TSR Collaboration
Mar 1412 min
Written by Conor Daly, Kevin Fischer & Gavin Struve
Additional edits & commentary by Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve
Click here to see our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.
Listed eligibility takes redshirts and Covid-related extensions into consideration.
TFRRS is used as a general, but not strict, guide when determining eligibility.
Was not ranked in our last update.
First number indicates how much the individual has moved in our rankings.
The second number indicates where the individual was ranked in our previous update.
20. Isaac vanWestrienen, Sophomore, Cornell College (-15 / 5)
Despite a tough day at the indoor national meet, finishing 18th place over 5000 meters and 19th place over 3000 meters, Isaac vanWestrienen’s regular season was impressive enough to merit staying in our top-20.
He broke through with massive personal bests in the mile, the 3k and the 5k this winter to launch himself into the top-tier of Division Three after transferring from the NAIA ranks. While his national meet debut on the oval was underwhelming, you can be rest assured that he has more success ahead of him.
19. Nate Lentz, Senior, Williams (-4 / 15)
Before this year, the mile appeared to be Nate Lentz's greatest area of strength. This winter, however, he really started to flex his refined 3000-meter prowess. Over the course of the season, he achieved a 21-second improvement over his previous personal best.
The 3000 meters was the only event that he qualified for at the national meet which meant that Lentz had some fresh legs compared to the rest of the field. And sure enough, he used that to his advantage for a really solid 6th-place finish. Not only was that his highest national meet finish at any event, but it was also less than a half second behind 2nd place!
Yes, Lentz may be falling in our rankings, but that's not necessarily based on anything that he's done. If anything, the natural flow of these rankings simply pushed him back a bit.
18. Spencer Moon, Senior, Simpson (IA) (-6 / 12)
The 5000 meters on Friday was Spencer Moon’s eighth race at a national meet on the track, yet it was his first time finishing in the top-eight!
Moon was the only man to follow the two national title favorites, Christian Patzka and Ethan Gregg, when they broke away from the chase pack around 2000 meters in. And despite fading in the last couple of laps, his aggression paid off for a decent 6th-place result.
The 3k, however, was a little bit tougher for Moon as he fell back to 14th place on tired legs. Still, he walks away from this weekend as a track All-American, an honor that has alluded him for some time now. However, based on how strong his regular season efforts were, we had to drop Moon back a bit in these rankings following the national meet.
17. Christopher Collet, Senior, Wartburg (-6 / 11)
A 4:05 anchor split from Christopher Collet took the Wartburg men from 4th place to 2nd place in the DMR. And while he couldn’t catch Lynchburg anchor Chasen Hunt, it was a nice leg that helped the Knights earn an excellent finish.
Coming back to the 3000 meters, Collet didn’t necessarily run poorly, but he couldn’t quite put himself in position to score despite closing hard. In the end, he took home a modest 10th place finish.
All in all, this wasn’t a winter bad campaign for Collet whose best shot at securing his second national title will come this spring in the steeplechase. However, the lack of an individual All-American finish drops him a bit lower than what his ceiling suggests that he's capable of.
16. Caleb Correia, Junior, John Carroll (Unranked)
Taking out his 800-meter prelim in 26.3 seconds paid off for Caleb Correia as he won that heat in a lifetime best of 1:50! In the final, he led an honest first 200 meters as well before letting the race slow way down in the second lap. His early front-running once again paid dividends with a fantastic 3rd-place finish.
For someone with All-American finishes in both the 4x400-meter relay and the DMR, this individual accolade was the cherry on top of what has been a phenomenal season. Correia peaked perfectly for the national stage and because of that, he now earns him a spot in our final indoor track rankings.
15. Vince Simonetti, Junior, RPI (Unranked)
It’s time to start talking about Vince Simonetti as one of the more clutch performers in Division Three. He has competed at the national meet in each of the last three seasons and came away with a great result each time.
Last spring, despite not scoring at the national meet over 10,000 meters, Simonetti ran a 19-second personal best and finished 16th place as the final accepted entry. During the cross country season, he exceeded our expectations with an 8th place finish, and now this winter, he put down an inspiring 14:01 performance to finish 4th place over 5000 meters.
It’s pretty hard to argue with the consistent postseason success that Simonetti has had.
14. Noah Jorgenson, Junior, Central College (-8 / 6)
Throughout a very consistent regular season campaign, Noah Jorgenson accrued several wins. Namely, he was coming off of a convincing American Rivers Conference title in the mile over Christopher Collet and Ryan Harvey.
This, among other reasons, led us to consider Jorgenson as a national title contender.
With that in mind, a 4th-place finish in the mile was a modest result compared to what his regular season suggested that he was capable of. Even so, we can’t punish Jorgenson too much in our rankings since he was exceedingly successful outside of that race. We also can’t be overly critical of a top-half All-American honoree.
13. Jonathan Zavala, Junior, Brockport State (Unranked)
Jonathan Zavala seemed to fly under the radar all season despite putting together some very solid performances. He had already run a 4:07 mile and he defeated another national meet mile qualifier in late February.
While we thought that Zavala could hold his own at the NCAA Indoor Championships, he exceeded even the upper end of what we thought he was capable of.
After earning a “big Q” in the first preliminary heat, Zavala looked more than capable of earning his first All-American honor. But through the first kilometer of the mile final, the prospect of such a performance didn't look all that likely with Zavala positioned in dead last.
However, this first-half of his race was not indicative of the second-half. Improving his position from that point on, Zavala ultimately earned bronze thanks to the fastest final lap of the field. With a personal best in this negative split race, we wonder what Zavala could have done if he had been closer to the front in the earlier stages of the race.
12. Colin McLaughlin, Junior, Carnegie Mellon (Unranked)
Coming into the national meet, Colin McLaughlin’s seed time for the 3k was run the day after he split a 4:08 mark on his team’s DMR. Couple that with a consistently solid season and we figured that he could outperform his modest 16th seed by a good margin, especially considering that he was one of the few fresh athletes in the field.
McLaughlin delivered on these expectations and more....much more, to be frank.
The veteran came through for a 3rd-place finish over 3000 meters, settling behind only Christian Patzka and Ethan Gregg. Although there were signs that this was possible, that performance showcased some firepower that we had not yet seen out of McLaughlin. He can now rest assured that he’s going to be on our radar after that one.
11. Grant Matthai, Sophomore, UW-La Crosse (+2 / 13)
You wouldn’t know Grant Matthai is an underclassman based on how he handled the 5k/3k weekend double.
As a member of the strong contingent of UW-La Crosse distance stars, he certainly made a name for himself last weekend. Matthai knocked a healthy bit off of his 5k personal best to earn himself a 5th-place finish ahead of several multi-time All-Americans.
Meanwhile, Matthai held his own yet again at the 3k distance for an 8th-place finish to earn valuable points for his team. A double All-American weekend is a huge improvement from Matthai's 63rd-place finish at the cross country national meet. He tends to be better as the distance increases on the track, so seeing what he can do over 10k on the outdoor oval could be really exciting.
10. Eric Anderson, Junior, UC-Santa Cruz (Unranked)
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Eric Anderson is a late bloomer. After not opening his season until February, he didn’t run a national qualifying mark until after conference weekend at the beginning of March! Taking home a win at the Wartburg Qualifier was just enough to get him into the indoor national meet as the 18th seed in the mile.
With little expectations placed upon him, the California native advanced out of the prelims via a three-second personal best that earned him a heat win. The following day, Anderson produced another three-second personal best. His 4:05 mark in the mile final was good enough for the silver medal.
Anderson was certainly one of the biggest breakthroughs we saw in the entire meet on the distance side. Although, with so few results this winter, the national meet was really the only way to rank the UC-Santa Cruz star. That's why he now sits at TSR #10.
With a modest 3:56 (1500) personal best on the outdoor oval, Anderson’s current momentum makes us feel like he is destined to make a significant dent in that mark.
9. Chasen Hunt, Sophomore, Lynchburg (Unranked)
Entering the DMR, the Lynchburg men were the most complete team and arguably the favorites, depending on who you asked. However, when Chasen Hunt got the baton as the anchor leg, he was not in the lead. Although, he was in 3rd place not far from the leaders.
From that point on, despite competing in his first national meet on the track, Hunt looked like a veteran. He calmly caught his two competitors, one of whom was experienced star Sam Acquaviva, before pulling away from the field for a comfortable two-second win.
Hunt then rebounded as well as anyone the next day, securing a 5th-place finish over 3000 meters. Even if he didn't finish as an All-American in two individual events like many of the men ranked in the top-10, don’t be fooled. Hunt’s double was as good as any.
8. Cory Kennedy, Senior, RPI (-1 / 7)
While much of the attention in the men’s 5k was on the Patzka-Gregg battle up front, Cory Kennedy ran a quietly masterful race to earn bronze. Sitting in the main chase pack for most of the race, Kennedy moved when he needed to in the final two laps to beat many highly accomplished names.
While his 3k effort was a bit of a letdown relative to his 5k, he was highly successful in his main event. As more of a 5k/10k guy on the outdoor oval, we look forward to seeing what Kennedy can accomplish in races that are closer to his ideal distance.
If his indoor track season indicates anything, it’s that we’ll see some significant drops in his current personal bests.
7. Gunner Schlender, Junior, UW-Whitewater (+1 / 8)
Gunner Schlender enjoyed an indoor national meet showing that was fit right in line with his steady regular season performances. That, however, doesn't mean that it wasn't a stellar finish to the season for him.
In fact, what Schlender achieved last weekend was probably on the higher end of our expectations for what he was capable of.
While we were unsure how much stock to put into how the UW-Whitewater men fared in smaller races, Schlender beat superstar teammate Christian Patzka at three different meets this winter. Most recently, he did so at the WIAC Indoor Championships over 3000 meters.
Schlender didn't quite triumph over his teammate and training partner on the national stage, but he did match Patzka with a pair of All-American finishes in both the 3k and the 5k (including placing 4th in the former). Schlender appeared to reach a new level of fitness this season, ending his campaign with a new 8:10 (3k) PR and coming close to reaching his 14:00 (5k) PR on multiple occasions.
6. Sam Llaneza, Junior, Lynchburg (-3 / 3)
Did we expect Sam Llaneza to be a bit closer to contending for the 800-meter national title? Yes. But to say that we're disappointed with his showing at the indoor national meet would serve to discount the impressive finishes that he did achieve.
For one, Llaneza was one of the fastest half-mile legs in the DMR, splitting 1:52 (800) to put his Hornets within a second of the lead and setting up anchor Chasen Hunt to win the national title in that relay. Llaneza's effort in that event was made even more impressive by the fact that he was doubling back from the 800-meter prelims after he'd comfortably qualified for the finals.
While he "only" finished in 4th place in the 800-meter finals on Saturday, holding his position from the midway point on, Llaneza provided as much value for his team this past weekend (and throughout the season) as virtually any distance runner in the D3 ranks.
5. Sam Verkerke, Junior, UW-Eau Claire (Unranked)
Sam Verkerke came back with a vengeance this winter, finishing a mere four-hundredths of a second (0.04) from an 800-meter national title. We knew that he had that kind of ability after winning the metric mile national title in the spring of 2022, but we hadn't seen Verkerke race at that level -- or on the national stage, for that matter -- since then.
He didn't appear to have any rust in confidently navigating through the 800-meter prelims before closing the half-mile finals with his last 200 meters being nearly a second faster than the event winner. So despite this being Verkerke's first entry in our rankings this season, we thought it was only fair to list him near the 800-meter national champion.
4. Cael Schoemann, Sophomore, UW-La Crosse (+5 / 9)
As the season progressed, Cael Schoemann looked more and more like the most sure thing in a wide-open men's half-mile scene. He was coming off a 5th-place finish in the event at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships and won two of his three 2024 half-mile races entering the indoor national meet (the one defeat was in a loaded Boston U. field).
With that in mind, it wasn't a major surprise when Schoemann won his prelim heat before taking over on the second 200-meter lap of the half-mile final and holding on for his first national title.
Schoemann will face a formidable challenge trying to defend that title in the spring, but the newly crowned WIAC indoor half-mile champion and national champion has enjoyed a rise unrivaled by virtually anyone else over the past 12 months. After all, he only raced the DMR (finishing 10th) at the 2023 indoor national meet.
3. Bennett Booth-Genthe, Junior, Pomona-Pitzer (-1 / 2)
Despite his status as the national title favorite for the mile, we admittedly had some questions about Bennett Booth-Genthe's fitness entering last weekend. After running an elite 4:00 PR over that distance at the start of December, he raced just once more individually, producing a 4:07 mile effort on an outdoor track.
Well, it turns out that we had no reason to worry about how sharp he was. At the 2024 indoor national meet, Booth-Genthe ran roughly a second slower than he did en route to a silver medal in the mile a year earlier. But this time, he secured gold by breezing through the prelims and laying down a 4:04 effort in the finals. He took the lead about three-quarters of the way through the race and won by over a second as 2nd and 3rd place each ran PRs.
Bennett Booth-Genthe should be in line to take a small chunk off of his 3:44 (1500) PR later this spring. But more importantly, he looks like the most complete miler in D3 right now, especially when you throw in his intangibles. And frankly, no one else is all that close to his tier, at least not in the mile.
2. Ethan Gregg, Senior, UW-La Crosse (+2 / 4)
Ethan Gregg's 2024 national meet appearance went about as well as we could reasonably expect it to have gone. That's because the Eagle veteran took gold (3k) and silver (5k) after a somewhat shaky regular season by his standards.
Double gold was within the realm of possibility, but would have registered as a pretty significant surprise. For as competitive as Gregg is, he's likely happy with his recent effort which was an improvement upon the 2023 indoor national meet when he finished 1st (3k) and 3rd (5k).
The Eagle distance star seemed to be running with something to prove on Saturday after finishing runner-up a day earlier, changing his strategy by establishing a lead in the 3k almost immediately and winning by three seconds over his TSR #1 in-state rival.
1. Christian Patzka, Junior, UW-Whitewater (0 / 1)
There's a genuine argument for Ethan Gregg to be ranked ahead of Christian Patzka here. After all, the former finished less than one second behind the latter in the 5k and almost three seconds ahead of him in the 3k at the indoor national meet.
That, however, wasn't reason enough to flip the top-two men in our rankings after they produced roughly identical finishes last weekend and Patzka bested Gregg by 18 seconds in a 5k race at the Boston U. Valentine Invite last month.
Now that Patzka finished this season at TSR #1, and Gregg held that position following a cross country national title in the fall, we're eager to see which of them has the better spring campaign.
Sam Verkerke (UW-Eau Claire)
Chasen Hunt (Lynchburg)
Eric Anderson (UC Santa Cruz)
Colin McLaughlin (Carnegie Mellon)
Jonathan Zavala (Brockport State)
Vince Simonetti (RPI)
Caleb Correia (John Carroll)
KICKED OFF
Adam Loenser (UW-La Crosse)
Michael Olson (Plymouth State)
Aidan Matthai (UW-La Crosse)
Michael Madoch (UW-La Crosse)
Derek Fearon (Pomona-Pitzer)
Frank Csorba (Lynchburg)
Enrique Salazar (Manchester)
JUST MISSED (in no particular order)
Adam Loenser (UW-La Crosse)
Michael Olson (Plymouth State)
Aidan Matthai (UW-La Crosse)
Michael Madoch (UW-La Crosse)
Derek Fearon (Pomona-Pitzer)
Frank Csorba (Lynchburg)
Enrique Salazar (Manchester)
Jayden Zywicki (UW-La Crosse)
Colin Kirkpatrick (Pomona-Pitzer)
Will Kelly (St. Olaf)
Sam Acquaviva (MIT)
Ryan Harvey (Loras)
Braden Nicholson (North Central)
John Lucey (Williams)
Ethan Domitrovich (John Carroll)
Calvin Boone (St. Scholastica)
Trevor Richwine (Dickinson)
Sean Hendricks (Rochester)
Braedon Gilles (UW-Stevens Point)
Mason Shea (UW-Eau Claire)
Aidan Manning (UW-La Crosse)
Chase Upmann (Carthage)
Ziyad Hassan (MIT)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)
TJ Carleo (Brandeis)
Ryan Hagan (SUNY Geneseo)
Ivan Appleton (Tufts)
Max Svienty (North Central)
Simon Heys (Wilmington (OH))
Joe Franke (Loras)
Reza Eshghi (Haverford)
Ned Farrington (Bates)
Will Salony (Trinity (Tex.))
Henry Hardart (MIT)
Marcus Cheema (Emory)
Pablo Arroyo (MIT)
Dawit Dean (Emory)
Jake Shumaker (Millikin)
Emmanuel Leblond (Johns Hopkins)
Lowell Hensgen (MIT)
Jason Gibbons (RPI)
Jack Kinzer (Wartburg)
Tyler Schermerhorn (Wartburg)
Charles Namiot (Williams)
Will Goddard (Bowdoin)
Parker Heintz (UW-La Crosse)
Adam Sylvia (Central College)
Andrew McGovern (Carnegie Mellon)
Elijah Meder (Hope)
Kyle Miller (Buena Vista)
Dwight Hosni (UW-Oshkosh)
Julian Aske (NYU)
Notes
- N/A