitive result and his strength of schedule is arguably just as good as anyone I just listed.
Was Isaac Akers perfect this fall? No, maybe not, but 32nd at the Cowboy Jamboree, 18th at Nuttycombe and an American Athletic Conference title is hard to dismiss from our top-50.
When Devin Hart had his monster 13th place performance at Nuttycombe, we held him back in our rankings until he validated that result. After all, this is someone who was "only" 75th at the Cowboy Jamboree.
And while Hart did prove to be a nationally competitive name via his 10th place result at the PAC-12 XC Championships, it admittedly didn't feel super surprising to see him finish 51st at the national meet on Saturday.
There are probably a few unranked men who boast overall resumes that are better than what Hart has. And if I'm Matthew Richtman right now, I'm probably questioning this ranking.
But it's extremely hard to dismiss a guy from our rankings after they placed 13th at Nuttycombe and earned a top-10 finish at the best conference meet in the NCAA.
A 57th place finish at the national meet would typically send Sam Gilman out of our top-50 rankings. But luckily for him, we don't put much emphasis on regional meets (where he finished 24th) and his regular season results were really solid.
Let's not forget that Gilman placed 10th at Nuttycombe.
10th! That's extremely impressive and I don't if we could leave someone out of our rankings after that kind of result. And truthfully, his 28th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree also creates a decent foundation of results for Gilman to stand on.
For that reason, this Air Force veteran will remain in our rankings at TSR #48.
Michael Power falls into the "Yeah, he wasn't amazing on the national stage, but the rest of his season was too good to exclude him from our list." category.
A 61st place finish on the national stage is probably one of the lower results from that meet that we would allow to earn a spot in our top-50. However, with an 18th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree and an even better 11th place finish at Nuttycombe, which was better than what Devin Hart produced, it's impossible to suggest that Power wasn't a top-50 name in the country.
Every. Single. Year. Brodey Hasty arises from an unimpressive regular season and produces a top-50 result that closes out Northern Arizona's scoring, effectively winning them a national team title.
And sure enough, that was exactly what we saw from Hasty this past weekend. The Lumberjack veteran didn't just peak in time for the national meet -- he actually had the best race of his life BY FAR.
Hasty's 25th place All-American finish was one of many reasons as to why NAU was able to secure a tie with Oklahoma State and eventually give them NCAA gold...so why is he only listed at TSR #46?
Truthfully, the only other legitimately competitive meet that Hasty had this season was the Nuttycombe Invite where he finished a very underwhelming 137th place overall. With the BIG Sky XC Championships and the Mountain regional meets holding a very limited amount of weight in these rankings, it's hard to find much more on Hasty's resume to rank him any higher.
Gosh, it's so hard to figure out where we should rank Christian Allen. His two top-20 All-American finishes, both from his time at Weber State, made Allen a legitimate threat to watch, regardless of his other performances, leading up to the national meet.
But on Saturday, Allen faded to 47th place overall, a still respectable top-50 finish on the national stage. And much like we mentioned Brodey Hasty, the conference and regional meet results that we saw from the BYU men this fall don't seem to hold much weight in our rankings.
Allen remains in our top-50 in large part due to his pivotal 11th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree. That was a top-tier result which led to him defeating 15 eventual All-Americas (from this fall) and that was enough to keep Allen in our final rankings.
It's safe to say that we expected much more from Duncan Hamilton at the NCAA XC Championships who settled for a 67th place finish on Saturday. And while that is far from a terrible result, it's not the All-American finish that we thought he was capable of.
Hamilton's 23rd place finish at Joe Piane was fairly unexciting, but a win at Pre-Nationals over the likes of Barry Keane (who has been awesome this year), Patrick Kiprop, Ryan Schoppe, the entire CBU lineup and All-American teammate Matthew Richtman certainly boosted his resume in a major way.
That result, and possibly his 3rd place finish at the BIG Sky XC Championships, is what salvaged Hamilton's stock in our rankings and allowed him to remain at TSR #44.
After a brief hiatus from our rankings, Ian Shanklin returns to our top-50 to close out a season full of consistent results and low-stick finishes.
The NC State veteran ended his season with a 38th place All-American finish, a result that almost perfectly matches his seasonal resume which included a 6th place finish at the ACC XC Championships and a 7th place result at Joe Piane.
Admittedly, Shanklin's 79th pace finish at Nuttycombe does limit how close to the top-40 that he can seemingly be ranked. Regardless, he gave the Wolfpack men a true identity at the front of this lineup and almost perfectly mimicked his (successful) 2019 cross country season.
Leaving Austin Vancil out of our rankings during our last update was probably a mistake...but does it make it better if we knew that it was a mistake in the moment?
Austin Vancil was someone who had earned a promising 22nd place finish at Nuttycombe, a result that was enough to allow him to crack our top-50. However, following an underwhelming 12th place result at the PAC-12 XC Championships, the argument for this Colorado ace felt limited.
Luckily, Vancil finished in 36th place on Saturday, giving him an All-American honor while validating his Nuttycombe result far more than his PAC-12 performance. And although his conference meet performance does limit his upside in these rankings, it feels we could be robbing Vancil of a couple of spots.
Gosh, there weren't many men in the NCAA who had a more up and down season than Andrew Kent. The Colorado ace could be categorized as one of the most lethal low-sticks in the country one week, and then a non-All-American the next.
At the Cowboy Jamboree, Kent earned a massive 8th place finish.
But at Nuttycombe, Kent faltered back to a less exciting 44th place finish.
Of course, when the PAC-12 XC Championships came around, Kent returned to his highly-potent scoring ways with a big 4th place finish.
In the end, Kent would conclude his season with a 43rd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships. That was a fairly solid result, but for someone like Kent who was already ranked so highly, we did have to move him down a few spots.
Although we didn't always know what we were going to get from Kent, the fact that he was still a low-stick scorer for a deep Colorado team that needed a lethal front-running presence was very encouraging to see.
It was admittedly very easy to overlook a guy like Ryan Martins. The top talent from Loyola had a sneaky-good regular season, but his competition was extremely limited, making it difficult to gauge his slew of top-two results heading into the national meet.
Martins did catch our attention after his 2nd place finish at the Midwest Regional XC Championships, but with teams like Oklahoma State and Tulsa likely holding themselves back, we didn't entirely know what kind of weight we should put into his performance.
But then the Rambler stunned the country with a jaw-dropping 29th place at the national meet, a result that unquestionably exceeded expectations regardless of what you thought about the rest of his season.
I admittedly want to rank Martins much higher. Truthfully, there isn't a ton on his resume to suggest that he shouldn't be ranked closer to his actual national meet finish. And yet, at the same time, with a very limited schedule and not much competition, we feel forced to place him at TSR #40...even though we want to place him higher.
There were a handful of breakout talents for the Air Force men this year. It just so happens that Ryan Johnson was the one to capitalize on his rising momentum at the national meet. The Falcon veteran locked-down a huge 28th place finish, making him a pleasantly surprising low-stick star for an Air Force team that seemingly had an endless number of weapons this fall.
For the most part, Johnson was having a solid season leading up to the national meet, but it was certainly not anything which suggested that he was going to be a top-50 runner in the country, much less top-40 in our rankings and top-30 at the national meet.
After all, this is someone who "only" placed 48th at the Cowboy Jamboree and 39th at Nuttycombe.
But those who peak in the postseason deserve to be rewarded. And for that reason, Johnson now sits at TSR #39 in our final individual rankings.
There really isn't a whole lot to say about Kirami Yego. The Southern Alabama ace didn't have the most challenging schedule, but he made the most of his opportunities and was often competitive with Alabama's lethal scoring trio.
Yego would go on to place 37th at the national meet, a spot that almost perfectly aligned with where he sat in these rankings when he first cracked our list. And while he does fall back to TSR #38, that's largely because of the way that others in our rankings are staggered.
Finally! At long last, Haftu Knight is an All-American.
I am a big Knight fan. He's been a vital part of Texas' cross country lineup for the last few years, often emerging as one of their lead scorers on a fairly consistent basis. However, it always felt like Knight was never able to get over the hump and join that next tier of distance talents...until this past weekend.
Knight ended his 2022 cross country season with a monumental 27th place result, delivering on his full potential in a massive way. And truthfully, that was a bit of a surprise. While we knew that Knight was talented, nothing that we saw from him this fall -- 24th at the Cowboy Jamboree and 8th at both Panorama Farms and the BIG 12 XC Championships -- suggested that he was going to be in the top-30 of the national meet.
Maybe he could have snagged one of the final All-American spots, but even that felt like a minor stretch coming into this past weekend. But luckily, I was proven wrong.
It's hard to dislike anything that Creed Thompson or Davin Thompson did this fall. Despite their youth, these rising BYU talents delivered week-in and week-out.
Thompson was 27th at the Cowboy Jamboree, 20th at Nuttycombe and most recently 35th at the NCAA XC Championships, capping a season with a performance that was roughly in line with our expectations.
Of course, just because Thompson didn't surprise us doesn't mean that he wasn't impressive. He has perfectly meshed with this BYU roster and has become a pillar of consistency and reliability, words that are often associated with the Cougars' distance program as a whole.
No one is doubting that Zach Facioni is a super talented distance runner, but his regular season was fairly underwhelming.
He was "only" 44th at the Cowboy Jamboree, rallied to a 2nd place finish against an admittedly light Panorama Farms field and settled for a solid, but uninspiring, 8th place finish at the ACC XC Championships.
But then Facioni toed the line for the national meet where he threw down a jaw-dropping 20th place finish, delivering on his preseason expectations and almost perfectly replicating his 2021 cross country national meet finish.
Facioni deserves to be ranked in our top-40. His national meet result was so wildly impressive and although some of his regular season performances weren't amazing, they were definitely not terrible, either.
Oh man...where do we even start??
Santiago Prosser was a fine distance runner coming into this season, but he was by no means a recognizable name on this Northern Arizona roster. And that's why it likely came as a shock to everyone in the NCAA that Prosser was able to throw down a HUGE 19th place finish on Saturday, stunning the country with what may have been one of the most unexpected results of the entire season.
And as a result, the Lumberjacks won the national team title.
Prosser was having a respectable cross country season going into last weekend. He was 39th at the Cowboy Jamboree and 33rd at Nuttycombe. However, those performances weren't enough to suggest that he was a top-50 runner in the nation, much less a top-20 runner at the national meet.
And for that reason, Prosser ends his season ranked at TSR #34.
Seeing Joey Nokes fade to 52nd place at the NCAA XC Championships was admittedly a bit disappointing, but that's also the price of inexperience.
And to be clear, it's not that his national meet result was poor -- it just wasn't quite as strong as what his regular season results suggested that he could do. That's because Nokes threw down a huge 10th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree and an equally impressive 15th place finish at Nuttycombe.
Nokes, despite his inexperience, was the catalyst who sparked BYU's rise as a potential title contender this fall. And although that result never came to fruition, we're not going to decimate his ranking based on a national meet result that was still pretty darn solid.
One of the bigger breakout talents of the 2022 cross country season was Rory Leonard who quietly went to work each and every week and flat-out delivered.
The Oklahoma State ace slowly built momentum and evolved into one of the more reliable scorers on the Cowboys' roster while Shea Foster was not available. Leonard was 17th at the Cowboy Jamboree -- a result that looks much stronger in retrospect -- as well as 2nd at the BIG 12 XC Championships and most recently, 32nd place at the national meet.
Honestly, there's not anything on Leonard's resume which suggests that he should be ranked lower than where he finished on Saturday. And for that reason, he will sit at TSR #32 to end the season.
We really liked the potential that Luke Tewalt had flashed coming into this season, but it was unclear how that talent would translate to the grass and just how much of a jump he'd truly be able to make in 2022.
Through the regular season, those questions only grew stronger, especially after modest finishes of 68th at the Cowboy Jamboree and 9th at Panorama Farms. But at the ACC XC Championships, Tewalt began to find momentum, placing 4th overall to enter the 10k racing distance on a high note.
However, no one was predicting Tewalt to place 22nd overall at the national meet this past weekend, shattering expectations despite only barely cracking our rankings in one of our more recent updates.
Tewalt isn't going to suddenly jump up to TSR #22 based on his national meet performance -- his season as a whole does hold him back from reaching that spot.
Even so, the more important development is that Tewalt now has more than one top-tier cross country result on his resume and it looks like he can be the next lead runner for this program which is going to be losing some key veterans very soon.
Much like his brother Creed Thompson, Davin has been the epitome of reliableness and consistency for the BYU men throughout this season. He was 20th at the Cowboy Jamboree, 21st at Nuttycombe and then 30th at the NCAA XC Championships.
Despite his youth, Davin always delivered a valuable scoring result which helped stabilize an already-loaded cross country lineup. He never wavered in the NCAA's three most competitive meets of the season and gave us no reason to place him any "worse" than TSR #30.
Coming into this season, we knew that Victor Shitsama was one of the better distance runners in the country. He was a two-time All-American and had clearly established a presence on this loaded Oklahoma State roster.
But then Shitsama stunned us with a jaw-dropping 3rd place result at the Cowboy Jamboree. We knew he was good, but we didn't know he was that good.
Admittedly, the Cowboy veteran would come back down to Earth with a 15th place finish at the BIG 12 XC Championships. Luckily, he was able to shake off that result and land a 31st place finish on Saturday, a performance which very closely aligns to many of his prior All-American honors.
Shitsama showed a flash of elite talent, but wasn't able to fully deliver on that in the postseason. Even so, his reliableness on the national stage is a characteristic that you simply can't teach, and that's what makes this Oklahoma State star so valuable.
It admittedly wasn't the best fall campaign ever for Patrick Kiprop who left us wanting a bit more from him at certain points of this year. Even so, the Arkansas star rallied in the postseason when he was needed most.
Kiprop finished 5th at the SEC XC Championships, won the South Central regional title and then had the best race of his season (by far), placing 24th at the national meet! That was a result which essentially validated the idea that Kiprop was truly peaking for the postseason.
The Razorback ace remains at TSR #28 in our rankings largely because he was an unexpected runner-up at the Chile Pepper XC Festival who then faded hard to 13th place at Pre-Nationals. Even so, none of that largely mattered as long as Kiprop delivered when called upon -- and he did just that.
Yes, he may have finished 33rd at the national meet and may have fallen backwards a good bit in our rankings, but what Yaseen Abdalla did this year was fantastic.
The Tennessee ace validated an unexpected All-American result with yet another top-40 honor this past weekend. And when you pair that result with a 4th place finish at Joe Piane and a 3rd place finish at the SEC XC Championships, it's clear that Abdalla has taken that step towards consistently battling with the best of the best in the NCAA.
After an outstanding outdoor track season, there were questions as to how Aaron Las Heras was going to translate his success to the grass. We knew he was supremely talented, but would that distance prowess come out this fall?
The answer to that question was a resounding, "YES."
Las Heras threw down a huge 13th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree, effectively making a statement to the rest of the NCAA before earning a huge 3rd place result at the ACC XC Championships. And this past weekend, the Wake Forest veteran ended his season with a fantastic 26th place All-American finish.
It's clear that this Demon Deacon ace was a legitimate problem for his competitors every time that he toed the line this fall. He emerged as a consistently great low-stick and seemed unfazed by the ultra impressive talent that constantly surrounded him.
Gosh, it feels almost unfair to drop Nickolas Scudder this far in our rankings. Anyone who followed this Charlotte superstar knew that he had elevated his fitness to an entirely different level this fall.
Scudder was the runner-up finisher at Joe Piane, secured the win at Panorama Farms and also secured conference and regional titles. However, Scudder never truly contested a large, national-caliber race like the Cowboy Jamboree or Nuttycombe. And from an outsider's perspective, it seems like that lack of exposure to a big-race setting may have hurt the 49er star who had to settle for a 65th place finish on Saturday.
That national meet result is far from ideal, especially for someone who was originally listed in our top-15, but keeping him in our top-25 seems plenty fair. Scudder was very clearly one of the absolute men in the NCAA this fall and one race shouldn't dramatically alter his well-deserved ranking.
We knew that Shay McEvoy would have to play a key role for the Tulsa men this fall as they looked to find stability in a very limited lineup. And luckily for the Golden Hurricanes, they got all of that and then some.
McEvoy had a breakout season, placing 22nd at the Cowboy Jamboree, but then truly bolstering his resume with a highly impressive 14th place performance at Nuttycombe. And if that wasn't enough, the rising Tulsa standout would eventually go on to secure a massive 23rd place All-American finish this past weekend.
McEvoy was expected to simply support the lethal trio of scorers originally headlining this lineup coming into this season. However, he ultimately surpassed many of his teammates and turned out to be one of the most reliable low-sticks in the country.
Yes, he only moves up to TSR #24 in our ranking, but that's simply due to how other men in our top-50 list are staggered.
After years of bad postseason luck and the inability to deliver an All-American result, Brandon Garnica ultimately emerged as one of the more important scorers who BYU had on their roster this fall.
The Cougar veteran created some concerns by finishing 80th at the Cowboy Jamboree, but from there, he was a different runner. Garnica went on to earn an eyebrow-raising 16th place finish before going to the national meet and dropping a monster 21st place finish on the rest of the field.
For numerous seasons, we've known that Brandon Garnica is probably one of the most purely talented distance runners in almost any field that he toes the line for. And although he didn't get off to a great start, Garnica ultimately proved that theory to be true more than once.
We'll be honest, we have no idea how to rank Jackson Sharp.
This guy placed 7th at the Griak Invitational, but that may have been a purposefully conservative effort alongside his teammates. A DNF result at Nuttycombe certainly didn't help his case and although a 2nd place finish at the BIG 10 XC Championships is impressive, this wasn't a great year for the conference.
In other words, Sharp was a bit of a wild card heading into this past weekend -- and wild is probably the best way to describe his race.
The Wisconsin star recorded a jaw-dropping 16th place finish on Saturday, a performance that is almost certainly the best of his career across all three seasons. The Aussie distance ace has forced us to completely reevaluate his talent level and prepare for an indoor track season where Sharp could be a massive factor.
We ultimately placed this Badger star at TSR #22 mainly because of his Griak Invitational result and DNF result at Nuttycombe only allow him to climb so far. If we're being fair to everyone, then those results do have to play a role in his ranking.
Even so, this was one heck of a result.
After thriving throughout the regular season, Sprout remained absent from the West Regional XC Championships. And following a tough day at the national meet where he placed 118th overall, Sprout would take to Instagram, explaining that he had a partially torn hamstring that he had attempted to race through.
It's unfortunate that we have to drop Sprout at all. He was very clearly one of the most dynamic and most challenging runners in the NCAA to race against. Truthfully, nothing about his resume leading up to this past weekend suggested that he was anything other than a top-10 talent.
So while we are dropping Sprout in our rankings, we do so with the caveat that Sprout's true potential, when healthy, is much higher. That's a big reason why he still remains at TSR #21.
Some people might argue with us about this ranking.
Acer Iverson was very clearly one of the best distance runners in the country this past fall. He was 6th at the Cowboy Jamboree, 8th at Nuttycombe and won the Ivy League title. Seeing him in the top-10 portion of our rankings, or just outside of that range, was hardly a surprise.
However, the Harvard superstar faded to 50th place on Saturday. It was a result that was clearly an "off" day for Iverson, but it was also a result that was just good enough to be deemed as a legitimate part of his resume and not entirely a fluke.
We don't really know if TSR #20 is the right spot for him, but we're trying our best here, so work with us.
If Jackson Sharp's massive breakout race wasn't exciting enough for you, then allow me to explain the story of Fouad Messaoudi. The Moroccan distance runner came to Oklahoma State last winter with very strong personal bests and produced excellent times across the 1500 meters, 3000 meters and 5000 meters.
However, Messaoudi didn't race for most of this cross country season. And without any legitimate long distance or cross country results of his to analyze, we didn't really know what to expect from him.
His first race this season was the BIG 12 XC Championships where he placed 6th overall. That was a fine result, but it certainly wasn't exciting and it didn't indicate what Messouadi had in store for the national meet.
This past weekend, the Oklahoma State rookie dropped an unbelievable 12th place finish, altering the team title race in a dramatic way while emphatically making a statement to the rest of the country that he can be one of the best distance runners in the NCAA.
Trying to rank Messaoudi is hard. We only have two results to go off of this season and one is far more impressive than the other. If we're taking both of those races into consideration (like we would for anyone else), then a TSR #19 ranking is at least the most fair spot for him...we think.
After running 13:16 for 5000 meters on the track, expectations for Brian Fay were sky high this fall, although he was relatively quiet to start his season.
Fay didn't race at the Cowboy Jamboree, later settled for a 32nd place finish at Nuttycombe and then placed 9th at the PAC-12 XC Championships. Those were both solid results, but they didn't at all place Fay in the upper-echelon of distance runners around the country this season.
But after winning the West regional title, Fay had clearly found momentum, something that he brought with him to the national meet where he placed 13th overall.
Saturday was a massive day for the Irish distance ace who was slowly building momentum and ultimately peaking for the postseason. His performances prior to the West Regional XC Championships do limit his upside in these rankings, but Fay proved to be at his best in the postseason and we view that highly.
We'll admit, Barry Keane didn't go to the same loaded slate of meets such as the Cowboy Jamboree or Nuttycombe like a handful of other top names did. Even so, the Butler star was still able to put together a sneaky-good streak of results.
Keane was 9th at Joe Piane, runner-up at Pre-Nationals and was victorious at both the BIG East XC Championships and the Great Lakes Regional XC Championships. However, an All-American honor had eluded Keane for quite some time, leaving us unsure as to how he would handle yet another effort on the national stage.
But this time, the Butler veteran delivered. Keane snagged a huge 17th place finish, the perfect result to summarize the kind of season that he was having in 2022.
Is Cormac Dalton the most underrated distance runner in the NCAA? He very well might be. This is a guy who was an All-American last fall, placed 12th at the Cowboy Jamboree earlier this season and also earned a 19th place finish at Nuttycombe.
Dalton did every thing right this fall, eventually capping his season with an incredible 15th place finish at the national meet. He simply delivered on every major stage and even got better as the postseason progressed. You really couldn't ask him to do much more.
Seeing Victor Kiprop fade to 66th place is obviously not great, but are we really going to toss aside the fact that Kiprop was undefeated coming into the national meet? Could anyone else even say that? He took wins at Joe Piane, the Alabama Crimson Classic, the SEC XC Championships and the South Regional XC Championships.
Sure, Kiprop may not have raced at larger fields like the Cowboy Jamboree or Nuttycombe, but he consistently faced top ranked talents (from other teams) almost every time he toed the line. And in each of those instances, he came out on top.
For that reason, we placed him at TSR #15.
We struggled a bit to figure out exactly where Aaron Bienenfeld should be ranked. He came into the national meet ranked at TSR #14 and finished 14th overall. His 24th place finish at Nuttycombe isn't quite as strong, but his silver medal at the PAC-12 XC Championships does give his resume a notable boost.
It naturally makes the most sense to keep Bienenfeld where he was originally ranked (at TSR #14), but doing so gives guys like Bob Liking and Carter Solomon rankings that are admittedly generous based on how their seasons ended.
Was Saturday's race Bob Liking's best day ever? No, certainly not. We're sure that he probably wanted more than just a 34th place finish.
But when you pair the fact that Liking was still an All-American, the 4th place finisher at Nuttycombe and the BIG 10 individual champion, it's hard to suggest that Liking wasn't one of the 15-best distance runners in the NCAA this fall. He clearly upped his scoring potency from last fall and might still have even more room to grow.
Kudos, Carter Solomon. In what was a massive breakout season, the Notre Dame star delivered top results time and time again, effectively validating his rise to the highest ranks of the NCAA.
A 13th place finish at Joe Piane wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bad either. However, his stunning 9th place finish at Nuttycombe put Solomon on the map and his upset win over Parker Wolfe at the ACC XC Championships only further solidified his place among the best of the best in the NCAA.
And 18th place finish on the national stage isn't quite on the same level that we saw from Solomon at Nuttycombe or at his conference meet, but it still gave his resume a third upper-echelon result and his season was arguably more complete than any of the men who are currently ranked behind him.
Yes, it does feel like Solomon is ranked a bit high for where he finished at the national meet, but his Nuttycombe and ACC performances were just so good, and so many men just didn't run well at the national meet, which effectively left us putting Solomon at TSR #12.
What an absolutely thrilling breakout season for Dylan Schubert. The Furman ace had a monster breakout performance at Nuttycombe, securing a 12th place result and showing glimpses of being Aaron Templeton 2.0.
However, we were cautious to rank Schubert as high as his Nuttycombe result. After all, he had placed only 53rd at the Cowboy Jamboree and we didn't have too many other results on his resume to suggest that he was going to consistently remain at that level.
And as we saw with Devin Hart, breakout races that come out of nowhere are extremely difficult to replicate.
All we needed to Schubert to do was to validate his performance at the NCAA XC Championships -- and he did exactly that. An 11th place finish at the national meet makes it really difficult to place Schubert anywhere else but TSR #11, especially since a handful of top men ultimately faded in our rankings after tough performances in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Wow! What a race from Graham Blanks!
The Harvard sophomore played second fiddle to teammate Acer Iverson for most of the season. His 13th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree was very solid and his 26th place finish at Nuttycombe, while not quite as impressive, was still plenty competitive.
A win at the Northeast Regional XC Championships may have turned some heads, but it was clear that Iverson was still viewed as the top dog heading into the national meet.
That, however, changed when Blanks had the race of his life, finishing 6th overall on the national stage, proving that he's at his best at 10k distance and that he peaks for the postseason better than almost anyone.
Blanks' resume wasn't quite strong enough to place him any higher than TSR #10, but gosh, he was beyond impressive this past Saturday.
What a career this has been for Isai Rodriguez. The Oklahoma State veteran has been one of the most reliable postseason runners over the last half-decade and he showed that this past Saturday after he placed 8th on the national stage.
It's admittedly hard to figure out where we should rank Rodriguez. He made his debut at the BIG 12 XC Championships, and that only resulted in a 5th place finish, but a Midwest regional win and a top-10 result this past Saturday didn't leave us with many argument against putting Rodriguez in the top-10.
Brave to a Cowboy star who has been the face of this program ever since he toed the line.
Some may argue that Ky Robinson should be ranked this highly after "only" placing 10th at the national meet, but it's impossible to forget the fact that this Aussie superstar won the Nuttycombe Invitational, taking down every major threat for the national title, minus Alex Maier and maybe Victor Kiprop depending on what your thoughts were on him entering this past weekend.
A 6th place finish at the PAC-12 XC Championships is fine, although it doesn't really move the needle for Robinson's ranking in one direction more than the other.
It's one thing to be a top-10 talent on the national stage, but winning the biggest non-national meet of the year has to give Robinson some staying power which is why we have ranked him at TSR #8.
Week-in and week-out, Parker Wolfe delivered top-tier result after top-tier result. He won Paul Short in a course record time, he finished 6th at Nuttycombe against almost all of the best distance talents in the NCAA, settled for a runner-up result in a narrow battle with Carter Solomon and most recently placed 9th at the NCAA XC Championships.
There was never a result on Wolfe's resume that could be remotely argued as an "off" day. He often faced the best competition, thrived throughout a very diverse meet schedule and just looked like a low-stick who had truly found that next gear.
Sure, he may have lost to guys like Graham Blanks and Isai Rodriguez at the national meet, but I think it's plenty fair to suggest that Wolfe had a far more complete resume than both of those men did this fall.
Honestly, there wasn't a whole lot on Casey Clinger's resume to suggest that his 7th place finish at the national meet was an accurate indication of his true talent.
Outside of a win at WCC XC Championships a 6th place finish at the Mountain Regional XC Championships, the only other upper-tier result that Clinger produced on a nationally competitive stage this fall was a 7th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree.
And if you look at the men who beat Clinger in that September-time race and add in the national meet results, it's clear that Clinger's combined Jamboree/Nationals resume only fell behind Alex Maier, Nico Young, Charles Hicks and Drew Bosley.
We'll admit, a TSR #5 ranking seems the slightest bit too generous for Dylan Jacobs when looking at his overall resume. He finished a modest 8th place at Joe Piane, was runner-up to Victor Kiprop at the SEC XC Championships and most recently placed 4th on the national stage.
Even so, Jacobs delivered in the clutch just like did this past June and if an 8th place result at a nationally competitive meet like Joe Piane is his "worst" race of the season, then that's a good problem to have.
Seeing Alex Maier place 5th on the national stage was always a possibility despite us viewing him as a national title threat. The BIG 12 cross country champion, who also cruised through his Midwest regional meet in a conservative effort, was also victorious at the Cowboy Jamboree, arguably the first most competitive meet of the season behind Nuttycombe and the NCAA XC Championships.
That regular season victory, which came over the top-three men in our rankings, has to give Maier's resume an edge that Jacobs, Clinger and Wolfe's simply don't have on theirs. And with no legitimately poor result on his TFRRS profile, we feel good about listing him at TSR #4.
Here's a fun fact: Nico Young and Drew Bosley, despite toeing the line for meets like the Cowboy Jamboree and Nuttycombe, never lost to any runner in the NCAA more than once this season outside of Charles Hicks.
Yes, Bosley lost to Nico Young three times, but you get what I'm saying...
Young and Bosley were the definition of consistency this fall. Coach Mike Smith clearly positioned them to thrive in the postseason (and at the 10k distance) and both men clearly capitalized on that opportunity after going 2-3 on the national stage.
By losing to no one (except Hicks) more than once this season, and best every runner except on the national stage, there is quite literally no argument for Nico Young and Drew Bosley to not be ranked at TSR #2 and TSR #3, respectively.
It's amazing how Charles Hicks could finish 2nd at the Cowboy Jamboree, 3rd at Nuttycombe and 3rd at the PAC-12 XC Championships, but still be a clear national title co-favorite next to Nico Young and Alex Maier.
But his national title victory on Saturday showed us why that was. Hicks was easily the most complete cross country runner in the nation. He could hang with aggressive paces, his finishing strength has been strong, he knows when to hold back and when to attack and he simply navigates cross country courses better than most.
Simply put, he's the full package.
Hicks was the only distance runner in the NCAA to defeat Young and Bosley more than once this season. And with one of those victories coming at the national meet, it should come as no surprise that this Stanford ace is listed at TSR #1.
Brodey Hasty (Northern Arizona)
Ian Shanklin (NC State)
Austin Vancil (Colorado)
Zach Facioni (Wake Forest)
Ryan Martins (Loyola (Ill.))
Ryan Johnson (Air Force)
Haftu Knight (Texas)
Santiago Prosser (Northern Arizona)
Luke Tewalt (Wake Forest)
Fouad Messaoudi (Oklahoma State)
Isaac Alonzo (Texas)
Thomas Vanhoppen (Wake Forest)
Nathan Lawler (Syracuse)
Wil Smith (Gonzaga)
Liam Murphy (Villanova)
Eliud Kipsang (Alabama)
Hillary Cheruiyot (Alabama)
Anthony Camerieri (Ole Miss)
Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau (Stanford)
Aidan Troutner (BYU)
Matthew Richtman (Montana State)
Isaac Alonzo (Texas)
Thomas Vanhoppen (Wake Forest)
Nathan Lawler (Syracuse)
Wil Smith (Gonzaga)
Liam Murphy (Villanova)
Eliud Kipsang (Alabama)
Hillary Cheruiyot (Alabama)
Anthony Camerieri (Ole Miss)
Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau (Stanford)
Aidan Troutner (BYU)
Yacine Guermali (Gonzaga)
Luke Houser (Washington)
Rowen Ellenberg (Wisconsin)
Ethan Marshall (Air Force)
Ryan Schoppe (Oklahoma State)
Ryan Raff (Northern Arizona)
Justin Wachtel (Virginia)
Izaiah Steury (Notre Dame)
Fearghal Curtin (Florida State)
Vincent Mauri (Arizona State)
Parker Stokes (Georgetown)
Ryan Kinnane (Auburn)
Thomas Boyden (Stanford)
Luke Combs (Air Force)
Seth Hirsch (Colorado)
Gable Sieperda (Iowa State)
Jake Ritter (Cal Poly)
Tyler Berg (Columbia)
Tom Brady (Michigan)
Jesse Hamlin (Butler)
Charlie Wheeler (Wisconsin)
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