TSR Collaboration
Jan 24, 202310 min
Do you have an interest in writing for The Stride Report? We're looking for D1 women's writers, high school writers and potentially NAIA writers. Want to know more? Read this and send us an email at contact@thestridereport.com to let us know!
Written by Kevin Fischer & Brett Haffner
Additional edits and commentary by John Cusick & Garrett Zatlin
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 guide when determining eligibility.
Was not ranked in our last update.
First number indicates how much the athlete has moved in the rankings.
The second number indicates where the athlete was ranked in our last update.
So far this season, Jamie Moreland has thrown down a very solid 1:52.93 mark over 800 meters as well as an impressive 4:08 mile, a pair of performances which bring him into our rankings at TSR #20.
Even though he was on the outside looking in for the preseason edition of these rankings, Moreland's strong early-season form is not shocking. He was the 6th place finisher in the 1500 meters at the 2022 outdoor national meet and is coming off of a cross country season that is much improved from previous years.
Overall, this Haverford ace in a great spot for this point of the season and has the potential for this to be a big winter if he continues to improve incrementally.
Since our last update, Travis Martin won the Massasoit Classic with a flat-track 2:30 result over 1000 meters. That's a solid time, but it doesn’t necessarily tell us too much, especially since he has run 2:24 over the same distance before.
Still, this Trinity distance talents has shown us a strong mix of strength and speed this year, having run 8:11 in the 3000 meters over a month ago before we released our preseason list. And despite how you may feel about his recent 1k effort, that December-time performance is still too good for him to be kicked out of our rankings.
Martin has been an All-American in the 800 meters (indoors) and the 1500 meters (outdoors), meaning that he has the tactical acumen to capitalize on his fitness. He should be on everybody’s radar this winter.
Isaac Wegner came off a big 2022 cross country season and carried his momentum onto the oval with an excellent 8:15 (3k) mark which impressively converts to 8:09. That raw time is a 10-second improvement from his previous PR set at the WIAC Indoor Championships last year.
It's still early, but Wegner is currently at NCAA #2 on the national leaderboard behind teammate Ethan Gregg. Right now, he is light years ahead of where he has been in previous track seasons, although that isn't surprising given how he broke out in the fall. And truthfully, it seems like his improvement isn’t slowing down, either.
If he can keep up this form, then this UW-La Crosse star will almost certainly be able to move further up in our rankings. There’s good reason to believe that Wegner will also improve in both the mile and the 5000 meters this winter based strictly on his ridiculous jump in aerobic strength.
And if that's the case, then Wegner may emerge as one of the more well-rounded athletes in all of Division Three heading into the indoor national meet.
Ryan Kredell has been one of the most potent up-and-coming names of the 2022-23 academic calendar thus far and his performances on the track have only multiplied that status ten-fold. We're only approaching the end of January (we're not even fully there yet) and Kredell has already run 4:11 in the mile as well as 8:11 in the 3000 meters.
Both marks are wildly impressive coming from Kredell who recently earned his first All-American honor on the grass this past cross country season. His mile time was also an eight-second improvement from last year where he ran 4:19.
But that’s not the most impressive thing about Kredell. His 3k time was 22 seconds (!) better than his previous best which he also set last year.
Simply put, this Haverford runner is in the midst of a breakout season. His continued improvement only builds our confidence in his abilities as we move through the winter months. His rate of improvement has skyrocketed beyond our expectations which could lead to even greater heights for this still-rising veteran.
Seeing Spencer Moon’s 3:47 personal best in the 1500 meters last spring certainly points to him having some incredible range, but adding a 4:08 mile personal best to his resume only cements him as having some of the best overall versatility that Division Three has to offer.
Moon has consistently shown the potential to qualify for national meets in multiple events, and this performance only bolsters that reputation in a very positive light. He has the speed to potentially qualify for a championship final in the mile, but he can also (theoretically) utilize that speed over longer distances which may become more tactical.
But the mile isn't the only area where he has thrived. Moon has posted personal bests in two races so far this indoor track season -- and we don’t think he’s stopping any time soon. He’s run 8:15 for 3000 meters (last winter) and his times of 4:08 (mile) and 14:17 (5k) from this season suggest that he may be lowering that first PR shortly.
Whatever event Moon decides to focus on come March, he’ll be a threat to snag an All-American finish. He has the strength and endurance to be competitive in the 3k/5k and his most recent showing tells us he has the foot-speed to compete over the course of a mile.
Garrett Lenners has quietly been one of the best 800 meter runners in Division Three over the past few seasons, having earned two All-American honors in that event in 2022.
But with the way he’s started his 2023 campaign thus far -- running 1:51.32 in the 800 meters and winning convincingly at the Prairie Wolf Indoor Invitational -- Lenners’ performances don't feel so "quiet" anymore.
Having to stack up against foes from Wartburg and Loras quite often, Lenners will have an incredible breadth of competition to face off against this season. That should help push him towards that elusive sub-1:50 barrier in the 800 meters.
Lenners may not be the immediate national title favorite in the event (there's a couple guys who may be ahead of him there), but he has picked up right where he left off from last spring. If he does indeed sneak under the 1:50 barrier on the indoor oval, then he’ll join the ranks of top-tier middle distance specialists with a somewhat-legitimate chance for NCAA gold.
Sam Verkerke burst onto the scene last spring after he earned a shocking 1500 meter victory at the outdoor national meet. That trend of thrilling results, however, has not continued early-on during this indoor season.
Verkerke has gotten off to an underwhelming start this winter as he "only" ran 4:36 in his mile opener. We know what this guy is capable of when he’s at his best, so we are giving him the benefit of the doubt for the time being. He'll stays in our rankings…for now.
That mile effort could very well be a one-off performance and we simply can’t write him off as a national title contender in the mile (yet). Even so, he needs to answer some questions via stronger results before we feel confident in him for the rest of this season.
Admittedly, the beginning of Ryan Harvey’s 2023 indoor track season didn’t get off to the fastest start. However, seeing Harvey run 4:09.41 in the mile at the Larry Wieczorek Invitational was a great bounce-back that we eagerly awaited.
This still-young Loras ace has shown time and time again that his true strength lies in the 1500 meters and the mile. And sure enough, this past weekend’s performance hit that nail on the head as Harvey now sits at NCAA #6 on the national leaderboard with that mark.
With some more races under his belt, it won’t be a surprise to see Harvey slowly trickle up our rankings over the next few weeks of the winter months.
It sometimes feels like Carter Oberfoell gets overshadowed behind teammates like Mike Jasa and Ryan Harvey, but that’s merely a product of being on the best middle distance team in Division Three!
Oberfoell has run 1:51 in the 800 meters twice this winter, most recently taking 3rd place in the same race that Jasa won at the Larry Wieczorek Invitational this past weekend.
Being quite versatile, having run the open 800 meters, DMR and 4x400 relay at last year’s indoor national meet, Oberfoell is a wildly valuable component to Loras’ overall team success and he doesn't get as much recognition for it.
On paper, he may bring just as much value to the Duhawks as Jasa given his event flexibility and ability to race multiple events in one weekend.
Bennett Booth-Gente has not raced since our last update.
Matthew Lecky has not raced since our last update.
Steven Potter has not raced since our last update.
Your loyal admin Garrett Zatlin and I (Brett Haffner) both come into agreement that Cal Yackin is one of the most underrated names in Division Three on the men’s side.
His 4:09.80 mile performance, which converts to a stellar 4:06.66 mark on the national leaderboard, was the result that we’ve been waiting for from Yackin who has shown great flashes of potential over the last few years.
His All-American performances in the 1500 meters during the 2021 outdoor national meet and his 16th place finish at 2021 NCAA XC National Championships have pointed to great things for this Otterbein star. However, a sub-par 2022 campaign left him off of our radar when it came down to national meet performances.
But this Ohio-based distance talent is already turning things around in 2023 with his marks in the mile (NCAA #2) and the 3000 meters (NCAA #5) placing him inside Division Three's top-five on the national leaderboard.
Yackin faltered at the end of the cross country season, but the fitness he gained throughout the fall is showing up on the track. He did, after all, run a converted 8:12 mark over 3000 meters the other week. That gives his resume an excellent spark when paired with his recent performance in the mile.
Yackin has quickly become one of the best athletes in Division Three despite not receiving the same kind of recognition as his competitors.
Well, as we said in our preseason rankings, it felt wrong to have someone of Ethan Gregg’s caliber be sitting at TSR #12. And after running 8:09 in the 3000 meters, an unbelievable mark for someone's season opener, any doubts about Gregg’s abilities in this event have been laid to rest.
The Eagles’ star ace is only getting better and better with each season (and each race), which cements him in our minds as one of Division Three’s most elite distance runners.
Has not raced since our last update.
Opening up his season at the Karl Schlender Invitational (at home), Christian Patzka had a nice battle against former Division Three star David Fassbender in the mile. In that race, Patzka finished just behind the D3 alum, running 4:20.76.
Patzka only gets knocked down one spot due to the terrific performances of Ethan Gregg and Mike Jasa this weekend, but we know that this UW-Whitewater ace is more than capable of performing at a higher level.
He’ll have some stiff competition to face locally over the coming weeks as rivals Gregg and Isaac Wegner look like serious threats over 3000 meters and 5000 meters this indoor season.
With his recent 2022 exploits fresh in our memory, Patzka will continue to be a top challenger in Division Three’s distance races, which will become quite apparent when he faces off against familiar competition later this season.
If 2022 was just an "off" year for Mike Jasa, then 2023 is already looks like it’s heading in a great direction.
Setting a (now former) Division Three national record in the 600 meters, running 1:18.67, was a great start to this calendar year. He then returned this past weekend against strong talents from Division One and Division Two at the Larry Wieczorek Invitational, running 1:50.06 for 800 meters to earn a convincing win over the field.
Even though it’s very early in the season, Jasa is clearly on fire, and it’s been great to see some incredible highlights from the Duhawk star. It’ll be exciting to see where his season progresses from here on out as he expects to fight for a national title when March rolls around.
A win at the Little Three Invitational has been the one result that we’ve seen from Elias Lindgren in 2023 thus far, running 8:31 over 3000 meters. That time isn’t blazing fast by any means, but a win is a win, so we won’t put too much weight on that result for these rankings.
His 14:00 performance over 5000 meters will likely stick around as the fastest time in Division Three for most of the season, if not for all of it. We also haven’t seen what Lindgren could run in an all-out mile or 3k, either.
Our guess is that his times in the latter two events will be just as good as his 5k time and we’ll be anticipating a dogfight between him and Alex Philip come March.
Ryan Wilson has not raced since our last update.
Seeing Alex Phillip run 4:04 in the mile doesn’t even feel like a surprise at this point.
In fact, what was maybe even more surprising is seeing him lose a race, finishing just behind Division Two standout Zach Kreft. Even though Phillip will undoubtedly focus more on the 3000 meters and the 5000 meters moving forward, it’s still quite clear that he’s right at the top of the mile, too, even if it’s considered to be an “off event” for him.
That’s not a bad way to start the season...
Cal Yackin (Otterbein)
Carter Oberfoell (Loras)
Garrett Lenners (Nebraska Wesleyan)
Ryan Kredell (Haverford)
Jamie Moreland (Haverford)
Spencer Moon (Simpson)
Isaac Wegner (UW-La Crosse)
Nick Andrews (SUNY Geneseo)
Sam Acquaviva (MIT)
Tor Hotung-Davidsen (Lynchburg)
Grahm Tuohy-Gaydos (Williams)
Tyler Morris (Colby)
Gunner Schlender (UW-Whitewater)
Ezra Ruggles (SUNY Geneseo)
Nick Andrews (SUNY Geneseo)
Sam Llaneza (Lynchburg)
Tor Hotung-Davidsen (Lynchburg)
Ezra Ruggles (SUNY Geneseo)
Tyler Morris (Colby)
Grahm Tuohy-Gaydos (Williams)
Logan Bocovich (St. Olaf)
Sam Acquaviva (MIT)
Scott Sikorski (Rochester)
Gunner Schlender (UW-Whitewater)