John Cusick
Sep 15, 202211 min
Edits and additional commentary by Garrett Zatlin
It is hard to say that the 2021 cross country season ended in disappointment for a team that finished 3rd at the national meet, but that was arguably the case for the Colorado Mines men in November of last year.
The Orediggers had seemingly delivered an unstoppable level of scoring at every competitive meet that they attended and they looked to be well on their way to another national title as a team.
However, disaster struck in their season finale as two men recorded DNF results, forcing this RMAC powerhouse to succumb to a bronze medal finish behind Grand Valley State and Adams State.
Luckily, that is all behind them. Despite losing their top-three runners from the 2021 national meet, the expectation is that the Orediggers will be elite yet again in 2022.
They still have (arguably) the best runner in the country, a supporting cast of unlimited depth and multiple athletes waiting to fill the scoring roles left behind by those who graduated.
However, before we talk about those expectations for 2022, let's talk about the Orediggers' 2021 cross country season.
Colorado Mines opened up their 2021 fall campaign at the Roadrunners Invitational, earning a decisive team victory over Colorado Christian and a limited Colorado State team. That, however, wasn't even the Orediggers' best lineup.
Colorado Mines scored 28 points as a team and placed all five scorers inside the top-10, solidifying an encouraging rust-buster performance for the men from Golden, Colorado.
In that race, Chris Cathcart took home the individual win over a trio of Cougars from CCU. This year's TSR #13 runner, Duncan Fuehne, finished 5th overall while Luke Julian finished 7th, Jake Mitchem finished 8th and Andrew Kaye finished 10th.
The Orediggers were missing our current TSR #1 runner, Dillon Powell, for this meet, but it was clear that he wasn't needed for a field like that.
Instead, Colorado Mines waited until the Chile Pepper XC Festival to debut their full lineup. And once there, they reminded everyone in Division Two what they were fully capable of doing when their best team ran together.
Powell finished 3rd overall with his teammate Dylan Ko one spot back in 4th place. This year's TSR #12 runner, Loic Scomparin, finished 7th overall and was the third scorer inside the top-10 in an absolutely loaded regular season field featuring numerous Division One opponents.
Long-time 'Mines veterans Kyle Moran and Luke Julian rounded out the final two scoring spots that day in 12th place and 14th place, respectively.
The Orediggers walked away with just 39 total team points. That was 92 points better than the next-best team (Augustana) and 142 points better than this year's TSR #10 team, Western Colorado.
In simple terms, the Orediggers absolutely dominated.
Another "B" squad was sent to the 2021 Colorado Springs XC Open for a tune-up before the RMAC XC Championships kicked-off the postseason.
At their conference meet, Colorado Mines scored 28 points as a team and put 19 points between them and their rival, Adams State. Led by Powell, the Orediggers would finish 1-3-4-9-11 to seal their third-straight RMAC team title.
Not only was Powell the individual winner, but he also put 20 seconds between him and UCCS star Afewerki Zeru in the process. Meanwhile Moran (3rd) and Ko (4th) remained strong in the middle of this lineup, providing elite scoring that truly put this team over the top. Cathcart (9th) and Fuehne (11th) were the final two scorers for their team.
Mitchem finished 13th overall, making it six athletes inside the top-15 for Colorado Mines. Steven Goldy was the seventh runner for them this day and he finished 24th.
Just to put in perspective how deep this team was, Mitchem and Goldy would have been in the top-five scoring team for every other team in the conference except Colorado Mines and Adams State.
And that overwhelming depth didn't stop at their conference meet as two weeks later, at the South Central Regional XC Championships, the Orediggers walked away with another team title. This one was just as dominant.
Powell took home his second-straight individual title, putting 27 seconds between him and Zeru. Moran finished 3rd and was the last Colorado Mines athlete inside the top-10.
Fuehne was 11th, O'Malley placed 13th and Julian finished 14th to cap the scoring for the Orediggers. They finished with 42 points as a team and defeated Adams State by 12 points. Cathcart and Kaye were the final two runners for Colorado Mines, finishing 15th and 31st overall, leaving their team with virtually no lineup flaws.
And yet, despite the otherworldly combination of success in their first two postseason meets, the Orediggers were forced to a 3rd place at the NCAA XC Championships.
But...how did that happen?
Powell was well on his way to taking home the individual title before disaster struck and he ultimately recorded a DNF on the nation's biggest stage. Fuehne, a still-young but highly promising scorer, also recorded a DNF result, ending the Orediggers' quest for another national team title.
Of course, it wasn't all bad for Colorado Mines.
Ko raced to a huge 4th place finish while Moran finished in 9th place. Mitchem was the third Colorado Mines athlete inside the top-15, finishing 13th overall. Through three runners, Grand Valley State still had the edge, but the Orediggers were still VERY competitive, matching what Adams State had...and then some.
However, after those three men, gaps began to widen.
Luke Julian would record an All-American honor of his own, making it four Orediggers inside the top-40 and for most other teams, that would have been a welcomed sight. But GVSU and Adams State were simply better from that point on, producing scoring value that 'Mines just couldn't match at that point in the race.
The Orediggers final scorer was Cathcar who was back in 82nd place. That was still a fairly respectable finish for someone who barely made this varsity lineup, but it was clear that Powell and Fuehne were missed in the scoring.
We'll be honest, it's going to be very odd not seeing Moran, Mitchem or Ko in Colorado Mines' cross country lineup this fall. Those three men were not only phenomenal last fall, but they have essentially been the entire identity of this team for almost as long as we have been an active website.
With those three veterans, you knew what you were getting every time they toed the line. Their scoring was top notch and so was their reliability.
But now all three of those men are gone. And even for a team as talented and as deep as Colorado Mines, suggesting that this group will be the same title contenders as they were last year seems like a (minor) stretch.
Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that they won't still be in the hunt for gold this fall.
That's because superstar Dillon Powell will be returning for his sophomore campaign on the grass and he comes back as our top-ranked runner.
Looking at his results from the fall of 2021, Powell was clearly the best distance talent throughout Division Two. He dominated the RMAC as well as the South Central region and looked to be doing the same at the national meet before the heat got the best of him.
Yes, part of being dominant is finishing the biggest race of the year, but it's hard to argue that there's a better long distance runner than him at this level of NCAA competition. After all, Powell set the collegiate record for the indoor 5000 meters this past winter, running a jaw-dropping time of 13:33. He later took 2nd in the 5000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships to cap off his incredible winter campaign.
During the outdoor track season, he ran 28:22 for 10,000 meters and would win the RMAC title as well as the NCAA title in that same event. He also finished 3rd in the 5000 meters at the outdoor national meet, closing one of the best national meet doubles of that weekend.
Powell's return to this program is important. With him coming back to this team, it's almost like Ko (or Moran) never even left as far as national meet scoring is concerned. Structurally, he allows the Orediggers to maintain at least some of the firepower that they had last year.
And it's a similar story for the other Colorado Mines runner who was a DNF at the cross country national meet!
Duncan Fuehne was the other Oredigger athlete who recorded a DNF at the national meet and much like Powell, that didn't stop him from having successful track seasons.
Fuehne improved his personal bests to 8:29 (3k), 14:04 (5k) and 29:29 (10k) the following winter and spring, although that first mark was later given a heavy conversion. He finished 13th overall in the 5000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships and then 7th in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
When looking at Fuehne's results from his 2021 cross country season, he was easily one of the most consistent runners for the Orediggers. Of course, his DNF result at the national meet was certainly not expected and it was something that ultimately hurt this team in their effort to take home a national title.
After seeing him improve on the oval and later find success on the national stage, we have good reason to believe Fuehne will be back contributing to this team in a big way in 2022. He is currently ranked at TSR #13, a spot that could essentially counter the loss of Jake Mitchem from last year's national meet squad.
And from that point of view, it's almost like Colorado Mines lost just one low-stick from last year and not three.
We then come to long-time veteran Luke Julian who is the lone All-American who returns from the Orediggers' 2021 national meet lineup. And if you were to have told us that going into last fall, we're not sure we would have believed you.
And yet, here we are, talking about Julian and his impact on the upcoming 2022 season.
Julian can still be considered a middle distance specialist on the track, but he's proven to be an extremely valuable piece for the Orediggers on the grass. He narrowly missed being an All-American in 2019 when he finished 41st when he helped the Orediggers to a 2nd place team finish.
But last fall, he finished 34th overall and was the team's fourth scoring option, something that wasn't expected of him in the season's biggest race. Regardless, he stepped up when necessary and showed us that he is more than capable of filling a scoring spot on this team.
Julian's times on the track are more than respectable as he has run 4:00 (mile), 8:13 (3k) and 13:52 (5k). Much like Fuehne, that 3k time eventually received a significant conversion.
As he continues to develop his aerobic capacity, Julian could become of the most underrated distance talents in cross country. As long as he can maintain his fitness through December, it won't come as a surprise if we're talking about another All-American finish for this long-time veteran.
Chris Cathcart is the final returner from last year's national meet team, although we don't think that his 82nd place finish from that race is indicative of what he'll do this fall.
During the 2021 cross country season, we saw Cathcart serve as a consistent top-six runner for the Orediggers. He won the Roadrunners Invitational, finished 18th at the Chile Pepper XC Festival and then turned in two top-15 performances at his RMAC and South Central meets.
Cathcart would later run 14:12 in the 5000 meters during the outdoor track season, telling us that his fitness level has continued to rise.
If this was any team other than Colorado Mines, we would be raving about Cathcart's potential and the threat of him being an All-American throughout the entire summer. Instead, his only spotlight comes in this article.
Given Colorado Mines' history of development and what Cathcart has done so far in his career, it's admittedly hard to see a scenario where this guy isn't a top-40 runner in December.
And how about Loic Scomparin? Remember him? This returning ace found his way inside our top-15 of individual runners during TSR's preseason rankings and we have good reason to believe he deliver on those expectations in 2022.
Scomparin only suited up for the Orediggers once in 2021, but that single race ended with an outstanding 7th place finish at the Chile Pepper XC Festival where he was the third scorer for Colorado Mines.
The next time we saw him race, he posted an incredible mark of 7:55 for 3000 meters before finishing 17th in the same event at the NCAA Indoor Championships. He'd later run 13:56 for 5000 meters on the outdoor oval and finish 11th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in that same event.
Yes, Scomparin has never raced an entire season on the grass before, but we don't think that will necessarily hinder him this coming fall. He has shown great flashes of upper-echelon talent in his first two years and we can't forget that he took home two 3rd place finishes at the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships as a freshman.
Scomparin will be a legitimate force on the grass this season. And while replacing those who graduated will be tough, he's the perfect candidate to mend that gap in 2022.
And suddenly, when step back and evaluate the five men returning to this team this fall, you can't help but wonder if this team is really that much worse than last year's lineup.
However, when it comes to the national title race, that possibility may be decided by how good the backend of this top-seven becomes over the next two to three months.
We saw Andrew Kaye in an Orediggers uniform a few times in 2021, but he wasn't quite good enough to crack their varsity squad for the national meet.
However, despite not being part of that national meet lineup, Kaye eventually showed tremendous improvement on the track. He ran outstanding times of 8:33 (3k), 14:18 (5k) and 29:25 (10k) to build upon his strong cross country season.
And yes, that 3k time was later converted.
He qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 10k, where he finished 19th, but that experience will only help him moving forward. He has competed well in his lone season of cross country and that foundation should allow him to contribute to the Orediggers' chase for another team title...we think.
Steven Goldy is another Oredigger who didn't make the team's varsity seven last fall, but his recent track times suggest that he'll be vying for a top-seven varsity spot in 2022.
Last year, Goldy transferred from MIT (D3) to Colorado Mines and has since reaped the benefits of his move. On the track, he ran 8:39 (3k unconverted) and 14:08 (5k) while qualifying in the latter event for his first individual national meet appearance. He'd finish 10th at the D2 NCAA Outdoor Championships, gaining a level of experience that he had not, at that point, been exposed to.
While that lone national meet appearance only offers minimal national-caliber experience at the D2 level, that should still go a long way when it comes to getting Goldy situated with what is expected of him during this upcoming 2022 fall campaign.
Max Sevcik and John O'Malley are a few other names who could find themselves in the fold for the Orediggers this fall.
Sevcik was on the 2019 national team when the Orediggers finished 2nd overall. O'Malley was left off the national meet team in 2021, but showed promise after finishing 13th at the South Central regional meet.
Both men can run their way onto this team i 2022, but that is going to be an incredibly tough task given the talent level ahead of them.
Oh, and one more thing.
The Orediggers may have landed what may be the single-best American distance recruit in Division Two, Daniel Appleford. The current freshman from the famed Newbury Park High School owns elite times of 4:12 (mile), 8:52 (3200) and 14:44 (5k XC).
Appleford placed 42nd at the Garmin RunningLane XC National Championships last fall and is plenty familiar with racing alongside high-level distance talents. After all, the Young brothers and the Sahlman brothers were his high school teammates.
There aren't many true freshmen who come to Colorado Mines and have an immediate impact, but if Appleford is as good as we think he can be, then our TSR #1 team may not be as safe as some people may think they are.
The Orediggers finished their 2021 season with a bad taste in their mouth and will be looking to correct that in 2022.
The loss of three extremely valuable scorers would decimate nearly any other team in the country, but Colorado Mines is in a unique situation where they essentially don't lose much scoring, if any at all, from their 2021 national meet lineup.
With some of the best depth and scoring potency in the country, the Orediggers should be able to withstand any hiccups that might come their way this fall.
And if all of the dominoes fall correctly, then we could be talking about the Orediggers taking home another team title come December.