TSR Collaboration
Mar 1513 min
Written by Josh Beam & Nolan Ryan, edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin
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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.
EDITOR's NOTE: Please keep in mind that these rankings are a reflection of an athlete's overall season, not just how they performed at the national meet. Numerous factors such as personal bests, range, consistency, proven tactics, competition, postseason peaking and more are all considered when crafting these rankings.
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 last update.
The men’s 3000 meters was arguably the most competitive distance race at this year's indoor national meet. Part of that is because Bryn Woodall returned in 2024 after winning last year’s final and was looking to build off of his success from the past.
However, Woodall has not appeared to be in the same form as he was last year. It truthfully feels odd to say that an 8:24 (3k) mark and a 7th place finish was an "off” performance from the Milligan ace. Of course, we know that he has so much more to give in that event. Certainly, he will look to build off of this result and aim for a higher finish at the outdoor national meet over 5000 meters.
Carter Huyser established his name as a consistent All-American threat over 800 meters. In fact, depending on who you asked, some even had him as the national title favorite for the 800-meter final this year.
While Huyser never secured gold, he did produce performances that most would call "successful."The Kansas Wesleyan middle distance runner ran 1:52.02 (800) for 3rd place and assisted his 4x800-meter relay to an All-American finish as well.
If this veteran gets back to the same 1:50 fitness that he was in during the last outdoor track season, then he could be a national champion in May. But as far as indoor track is concerned, his bronze medal earns him our TSR #19 spot in these final rankings.
When Dimitri Margaritidis ran a 4:09 mile mark in January, he was strides ahead of his competition. And nearly two months later, the Grace College standout rode that success to the mile finals at the NAIA Indoor Championships.
On that stage, Margaritidis cruised to a very solid 4th place finish, ultimately reflecting the overall season that he had. Since he ran that 4:09 mile time, the recent All-American was fairly consistent across the board. And although we would have liked to see him improve his time a bit more, the nature of championship racing is not always the fastest.
In our first edition of our indoor track rankings, we said that Dylan Branch was not out of the question for a 3000-meter national title. And upon reflection, if the indoor 3k was not as deep as it was this year, then that suspicion could have turned to fruition. That's because the Montreat veteran still ran a speedy 8:21 mark for 3000 meters to take 6th place at the NAIA Indoor Championships.
Were we expecting a top-three finish for Branch on the national stage? Maybe. But did we expect the men from Cumberlands and Jackson Wilson to be as dominant as they were this season? No.
Branch will once again be a big mystery going into the outdoor track season. But as far as his winter campaign is concerned, it lands him at TSR #17.
Liam Neidig snuck into the first edition of our rankings in January. An since then, he has hovered around our “Just Missed” list for the rest of the regular season. And based on how he ran at the national meet, he must have taken that personally as he charged to a 3rd place finish in the 1000-meter final with a strong time of 2:25.
Better yet, that was a new PR which he also ran in the prelims.
This St. Mary's product was last year’s national meet runner-up in this event, naturally raising expectations for the winter of 2024. But admittedly, his results across the season left us asking for more. He was hardly running poorly, but that's why a bronze medalist may be a touch further back in our rankings than you initially suspect.
Even so, Neidig peaked beautifully and certainly proved his worth on this list by saving his best performances for his most important race of the year.
Mehdi Nait Hamoud is another underclassman talent who we did not expect to find the level of success that he did, both throughout the season and at the national meet.
The freshman's 4:08 mile effort led him to a 3rd place finish on the national stage a few weeks ago. And considering that he qualified with a 4:12 mark, he seemed to be a fairly unsuspecting runner compared to the other national qualifiers. Of course, he proved to be more than that.
To beat the likes of Dimitri Margaritidis and narrowly miss 2nd place in his first NAIA Indoor Championship appearance tells us that we may have a new man to beat in upcoming seasons. Freshmen like Mehdi Nait Hamoud usually hold tons of youth-based upside and that couldn't have been more clear than what we saw from this Madonna rookie.
When Evan Hodkinson ran 2:24 in the 1000-meter prelims on the national stage, it was obvious that he was primed for a top-three finish in the finals. In fact, if the winner of his final was not our TSR #1 runner, Luca Santorum (who also set the NAIA record), then Hodkinson may have been your 2024 indoor 1000-meter national champion and listed even higher in these rankings.
Overall, Hodkinson progressed nicely throughout his season and he ended his winter campaign with a some silver hardware and a very fast 1k PR of 2:24. And if we're being honest, there was likely enough on his resume to be ranked in our top-20 even prior to the national meet.
We were very high on Joel Forbes at the start of this indoor track season. And how could you not be after he ran a jaw-dropping mark of 1:49 (800) for 2nd place at the 2023 NAIA Outdoor Championships?
However, we got a little nervous as the season progressed. That was because Forbes' 800-meter times were getting slower with each try. In fact, they were so much slower that we took Forbes out of our rankings entirely.
But the NAIA Indoor Championships were a good reminder that proven athletes should not always be measured by the clock. That's because Forbes sped off to a 1:51 (800) effort to fight off a charging Carter Huyser and take 2nd place on the national stage.
After that showing, we will not count him out so soon next time and perhaps this outdoor track season he can grab that elusive gold medal position.
Let us start by saying that this Cumberlands distance squad is lethal. Anytime that you see a Cumberlands uniform on the starting line, something special is bound to happen. And sure enough, Luca Madeo is no doubt one of those special racers.
The freshman from Germany ran 14:29 (5k) in early February which set the tone for the next month. At the national meet, he ran the fastest 5k time in the prelims to be one of two freshmen in the final (the other of which was his teammate). There, Madeo improved upon his prelim effort by one second to take 3rd place overall.
A bronze medal for a freshman is not too shabby and that result alone would have put him in our rankings. However, it was his relative consistency and super quick times of 8:23 (3k) and 14:29 (5k) that ultimately put him at TSR #12.
Did Will Stockley have the kind of weekend at the NAIA Indoor Championships that we know he is capable of having? No, truthfully not. Even so, if a "tough" weekend for this Milligan veteran is a 5th place finish in the 3000-meter finals and an 8th place finish in the DMR, then that just shows you how talented someone like Stockley is.
Yes, we did have to remove Stockley from our top-10, but if you look at his season, he was simply outstanding. The Milligan star produced times of 2:28 (1k), 4:07 (mile) and 8:17 (3k) this winter, all of which are personal bests. Oh, and both the former and latter times I just listed still need conversions.
With season-long consistency, underappreciated range and a pair of All-American honors, moving Stockley past our TSR #11 spot would seem a bit too critical.
Despite a fairly significant drop in our rankings, this was still a phenomenal season for Jackson Wilson. Of course, we can't act so surprised after his incredible season on the grass.
This winter, after every race he ran, he looked to be a national title favorite in that discipline.
When you are a title favorite, anything less than a gold medal can feel like a disappointment. In this senior's case, he ran into a star-studded field in the 3k. He gave a valiant effort, but didn't quite have the juice to take a legitimate shot at the title.
With personal bests of 4:08 (mile) and 8:07 (3k), as well as an admirable 4th-place finish for 3000 meters, the Battlin' Bear star should have his chin up heading into the upcoming outdoor track season. Wilson has great range and the strong possibility of being one of the few NAIA guys who breaks that 14-minute barrier in the 5k.
Matthew Keitany came to play when he arrived at the national meet, ultimately saving his best performance for last.
Running a personal best at the NAIA Championships is tricky given that championship racing is so tactical. But what is even more challenging to do is running a hard prelim and coming back to shave off almost four seconds off of your PR to grab your first All-American honor.
And sure enough, Keitany did exactly that.
After a runner-up finish in the mile at the NAIA Indoor Championships, running a PR of 4:09, the Goshen star returned to anchor a 6th-place DMR performance later that evening. To leave the weekend after running four races and finishing with two All-American honors, we at the TSR felt that he deserved a top-10 ranking.
Keitany surprised the NAIA, but the former NJCAA standout will not go unrecognized any longer. Heading into the outdoor track season with a shiny new mile personal best, the Goshen junior will be a firm national title favorite in the steeple.
Gustav Bendsen entered the national meet weekend with personal bests of 8:12 (3k) and 4:11 (mile) which are both very strong performances. That being said, he was a big unknown entering the national with no prior championship experience on the track.
With a somewhat average 82nd-place performance at the NAIA XC Championships, and not a lot of performances to go off of as a freshman, the Kentucky-based talent kind of flew under the radar for how fast he has run.
Of course, the fellow Danish runner proved he was a top runner in the NAIA after finishing 3rd place overall for 3000 meters. And with momentum under his legs, he will be a strong force in the 5k entering the outdoor track season.
A big reason for Gustav to be in the top-10 portion of our TSR rankings was his DMR effort, running on the silver medal relay on the lead-off leg. In other words, Bendsen showed that his nationally competitive value could beyond just one race.
Aiden Kammler finished 2nd place over 5000 meters at the national meet for the second time in a row. And frankly, that's not a total shock. Entering the 5k finals, Kammler had a 14:23 (5k) personal best this winter and was still a title favorite with his championship experience.
Kammler took a legitimate shot at gold with a kilometer to go, but he ran out of gas on the last lap and still earned a silver medal. In the grand scheme of things, it was actually very impressive that he hung on as well as she did.
The Shawnee State senior exceeded expectations in the eyes of most NAIA fans which gives him plenty of reason to be in the top-10 of our TSR rankings.
Carter Gordon had himself an absolutely fantastic weekend two weeks ago in Brookings.
Running solid personal bests of 1:52 (800) and 4:15 (mile) heading into the weekend, Gordon was headed in the right direction as far as his fitness and postseason peak were concerned. After running those times, he likely needed to be added to everybody's radar as someone who could win the 800-meter national title.
What's more, he not only won the 800-meter national title in a personal best of 1:51 (flat), but he did it in his fourth 800-meter race of the national meet!
After finishing with a disappointing 8th-place finish in the 4x800-meter relay on Friday, Carter returned with gold, coming from the back with a gnarly finish to edge out the field. We learned a lot from this guy this weekend and that to never count him out.
Joseph Skoog was one of the hardest guys to rank this season. That was mainly because he ran 14:15 (5k) in December which was followed by average performances after the new year. That was the storyline until he followed those efforts up with two personal bests of 4:07 (mile) and 8:15 (3k) in the weeks leading up to the national meet.
And in his season finale, he did not disappoint.
With a runner-up finish on the national stage over 3000-meters now on his resume, you can't leave the fellow Tennessean out of the top-five in our TSR rankings. And after a valiant effort in the 3k, Skoog tried to attempt the vicious 5k/3k double. With the one-hour gap, it is a daunting task, with Skoog coming away with a 9th-place finish in the later event.
Skoog made quite an impact in his first year at the NAIA. He ran incredibly fast times across a large spectrum of the distance events and he was flat-out more aerobically fit than most top guys. The one thing that we do know about this Grand Canyon transfer going forward is that he will most likely always be in the title conversations as we continue our TSR rankings.
Shocking. That's probably the best way to describe what Luke Pohl did at the NAIA Indoor Championships. The Indiana Wesleyan star took the NAIA 5k field by storm, kicking hard to win the 5k national title.
Luke Pohl didn't look like he would have a shot to win until 200 meters to go when he unleashed a kick that nobody else could match. Pohl had been a title favorite in the 5k while at the fellow NAIA school in Cornerstone, but never quite got it done. Of course, he has now come full circle -- in the one year that he was not the title favorite, he came through with gold.
Experience matters when it comes to championship racing and Luke Pohl just how true that statement is. Even so, this is someone who had been relatively unexciting until the meet that mattered the most. His background, however, gives him a greater reason to be listed this highly.
The 3k was among the more anticipated races entering the NAIA Championship weekend. And yet, despite the prestige and acclaim that the field held, the event was ultimately conquered by the freshman Youssef Asslouj, originally from Morocco.
We only knew a little about Asslouj during the first couple editions of our rankings, but with his 8:08 (3k) PR, we knew he would be a very serious threat for gold.
It's hard to keep a guy out of the top-three in our TSR rankings with a national title from a star-studded 3k field and an anchor leg on a runner-up DMR squad. He did get out-kicked by former Portland standout Evert Silva from Oklahoma City on that relay, but for that being his third effort of the weekend, Asslouj is more than deserving of the recognition.
Finally! Payton Mauldin has been in the top-three of the 600-meter run over the last three years at the indoor national meet. But in 2024, that all changed.
Mauldin won the 600 meters in a meet record with a blistering time of 1:15.84! That's incredible speed for a half-miler. Mauldin then topped off his five-race weekend with an anchor leg on his title-winning 4x400-meter relay team.
We'll admit, Mauldin has been a very tricky athlete to rank this year with a lot of his focus being on the long sprints. However, the main reason why we have kept Mauldin in our TSR rankings is because he has run the open 800 three times this winter. And among those efforts, he held the fastest time in the NAIA with a 1:49 mark.
To add to his resume, he ran the anchor leg on the runner-up 4x800-meter relay.
Mauldin is one of the most elite names that the NAIA realm has in general. And after a dominant weekend, he showed us that he is not just a guy with fast personal bests, but rather, a true championship star.
Holy Smokes! This guy had a national meet weekend for the ages.
The NAIA hasn't seen a weekend like what Luca Santorum put together on the national stage since Zouhair Talbi, the now-professional Asics marathoner, was at Oklahoma City. We say that because Santorum finished an absolutely brilliant breakout season with unreal personal bests of 4:01 (mile) and 2:22 (1k).
The remarkable thing about his 1000-meter NAIA all-time best (that we can find with the current data in the USTFCCCA database) is that he did it at the national meet! That performance was the meet record after he won a tactical 4:06 mile effort.
Santorum looked like he was on a different level this winter, having a second gear that nobody could sniff and finishing every race that he ran on the weekend. He has to be our TSR #1 runner given that he's the only guy to run an all-time NAIA mark for the entire indoor track season.
Luke Pohl (Indiana Wesleyan)
Carter Gordon (Lewis-Clark)
Matthew Keitany (Goshen)
Joel Forbes (Cumberland (Tenn.))
Evan Hodkinson (Mount Vernon Nazarene)
Mehdi Nait Hamoud (Madonna)
Liam Neidig (Saint Mary (KS))
Carter Hyuser (Kansas Wesleyan)
KICKED OFF
Hunter Nichols (Eastern Oregon)
Luis Perez (Saint Mary (KS))
Eli Fullerton (Indiana Wesleyan)
Donovan Denslow (Missouri Baptist)
Charles Dorsett III (TAMU-Texarkana)
Aaron Jones (Milligan)
Dennis Kipkurui (Cumberlands (KY))
Craig Becker (Dordt)
JUST MISSED (in no particular order)
Ryan Stade (Tabor (KS))
Aaron Jones (Milligan)
Dennis Kipkurui (Cumberlands (KY))
Craig Becker (Dordt)
Hendrick Ramirez (Our Lady of The Lake)
Tristan Trevino (Marian)
Luis Perez (Saint Mary (KS))
Calvin Rhode (Concordia (NE))
Brint Laubach (The Master's)
Evert Silva (Oklahoma City)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)
Braydon Lee (Corban (OR))
Hunter Nichols (Eastern Oregon)
Peter Shippy (Dordt)
Isaac Davelaar (Dordt)
Zach Garey (The Master's)
Ruchen Blaauw (Montreat)
Griffen Parsells (Lewis-Clrak)
Cody Farland (Dakota State)
Thaniel Schroeder (Dordt)
Eli Fullerton (Indiana Wesleyan)
Notes
- N/A