Gavin Struve
Nov 25, 202314 min
Written by Gavin Struve, additional edits & commentary by Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: These rankings are based on how an athlete 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 individual has moved in our rankings.
The second number indicates where the individual was ranked in our last update.
25. Ricardo Barbosa, Junior, Wingate (Unranked)
Let's get this out of the way: Ricardo Barbosa entered this season with clear All-American potential. The former JUCO star won multiple national titles at that level and holds an 8:39 (3k steeplechase) PR.
That's to say that Barbosa was a massive talent who we figured would become further refined at Wingate. As such, he was listed as a "Just Missed" name in our preseason individual rankings. But then he, and many of Wingate's men, did not race top D2 competition for much of the fall. Yes, saw this Portuguese standout race in the Lehigh Paul Short "Gold" race in late September, and hang tough with Division One men (placing 7th).
But then he went nearly two months between races.
When he reemerged, Barbosa placed 24th at the NCAA XC Championships and helped his team to a national title. As we head toward 2024, starting with the track season, this may be the lowest this versatile talent is ranked for awhile.
24. Harry Louradour, Junior, West Texas A&M (Unranked)
You may remember that Harry Louradour began the season in our initial top-25 individual rankings. But after he struggled a bit at the Louisville XC Classic, it was difficult to know where to place him.
He made way for names with more momentum early-on, but never left our radar. Sure enough, an 8th place finish at the South Central Regional XC Championships suggested that he was peaking heading into the postseason. Although, we're generally careful not to place too much emphasis on the regional stage.
Either way, a 20th place finish at the cross country national meet was towards the higher end of our expectations. What's more, Louradour helped his team to a podium finish. The French star now boasts consecutive top-half All-American finishes on the grass and is establishing himself as one of the more reliable postseason performers.
23. Matthew Oglesby, Senior, Pittsburg State (Unranked)
Matthew Oglesby bided his time throughout this season, racing just thrice before the NCAA XC Championships. Through those three solid, but relatively unexciting races, he remained on the periphery of the All-American picture after barely sneaking into that range last fall.
But the Sunflower State veteran earned those honors far more comfortably this time around, placing 19th. No, Oglesby's lead-up to the national meet wasn't as strong as it was last year, but there's something to be said for someone who knows when and how to rise to meet the level of competition.
Stamp him with the Draymond Green "16-game player" label.
22. Dayton Brown, Rs. Senior, Adams State (-3 / 19)
Dayton Brown came to the mountain town of Alamosa, Colorado as sort of a hired cross country mercenary if you will.
He's a sixth-year senior with six national meet appearances (across seasons) under his belt. Adams State was humbled before even reaching the national stage a year ago, but Brown and his All-American bona fides were brought in for dependable scoring potency in an attempt at a dynastic revival.
While the Grizzlies are likely underwhelmed with failing to reach the podium, Brown did mostly what was asked of him. No, he didn't match his 7th place national meet run from last season, but he finished 25th at the national meet and delivered similar low-stick reliability throughout the fall months.
And given his entire body of work, we felt like it was fair to keep him just a few spots higher than what his national meet performance showed us.
21. Paul Knight, Rs. Sophomore, Colorado Mines (-7 / 14)
Don't take this drop as a slight to Paul Knight. He was a veritable low-stick this season and showed minor improvements from last fall. However, more importantly, he mostly held steady from the already-strong level he was at in 2022.
That's what the Orediggers needed from him.
Sure, a national meet finish that aligned more closely with his ranking entering the national meet would have put Colorado Mines even closer to defending their national title. Even so, it's hard to be upset with a guy who debuted in the postseason and finished 5th at the RMAC XC Championships, 6th at the South Central regional meet and 23rd at the NCAA XC Championships, marking back-to-back top-25 finishes on the national stage.
20. David Kibet, Senior, Washburn (0 / 20)
David Kibet shares several similarities with his above-listed Kenyan countryman. He has been in the NCAA since the late 2010s and is one of the top men in the MIAA conference. But despite a similar landing point, he's followed an entirely different trajectory than Kimutai.
Kibet didn't reach his first national meet until last fall when he finished a bit outside of All-American status. He continued to steadily progress into this season, racing solid competition throughout the fall, winning a conference title and finishing as a 22nd place All-American.
This Washburn veteran was solid across the board this fall, never having a poor performance. He perfectly matched our prior ranking assessment of him.
19. Gidieon Kimutai, Senior, Missouri Southern (Unranked)
It almost feels reductive to suggest that Gidieon Kimutai feels like he's had several different NCAA careers. Starting in the collegiate ranks in 2018, he was a two-time top-five finisher at the NCAA XC Championships.
But then he didn't race individually on the national stage again until the 2022 NCAA XC Championships where he had an "off" day and fell out of the top-80 to wrap up a season in which he'd previously been undefeated against Division Two competition.
Fast forward to this fall, and he was hardly as dominant through the regular season, but still looked like an All-American talent. Sure enough, the elder statesman validated that notion with a 14th place finish at the cross country national meet.
How many other men in Division Two have stayed towards the top of the NCAA scene over a span that has stretched across a half-decade?
18. Amos Pkiach, Junior, East Central (-2 / 16)
Amos Pkiach was consistently the second-best runner on a podium squad with nearly five All-Americans. Let that sink in for a bit.
Despite winning a conference title last fall, Pkiach didn't even reach the 2022 NCAA XC Championships. But this season, he ran nearly a minute faster on the conference stage where he finished runner-up behind an elite teammate and placed 21st at the 2023 cross country national meet.
Pkiach's season up and to that point suggested that he was capable of even more, but it would be dismissive to call that national meet effort a disappointing result.
East Central's fortune wouldn't have changed even if he had finished 10 spots higher on the national stage. And one could argue that Pkiach is a more valuable piece than some of the names listed above him due to his status as a key low-stick for a newfound national power.
17. Cortland Ross, Junior, Illinois-Springfield (+6 / 23)
No, his team didn't reach the NCAA XC Championships this season after finishing 6th last year. But Cortland Ross carried on as a top-flight low-stick with or without his supporting cast present at a national meet held in a neighboring state.
Ross was steady throughout the fall months, opening his season with a couple of races against top-end competition and emerging better from it in the final month of the season. Looking back, a 12th place result at the Louisville XC Classic may have been far better than we realized in the moment.
He won a conference title and secured an 18th place finish at the cross country national meet, brushing aside any postseason concerns after struggling in that setting a year ago. From start to finish, this Prairie Star ace was outstanding and we feel like he has a strong enough resume to be given a bump one spot ahead of his national meet result.
16. Johan Correa, Sophomore, Central Washington (+8 / 24)
With five wins in six tries heading into the cross country national meet, Johan Correa was a clear All-American favorite. In fact, it seemed like he had a relatively wide range of outcomes in his first national meet appearance.
With that being said, the 17th place finish that he produced last Saturday was one of the better possible results.
We had largely yet to see how Correa would fare against the nation's top individuals, but the answer was, "very well!" This is now someone who has proved adept at racing and producing strong results regardless of setting, distance or competition. That bodes well for someone who appears to have several years of eligibility remaining.
15. Logan Bocovich, Senior, Colorado Mines (+7 / 22)
Logan Bocovich was probably the highest-impact, non-JUCO transfer among Division Two men this season, seamlessly transitioning from the Division Three level and playing a key role in the Orediggers' runner-up finish.
That's all true in spite of Bocovich following a unique race schedule. He competed just three times, in arguably his team's three biggest meets, placing 7th at the Lewis XC Crossover, 9th at the RMAC meet and 16th at the cross country national meet.
Whatever works, right?
Not only did Bocovich emerge as was one of the most reliable scorers for the defending champion team, but he saved his best race for last even as some of his teammates slightly underwhelmed.
14. Tyler Nord, Rs. Freshman, Western Colorado (+7 / 21)
Tyler Nord is a name that we at TSR were relatively divided on before the season.
Nobody could dispute his talent after a fantastic freshman track season, but it was unclear how he would translate that aerobic prowess to his first collegiate season on the grass. Ultimately, we put him in our preseason top-25, and in hindsight, we look wiser than we perhaps really were for doing so.
We received hints of how he'd fare relatively early-on, but got our definitive answer at the RMAC XC Championships where this redshirt freshman placed 7th overall in Division Two's most competitive conference and arguably its most competitive meet outside of the NCAA XC Championships. From there, he cruised through the regional meet and finished 15th on the national stage.
Now, it feels fair to suggest that Nord appears on track to develop into the kind of low-stick that his star teammate, Simon Kelati, has become.
13. Noah Fisher, Junior, Findlay (+2 / 15)
Noah Fisher was among the steadiest names and most known quantities throughout this fall. The only question was whether he would secure his first All-American finish at the end of the season. And truthfully, most of us thought we already knew the answer to that query.
Between six meets leading up to the season finale, Fisher placed no lower than 5th (which is where he placed at the loaded Lewis XC Crossover) and he won the All-Ohio meet, the G-MAC title and finished runner-up at the Midwest Regional XC Championships.
I's difficult to say whether his 12th place NCAA XC Championships finish was his best race of the season, but after finishing nearly 60 spots back from that a year ago, it has to be the one he's most proud of.
12. Soheil Boufrizi, Junior, Wingate (Unranked)
We could copy-paste much of what we said about Ricardo Barbosa for teammate Soheil Boufrizi. The Wingate men contested a limited racing schedule this fall and Boufrizi was very solid at Paul Short (22nd) and the Southeast Regional XC Championships (3rd).
With this upperclassman barely finishing in the top-100 of last year's NCAA XC Championships, his 2023 national meet result is probably among the most surprising of all individuals.
Boufrizi emerged as Wingate's second scorer, finishing 10th (!) overall and helping the Bulldogs to their national title. Was that a better result than we were expecting to see from him? Yes, definitely. But was it unrealistic? We would say no.
11. Ransom Allen, Senior, Wayne State (MI) (-5 / 6)
Ransom Allen may have ended up finishing marginally worse on the national stage this season than last year, but it's hard to argue that he didn't look like a more refined product for much of this fall.
And it's not like he had an "off" day at this year's NCAA XC Championships, either!
Allen won four of his six races this fall, including the Griak Invitational, GLIAC XC Championships and Midwest regional meet. He also finished 3rd at the Lewis XC Crossover, making his 13th place run at the 2023 cross country national meet probably his "worst" result of the season. That speaks to this veteran's dependability after three top-25 NCAA XC Championships finishes in as many years.
10. Duncan Fuehne, Junior, Colorado Mines (-5 / 5)
Duncan Fuehne was an interesting name to monitor in 2023. We felt like he was a realistic individual national title contender, but it also wouldn't have surprised us if multiple men surpassed him in that conversation.
The Colorado Mines veteran put forth three elite performances this fall, but his stock dropped a bit after each one. At one point this season, the Oredigger ace sat at TSR #1. Then, he finished 2nd at the Lewis XC Crossover.
After snagging a bronze medal at the RMAC XC Championships, Fuehne dropped to TSR #5, but remained in the individual title picture. He then finished his season 11th on the national stage.
While a finish closer to the front would have kept Colorado Mines more firmly in the team title race, it's hard to fault Fuehne for continuing to provide elite low-stick results. This is a top-end runner, as evidenced by a 3rd place finish at last fall's national meet, but we likely won't put the same kind of outsized expectations on his shoulders again.
9. Ryan Hartman, Junior, Augustana (SD) (0 / 9)
Ryan Hartman's stock hardly wavered this fall, but that's only because we already held a high estimation of him. He was especially elite in the postseason — which speaks to his experience and composure — winning the NSIC XC Championships, finishing runner-up at the Central Regional XC Championships and 9th at the NCAA XC Championships.
Add Hartman to the short list of trustworthy upperclassmen who have improved at each of the past three cross country national meets while finishing as a top-25 All-American at each one.
8. Loïc Scomparin, Junior, Colorado Mines (0 / 8)
It seemed unlikely that Loïc Scomparin would finish as Colorado Mines' top scorer as recently as a couple of weeks ago. He started his season at the RMAC XC Championships were he produced a 4th place finish that was in line with expectations. But he was behind his teammate, Fuehne, in both that setting and at the South Central regional meet.
Then, Scomparin flipped the script by finishing a few spots ahead of his classmate at the cross country national meet, doing exactly what was asked and expected of him for his elite team.
Like Hartman, Scomparin matched his prior ranking at the NCAA XC Championships (finishing 8th) after a backend top-10 finish a year ago. Talk about high-level precision...
7. Jan Lukas Becker, Senior, Mississippi College (+5 / 12)
What a roller coaster ride Jan Lukas Becker's senior season was.
The German native, who started his NCAA career in 2014, was strong throughout, but vacillated between fringe national title contender and All-American. What mattered most, however, was how he finished. Becker won the South Regional XC Championships before placing 7th on the national stage.
And after he produced a similar result last year (8th) with no true "poor" race this season (even if he wasn't quite as sharp), it's difficult to justify placing anyone other than the following six men ahead of him.
6. Hamza Chahid, Rs. Freshman, Wingate (Unranked)
The lead scorer and preeminent low-stick on the newly crowned national champion team, Hamza Chahid has perhaps the highest ceiling of anyone in the country, depending on your criteria.
We largely knew that heading into this season given that he ran 13:33 (5k) in his freshman track campaign earlier this year. But we hadn't learned much about Chahid throughout the fall months as he sat on the shelf until the regional stage.
Nevertheless, he showed no sign of rust as he placed 4th at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, providing the front-end result that his team needed as they went on to shock Colorado Mines.
Paired against William Amponsah and a few others in these rankings, Chahid could be a major part of a wildly entertaining individual (and team) title picture for the foreseeable future. Chahid sits at a ranking two positions back from his national meet finish, but that's only because other than men had more competitive schedules and raced more often.
5. Aspel Kiprob, Junior, East Central (+2 / 7)
As someone whose "worst" race came in a relatively low-stakes regional meet setting, you shouldn't be surprised that we hold Aspel Kiprob in such high regard.
The JUCO transfer, competing in his first season of NCAA cross country, won his first three races, all against strong competition, and concluded his debut campaign by placing 6th at the NCAA XC Championships.
Those lead-up wins included a Southern Stampede victory which featured Andrew Amor, Amos Pkiach, Jan Lukas Becker, Gidieon Kimutai, David Kibet, Cortland Ross and more.
Kiprob — now the lead scorer of a podium outfit — was an accomplished star at his best. However, it takes another level of confidence and guts to carry over that success in your first season at an entirely new and higher level of competition.
4. Andrew Amor, Senior, New Mexico Highlands (-1 / 3)
Andrew Amor made a rare jump from "All-American star" to "elite national title contender" over the past year. And truthfully, the RMAC and NCAA individual picture became all the more interesting because of him.
We had to totally reevaluate the previously unranked Cowboy ace after he won the RMAC XC Championships. And sure enough, he more than backed up that result when he placed 5th at the NCAA XC Championships.
That's an admirable late-career trajectory for someone who has finished in the top-30 at the past three cross country national meets while improving each year. Truthfully, we probably don't talk about Amor's firepower or reliability enough.
3. Matthew Storer, Rs. Sophomore, Colorado Christian (-1 / 2)
Matthew Storer is in a similar boat as Andrew Amor given his rise from top-half All-American to top-five ace over the past 12 months.
But Storer foreshadowed that leap with a huge track season in which he finished runner-up in the 5k at the outdoor national meet. Plus, he has more eligibility remaining to continue his growth and success.
Storer cemented his rise on the grass with a win at the Lewis XC Crossover, but we didn't see any results of note from him until the NCAA XC Championships after that. And once there, he validated that finish by placing 3rd overall.
This Colorado Christian ace put himself in the national title picture with his win at the Lewis XC Crossover, but it's hard to image that he's upset with a bronze medal finish in his second collegiate season on the grass.
2. Simon Kelati, Rs. Junior, Western Colorado (+2 / 4)
It feels as if there were few men more deserving of a silver medal than Simon Kelati who gradually built himself into an individual star and largely burst onto the scene with a 12th place All-American finish last fall.
He appeared far more developed as a racer this year with runner-up finishes at arguably the two most competitive Division Two meets of the season: the RMAC XC Championships and NCAA XC Championships.
Through just two races, Kelati proved that he can compete toward the front of any field and come away with a top-end result while putting himself in position for the win. If he follows a similar rate of progression over the coming year, a better finish (i.e. NCAA gold) on the national stage is possible for this upperclassman.
1. William Amponsah, Junior, West Texas A&M (0 / 1)
In hindsight, from the minute that he stepped on the grass as an NCAA athlete, William Amponsah was seemingly destined to win Division Two gold.
He took down Division One stars and won every race that he contested in the regular season. But we really got a gauge of his potential when he won the South Central regional meet over several other individual title hopefuls.
By that point, it was no surprise that Amponsah won the Division Two individual title in his first season. Not only that, but he helped his team to a podium finish. With that kind of impact and six wins in as many races, it's hard to argue anyone else is more deserving of a "Most Valuable Runner" title, let alone our TSR #1 spot.
Hamza Chahid (Wingate)
Soheil Boufrizi (Wingate)
Gidieon Kimutai (Missouri Southern)
Matthew Oglesby (Pittsburg State)
Harry Louradour (West Texas A&M)
Ricardo Barbosa (Wingate)
KICKED OFF
Sam Wilhelm (Alabama-Huntsville)
Romain Legendre (Adams State)
Caleb Futter (Grand Valley State)
Peter Kipkemboi (East Central)
Trent Cochran (Colorado Christian)
Andrew Kaye (Colorado Mines)
JUST MISSED (in no particular order)
Sam Wilhelm (Alabama-Huntsville)
Romain Legendre (Adams State)
Caleb Futter (Grand Valley State)
Peter Kipkemboi (East Central)
George Couttie (Charleston (WV))
Elias Bergman (Grand Valley State)
Awet Beraki (Adams State)
Donald Kibet (Washburn)
Koby Fraaza (Grand Valley State)
Aziz Mohamed (West Texas A&M)
Cas Kopmels (Wingate)
Brayden McLaughlin (Chico State)
Titouan Le Grix (Wingate)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)
Yonas Haile (Adams State)
Jagger Zlotoff (UC-Colorado Springs)
Andrew Oslin (Western Washington)
Brock Wooderson (Grand Valley State)
Trent Cochran (Colorado Christian)
Noah McIntyre (Illinois-Springfield)
Cal Yackin (Grand Valley State)
Reece Sharman-Newell (CSU-Pueblo)
Andrew Kaye (Colorado Mines)
Scott Nutter (Wingate)
Kevin McDermott (Western Washington)
JP Rutledge (Colorado Mines)
John O'Malley (Colorado Mines)
Andrew Hylen (Grand Valley State)
Cole Nash (Alaska Anchorage)
Daniel Hernandez (Chico State)
Juan Diego Castro (Azusa Pacific)
Berket Mesele (Christian Brothers)
Matthew Fowler (Lee (Tenn.))
Oliver Kiptoo (East Central)
Drew Atkins (NW Missouri State)
Louis Moreau (West Texas A&M)
Kyle Partin (Western Colorado)
Paul Korir (East Central)
Alexander Vance (Colorado Christian)
Mario Giannini (Chico State)
Notes
- N/A