TSR Collaboration
Oct 11, 202313 min
Written by Gavin Struve and Garrett Zatlin, additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin
Do you have an interest in writing for The Stride Report? We are looking for knowledgable high school coverage writers, D2 coverage writers and D3 coverage writers who can help us with our rankings and previews! Want to know more? Read this and send us an email at contact@thestridereport.com to let us know!
NOTE: These rankings are based on how an individual fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at a singular meet or (eventually) at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. Click here to learn more about our ranking criteria.
Was not ranked in our last update.
First number indicates how much the individual has moved in the rankings.
The second number indicates where the individual was ranked in our last update.
After stints at Alabama and Cowley College, Amos Pkiach has finally found a level where he can both enjoy success and receive the proper recognition. The Kenyan ace hinted at his upside last fall before narrowly missing a spot to the cross country national meet.
But in 2023, the East Central standout seems primed to change that with a year of Division Two experience now under his belt.
Pkiach kick-started his fall campaign at the Southern Stampede where he finished 4th in a strong field, taking down names like Jan Lukas Becker, Gidieon Kimutai, David Kibet, Cortland Ross, Noah McIntyre and Donald Kibet. Then, he went on to run a PR over 8k in a runner-up finish at the DBU Old Glory Gallup.
The collegiate journeyman has shown consistent success this fall and at this point, we just need to see him validate his talent with an All-American honor. Pkiach may have a wider range of outcomes than some of the other names in these rankings, perhaps because he’s less proven, but that also means that he has greater upside than some of his contemporaries.
24. Andrew Hylen, Senior, Grand Valley State (-2 / 22)
Andrew Hylen hasn’t really shown us anything new this fall, which is a welcomed development for a steady veteran who happened to have one of his worst races of his career at last year’s cross country national meet last.
Through a couple of races this fall, this Laker low-stick has finished in the top-15 at both the Auto-Owners Spartan Invitational and at the Live in Lou XC Classic.
The GVSU runner slides down our rankings to no fault of his own, but rather because of the emergence of a couple of other individuals. The Lakers don’t necessarily need Hylen to be a dynamic low-stick this fall, but rather a reliable All-American to further bolster their surprisingly-compact scoring lineup.
23. Alexander Vance, Junior, Colorado Christian (Unranked)
Alexander Vance isn’t new to the Division Two landscape, but he may have reached a new tier of fitness and competition. After taking the cake at the CU Time Trial in Boulder, this Colorado Christian junior faced an even more loaded field at the Lewis XC Crossover -- and he more than held his own.
The Cougar standout finished 9th in that setting, toppling names like Cole Nash, JP Rutledge and Kevin McDermott. And while we were certainly optimistic about his scoring potential this fall, Vance's most recent effort easily surpassed any other performance that he has posted on the grass.
Vance's still-budding regular season success implies that he’s in store for something far greater than his two previous national meet finishes which were just outside of the top-100. Of course, validating his talent against another competitive field would certainly help his stock.
22. Andrew Kaye, Junior, Colorado Mines (Unranked)
Andrew Kaye is a depth piece who has been valued, but perhaps overlooked, within a dominant program. That, however, may no longer be the case.
After a solid 4th place finish at the CU Time Trial, this Colorado Mines runner had a true breakout at the Lewis XC Crossover, finishing as the Orediggers’ second scorer in 6th place overall.
While it’s tough to gauge just how significant of a leap in fitness Kaye has made, it’s clear that he's been relatively consistent when given an opportunity. He may have established himself as a vital piece to Colorado Mines’ title defense if he can blend that consistency with the new level of top-end potential that he has flashed.
21. JP Rutledge, Junior, Colorado Mines (-10 / 11)
While his finish at the Lewis XC Crossover (11th) wasn’t on the higher end of his possible outcomes, JP Rutledge did what was needed from him this past weekend. All of that is to say that the Missouri Southern transfer stabilized the Orediggers' lineup on Saturday and closed out their scoring in his first appearance with the RMAC program.
Though Rutledge has been a bit erratic over the last few seasons for someone of his talent level, he still has a relatively high baseline for success and he showcased that over the weekend. We’re reassessing his ranking with the intel that we have from his lone recent result while acknowledging that it’s possible that he’s in store for something closer to his 2022 (47th) national meet finish than what he produced in 2021 (6th).
Although it would be nice for him to be a consistent low-stick superstar, he really just needs to be another scoring option and potential lead scorer for Colorado Mines. And if he does return to his 2021? Well, that wouldn't hurt, either.
20. Hamza Chahid, Freshman, Wingate (-7 / 13)
Has not yet raced this fall.
19. Gidieon Kimutai, Senior, Missouri Southern (+2 / 21)
Truth be told, Gidieon Kimutai has not been as sharp to open this season as he was last year. That, however, just means that he hasn’t won virtually every meet that he has toed the line for. And so long as Kimutai continues to prove that he’s fit — as a 7th place finish at Southern Stampede and 8th at the Chile Pepper Festival can attest to — that’s all that we need to see.
Yes, it's true, Kimutai faltered on the national stage last fall, but this is still someone who twice finished in the top-five at the D2 NCAA XC Championships. And even if he’s not as dominant as he was four years ago, Kimutai still appears to be among the most gifted runners in the nation.
18. Paul Knight, Rs. Sophomore, Colorado Mines (-4 / 14)
Has not yet raced this fall.
17. Noah Fisher, Junior, Findlay (Unranked)
We’ve already gotten a solid idea of Noah Fisher’s form this year as the Findlay ace has raced on four different occasions over the past five weeks. None of those performances were remotely bad, and some were borderline elite.
Fisher won the All Ohio Intercollegiate Challenge and finished 5th overall at the very competitive Lewis XC Crossover as he beat out a handful of top names.
The Oiler ace is a reliable piece and someone who has been performing at a high level for a few years now. But nowadays, he is seemingly racing at a new level. Truthfully, until we see him perform up to his potential on the national stage, we have some reservations about his postseason prospects. Even so, few men have been more steady and accomplished throughout the regular season this year and in seasons past than Fisher.
16. Caleb Futter, Junior, Grand Valley State (-8 / 8)
Caleb Futter’s relatively slow start to the season is a bit more concerning than it would be for other podium favorites, as he’s expected to be the lead scorer on a team with laudable depth, but seemingly short on elite firepower.
Still, he has enough of a postseason track record that we feel pretty confident about Futter righting the ship. And it’s not like he’s been all that bad. The junior placed 17th and 23rd at the Auto-Owners Spartan Invitational and the Live in Lou Classic, respectively. Those are two fields teeming with Division One and Two talent. We’re anxious to see how he performs in a strictly Division Two late-season field.
15. Logan Bocovich, Senior, Colorado Mines (0 / 15)
It seemingly didn’t take much time for Logan Bocovich to adapt to the Division Two level while competing for a new team and training at altitude. The Saint Olaf transfer placed 7th at the Lewis XC Crossover, ending up as the third Oredigger to cross the finish line.
Bocovich seemed just as comfortable towards the front of a loaded field as he had as a Division Three star over the past couple of years. The newest RMAC ace likely has high expectations of contributing to a team title and living up to his individual goals, but it has to be reassuring for him to know that he now has even more elite training partners in the same boat to support him, some of whom have greater expectations on their shoulders.
14. Romain Legendre, Junior, Adams State (Unranked)
We knew that Romain Legendre had the talent to be among the best men in the nation. After all, this is someone carrying personal bests ranging from 1:50 (800) to 13:35 (5k) before even stepping foot in the NCAA.
Even so, it was still reassuring to see him back up that talent amid a partially Division One field at the Live in Lou XC Classic, placing 3rd overall in what felt like a massively validating performance.
The French transplant will be an especially crucial piece for the Grizzlies as they look to reassert themselves atop the Division Two hierarchy. And frankly, we may look back at this ranking in a couple months’ time and say it was on the conservative side...because it is.
We would just like to see one more competitive outing from someone who has only one collegiate race under his belt at the moment.
13. Aspel Kiprob, Junior, East Central (Unranked)
If you’re looking for someone who wasn’t really on the national radar entering this season, but could leave it as one of the nation’s best runners, Aspel Kiprob should be at (or at least near) the top of that list.
The JUCO transfer was highly accomplished before moving to the Division Two level, so perhaps he should have received more attention before the season, although he certainly has it now.
The East Central lead scorer usurped a who’s who of NCAA stars en route to winning the Southern Stampede, including teammate Amos Pkiach, and picked up his second win in as many races at the DBU Old Glory Gallup.
We may not see him race better competition (he already took down a host of All-American stars in his debut) until November, but Kiprob is someone we should very much be looking out for until then.
A 4th place finish at the Lewis XC Crossover was a fantastic result for someone who we were already high on coming into year. Trent Cochran was undoubtedly great over the last year, but this performance validates the idea that he was going to make a leap into a more refined and dominant aerobic-centric runner.
Yes, the Colorado Christian standout did finish runner-up at this meet last year, but the 2022 version of the Lewis XC Crossover was far less competitive than what we saw last weekend. We would like to see him replicate a result like that as we venture into the postseason, but right now, it's hard to dislike anything about this CCU veteran.
Ryan Hartman's runner-up finish to Ransom Allen at the Griak Invitational (Maroon race) was an impressive result for the focal star of Augustana's distance group. Although, admittedly, that field wasn't super top-heavy and Allen got the better of Hartman by 10-ish seconds.
Regardless, it's nice to see that the Vikings' top low-stick is looking sharp after a good, but relatively quiet, year of competition on the track (compared to his 2022 spring campaign).
A 10th place finish at the Lewis XC Crossover is hardly a poor result, but Cole Nash was expected to be one of the top men who contended for the individual win this past weekend. That, however, didn't happen as he faded from the top pack and couldn't make up the ground.
It's important that we don't overreact to one performance in the first weekend of October. Nash is one of the absolute best in all of Division Two when it comes to the longer distances and he has consistently shown up in the postseason.
We're only going to drop Nash to TSR #10 for now, although we'll be looking to see if he can put together a more encouraging rebound effort later this fall.
The 2022 cross country season was an outstanding fall campaign for Dayton Brown, a former distance standout for Saginaw Valley State. However, after a sudden and unexpected transfer move to Adams State in the winter, the D2 veteran just didn't look like himself.
Naturally, there were questions about what we could expect from Brown for the 2023 cross country season. We clearly knew that he had a ton of talent, but would he be able to shake off his challenging acclimation to life in Alamosa, Colorado?
Well, after a 9th place finish at the Louisville XC Classic, the answer to that question is a resounding, "yes." In that race, Brown lost to only three other D2 runners and took down a handful of subtly-strong distance talents such as Evan Guzman, Micah Gilpatric and of course, his own teammate, Awet Beraki.
It's only one race, and our preseason spot for Brown is fairly on par with how he performed in Kentucky, but this was a great opportunity for the former Cardinal to kick-start some momentum before he enters the postseason.
There's no other way to put it: Awet Beraki's 33rd place finish at the Louisville XC Classic simply wasn't good, at least not for someone of his caliber.
Is that performance indicative of how good this Adams State superstar actually is? No, of course not, and that's why we have opted to keep Beraki in our top-10 at TSR #8. In fact, we would even argue that he is still in the national title conversation.
Even so, Beraki has had enough unexciting efforts on the grass to leave us cautious about our prospects of him winning NCAA gold in November.
To be clear, Jan Lukas Becker hasn't been running poorly this fall. However, for someone who was/is supposed to be in the national title conversation, this Mississippi College veteran just hasn't been as sharp as we would have liked him to.
After a simple rust-buster on September 1st, Becker faded to 5th place in the "Open" section at the Southern Stampede meet. Yes, that field had a handful of great on-the-rise distance talents, but we certainly expected the Choctaw ace to be more competitive. You could maybe say almost the same thing about the Louisville XC Classic where Becker finished 8th overall.
Again, Becker is still posting very respectable results, especially in his most recent effort. That's why we're not dropping him as far as some people may expect. Even so, we'll need to see more this D2 star if he is going to keep his spot among the rise of multiple unknown standouts.
Has not yet raced this fall.
After a strong rust-busting effort, Simon Kelati and his teammates ventured to the Chile Pepper XC Festival. And while the Western Colorado standout couldn't keep pace with the Arkansas men, he was still able to snag a 7th place finish and take down a strong D2 talent in Gidieon Kimutai.
Truthfully, nothing that we've seen from this Mountaineer star has surprised us. He looks sharp, but he hasn't faced a ton of comparable Division Two competition. Even so, nothing that Kelati has done so far has hurt his stock and for that reason, we're placing him at TSR #5 in our rankings.
Gosh, Ransom Allen has looked so. darn. good. this fall.
We knew that the Wayne State ace was an underrated name and that he could compete with many top names. Even so, he has made life very difficult for many of the best men throughout all of Division Two.
At the Griak Invitational (Maroon race), Allen took home a win over Ryan Hartman by 10-ish seconds -- that was a comfortable and convincing victory over an Augustana runner who has remained in the upper-tier of our D2 cross country hierarchy.
However, after a 3rd place finish at the Lewis XC Crossover (where he lost only to Matthew Storer and Duncan Fuehne), it's becoming increasingly more challenging to leave Allen out of the "elite" tier in our D2 rankings.
There are always a handful of breakout stars each and every year who burst onto the Division Two scene and begin to post outstanding performances. And in 2023, one of those marquee names seems to be William Amponsah.
The West Texas A&M star was been flat-out incredible this fall. Not only did he take down a massive, national-caliber field at the Louisville XC Classic, but he also defeated Victor Kibiego, a top-40 ranked runner in Division One, at the Texas Tech Open, albeit by only a second.
There's a legitimate argument to be had that this Buffalo superstar should be ranked at TSR #1 in this week's update. And while that would be justified, we just want to see a few more races from a Ghanaian athlete, who is brand new to the NCAA, before we put him at the top spot.
It was a strong and valiant effort from Duncan Fuehne at the Lewis XC Crossover this past weekend. The Colorado Mines star put himself at/near the front of the race and was relentless in his pursuit of the leaders. In the end, he let Matthew Storer get out of reach, but this was still one of the better races that we've seen from this Oredigger veteran.
Once we reach the 10k racing distance in the latter portion of the postseason, Fuehne may find himself at an advantage. In our eyes, he is a pure long distance runner who is already looking incredibly sharp over 8000 meters.
NCAA gold, as we originally thought, seems to be very much on the table for Fuehne.
It was an absolute masterclass showing from Matthew Storer at the Lewis XC Crossover. The Colorado Christian star stayed with the top group and never looked in danger of letting the leaders get away. However, more impressively, he burned the field over the last 1000 meters despite the initial pace already being incredibly hot.
With a TSR #6 preseason ranking, some people might have questioned why we were putting Storer so high. But few men held as much potential as Storer did -- and we saw it. Of course, we would be lying to you if we thought that this redshirt sophomore would be listed at TSR #1 in our very first rankings update of the season.
William Amponsah (West Texas A&M)
Aspel Kiprob (East Central)
Noah Fisher (Findlay)
Romain Legendre (Adams State)
Andrew Kaye (Colorado Mines)
Alexander Vance (Colorado Christian)
Amos Pkiach (East Central)
Andrew Amor (New Mexico Highlands)
Scott Nutter (Wingate)
Tyler Nord (Western Colorado)
Harry Louradour (West Texas A&M)
Brock Wooderson (Grand Valley State)
Andrew Amor (New Mexico Highlands)
Ricardo Barbosa (Azusa Pacific)
Elias Bergman (Grand Valley State)
Johan Correa (Central Washington)
Juan Diego Castro (Azusa Pacific)
Daniel Hernandez (Chico State)
Talel Khalfi (Tiffin)
Kevin McDermott (Western Washington)
Tyler Nord (Western Colorado)
Scott Nutter (Wingate)
John O'Malley (Colorado Mines)
Cortland Ross (Illinois-Springfield)
Brock Wooderson (Grand Valley State)
Daniel Appleford (Colorado Mines)
Sebastian Brinkman (Simon Fraser)
Alberto Campa (Colorado Mines)
George Couttie (Charleston (WV))
Elliot Dotson (Anderson (SC))
Matthew Fowler (Lee (Tenn.))
Koby Fraaza (Grand Valley State)
Yonas Haile (Adams State)
David Kibet (Washburn)
Donald Kibet (Washburn)
Cas Kopmels (Wingate)
Samuel Lange (Michigan Tech)
Evan Leist (Cedarville)
Harry Louradour (West Texas A&M)
Noah McIntyre (Illinois-Springfield)
Brayden McLaughlin (Azusa Pacific)
Ephrem Mekonnen (Simon Fraser)
Aziz Mohamed (West Texas A&M)
Bastian Mrochen (Wingate)
Enrico Oddone (West Texas A&M)
Matthew Oglesby (Pittsburg State)
Andrew Oslin (Western Washington)
Mikah Paiz (Adams State)
Ricardo Vargas (Cal Poly Pomona)
Spain Vaughan (Anderson (SC))
Sam Wilhelm (Alabama-Huntsville)
- We previously had Cameron Allan (TSR #17) and Aron Orar (TSR #24) listed in our preseason top-25. However, both men are no longer on the team's roster.