TSR Collaboration
Nov 8, 202310 min
Written by Conor Daly, Kevin Fischer & Garrett Zatlin
Additional edits and commentary via Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve
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.
Seeing Lowell Hensgen snag gold at the NEWMAC XC Championships was great to see, although it's hard to pull much from that race given the lack of competition that the field held.
Even so, when you look at Hensgen's entire seasonal resume, it's hard to dislike anything about him. The MIT veteran was 4th at the Williams Purple Valley XC Invite, placed 5th at D3 Pre-Nationals and now has a conference title to his name.
Simply put, this Engineer distance talent has been consistently great this fall and after his most recent effort, that doesn't appear to be changing any time soon.
There's not a whole lot to discuss when it comes to Caleb Silver. His win at the Connecticut College Invitational was a significant step in the right direction and his 3rd place finish at the American Rivers XC Championships largely validates the idea that he's a nationally competitive name.
Admittedly, Silver has only beaten one currently-ranked name in Division Three so far this fall (Will Kelly). His performances at the Griak Invitational and Dan Huston Invite also left us wanting more in the first-half of the season.
Even so, a win at the Connecticut College Invite, no matter what way you slice it, is a wildly impressive result. And when your only losses at the conference level come to Christopher Collet and Spencer Moon, it's hard to be too critical of this Central College veteran.
Despite dropping two spots in our rankings this week, Nikhil DeNatale hasn't necessarily done anything wrong since our last update. He falls largely due to the performances of others.
A 3rd place finish at the NESCAC XC Championships is on par for this rising sophomore ace who has been excellent across the board. Defeating a name like Alec Gironda (Middlebury) deserves respect, especially when you consider how strong the Middlebury talent has been this fall.
So far this fall, DeNatale has only lost to Simon Heys, John Lucey, Cory Kennedy and Ivan Appleton, the latter of whom clearly had the best race of his season two weeks ago. With a handful of other top names falling to the Ephs' star underclassman, you could argue that we are drastically underrating the upside of Williams' secondary low-stick.
This is a tricky ranking to explain.
Nick Andrews finished 3rd at the SUNYAC XC Championships, crossing the finish line alongside teammate Austin Schoen and closely behind another teammate in William Hall.
That race doesn't give us much to analyze, but with another weekend of racing passing without anything to truly boost Andrew's stock, we felt like we had to make a correction, hence the five-spot drop.
Not much to chat about here. Connor Riss finished 3rd at the CCIW XC Championships, but that meet was dominated by North Central. There wasn't any legitimate competition outside of the Cardinal's own roster to test their top men.
After a somewhat underwhelming 10th place finish at the Augustana Interregional, it was nice to see Spencer Moon take silver at the American Rivers XC Championships. There was no shame in losing the conference title to Christopher Collet and defeating a top-20 name like Caleb Silver has to reignite his momentum.
Admittedly, Moon has had moments of (brief) inconsistency throughout the rise of his competitive career. But when he rebounds, and he almost always does, he is undeniably one of the best distance runners in all of Division Three.
With a "just okay" performance at Augustana behind him, we should remember that Moon was the 10th place finisher at the 2023 D3 NCAA XC Championships last fall. And with the ARC meet now behind him, things are only looking up for the Simpson distance star.
14. Frank Csorba, Senior, Lynchburg (+4 / 18)
An All-American on both the indoor and outdoor ovals, Frank Csorba has had some hard luck on the cross country course. But this fall, it looks like he is on a different level than where he has been in previous years.
Apart from a tough race in his season opener in mid-September, the only Division Three competition that Csorba has lost to this season has been the UW-La Crosse duo of Ethan Gregg and Issac Wegner. The competition at the ODAC XC Championships may have been slightly pedestrian, but his win there was still a good natural step towards the postseason cross country success that eluded him in 2021 and 2022.
Everything that Csorba has shown us so far this fall has been pretty impressive, and he more than belongs on this list given his ongoing reliability compared to a few others.
13. Will Kelly, Junior, St. Olaf (0 / 13)
Finishing 2nd behind Mohammed Bati at the MIAC XC Championships was not a bad result for Will Kelly who defeated Bati earlier this season. And while he certainly would have wanted the individual win, Kelly's placement paced the Oles to a comfortable conference title over Carleton.
The Oles' leading low-stick has now finished as the runner-up in three-straight meets with his losses coming to Bati, Caleb Silver (TSR #19) and Gunner Schlender (TSR #11). Despite not being able to close out wins in major meets, Kelly has still been quite impressive, putting himself in the mix at a high level.
Simply put, Kelly's been a modicum of consistency in an unsettled Division Three landscape. If he runs the same way over the next two weeks, then he will continue to plenty of success.
12. Jack Begley, Senior, U. of Chicago (+5 / 17)
Jack Begley continued his excellent campaign by most recently taking the UAA individual title. In his previous two seasons when he was at Case Western, he finished 5th and 8th at the UAA XC Championships.
The national qualifier on the track was already a solid talent entering this season, but he is showing a different level of prowess on the grass than ever before.
Judging by his form, Begley is in a great position to challenge for the Midwest Regional XC Championships title this weekend. And if he does that, then where in our national D3 hierarchy does Begley truly belong? In that scenario, you could argue that this always-reliable distance ace could crack the top-10.
11. Gunner Schlender, Junior, UW-Whitewater (-4 / 7)
It wasn’t the greatest day for Gunner Schlender at the WIAC XC Championships as he let three UW-La Crosse men cross the finish line before him en route to an underwhelming 5th place finish.
And yet, I think most in-tune D3 distance running fans would know that the UW-Whitewater standout is capable of so much more.
Outside of his conference meet, Schlender has recorded some strong results so far this season, and we don’t want to judge him too harshly based on one meet. He's proven to be one of the top talents in the country when he’s at his best and you don’t need to look too far back at his track record to see that.
10. Isaac Wegner, Senior, UW-La Crosse (0 / 10)
Isaac Wegner finished 4th at the WIAC XC Championships, taking a quality win over our TSR #11 runner, Gunner Schlender, but also losing to unranked teammate Grant Matthai.
That wasn’t a bad result even if it didn’t wow us. In the context of a team battle at a championship meet, it largely didn’t matter that Wegner lost to Matthai, so it doesn’t concern us much, if at all, when it comes to these individual rankings. Plus, Wegner's Eagles snagged the conference title in convincing fashion over their rival Warhawks.
Ultimately, Wegner stays in our top-10 because his extensive body of work simply shows that he is a top-10 talent.
9. Mohammed Bati, Sophomore, Augsburg (+11 / 20)
For a while, Mohammed Bati wasn’t super high on our radar, but his recent results have been too good to ignore. He was similarly strong leading up to the cross country national meet in 2022, but this looks like a more experienced and evolved version of that distance star.
The only person Bati who has faced who he hasn’t beaten at least once this season is our TSR #1 runner, Christian Patzka. He also has losses to Gunner Schlender and Will Kelly, but he has wins over those two as well.
Bati's win at the MIAC XC Championships over Will Kelly was huge in terms of confirming his status as one of the top distance runners in the country. His form at this point in his career is the best that it has ever been. And if he continues to rise, then where could he end his season in our rankings?
8. Christopher Collet, Senior, Wartburg (+1 / 9)
After a rough day, by the standards of his own resume, at the Augustana Interregional (8th), Christopher Collet bounced back in a big way by winning the American Rivers Conference title over Spencer Moon (TSR #15) and Caleb Silver (TSR #19).
That result was big for Collet's confidence going into the next couple of weeks. A tough test awaits at the Midwest Regional XC Championships as Collet will face-off against a field that features a total of six men who are in our top-20, all of whom it wouldn’t shock us to see win the individual title.
If Collet can emerge with the win there, then that will set him up nicely for success heading into the national meet. Based purely on Natural talent, you could argue that he may be the favorite, but a win would still boost his resume significantly depending on how much stock you put into the regional meets.
7. Max Svienty, Senior, North Central (+1 / 8)
Not only is Max Svienty having the fall campaign that his elite track times suggested that he was capable of, but he's also doing so with greater consistency than we have ever seen from him in the past (knock on wood).
At the CCIW XC Championships, Svienty was the runner-up finisher behind only teammate Braden Nicholson. Admittedly, this race was a breeze for the Cardinals, but it's his collective resume from this entire season that has been void of flaws.
Between his performances at the Augustana Interregional and Louisville XC Classic, Svienty has built himself a resume that sets him up for success in the coming weeks. If he continues to run like the seventh-best runner in Division Three, then the chances of North Central winning the national title skyrocket.
6. James Settles, Senior, Colorado College (0 / 6)
James Settles unsurprisingly took home the SCAC individual title the other week, out-running teammate Devlin Swanson for gold.
The Augustana Interregional meet, where he was runner-up to Christian Patzka by a second, remains Settles’ only real test to date. That outing, however, was so wildly impressive that we’re going to keep him where that performance indicated that he is.
After all, he's given us no reason to doubt his fitness in recent months.
5. Cory Kennedy, Junior, RPI (0 / 5)
In his third race of the season, Cory Kennedy won the Liberty League title. We may have expected him to run away from his non-RPI opponents by a good margin, but he only won by four seconds.
Nevertheless, Kennedy got the job done and leaves us with no reason to think that he's in any worse form than what he showed us en route to snagging bronze at D3 Pre-Nationals. He entered this season with a really high floor — probably as a top-10ish individual at worst — and and has seemingly lifted that baseline even higher.
4. John Lucey, Junior, Williams (0 / 4)
This Williams ace continued to lead the way for the Ephs in taking a win at the NESCAC XC Championships. Although we may have expected teammate Nikhil DeNetale to give John Lucey a challenge of sorts, the latter star pulled away fairly comfortably.
Lucey will face a much greater test when we see him go against Cory Kennedy this weekend at the Mideast Regional XC Championships after defeating him by roughly five seconds at D3 Pre-Nationals. Both men will likely be hungry for the kind of momentum that a competitive regional title would afford them entering the season's final meet.
Even so, it's hard to find any reason to dislike this Williams standout. He was great last fall, but he's been excellent in 2023. It wouldn't surprise us if he ends his season with NCAA bronze.
3. Simon Heys, Senior, Wilmington (OH) (0 / 3)
Simon Heys came through with one of the most predictable results of conference weekend: a win at the Ohio Athletic Conference XC Championships. He wasn’t particularly challenged, winning comfortably over some solid individuals from John Carroll.
Other than his resume-defining win at D3 Pre-Nationals, which was very impressive, Heys hasn’t been challenged much against Division Three competition. We will see in a few short weeks whether his comparatively modest racing schedule pays off and leaves him fresher for the cross country national meet than his peers.
2. Ethan Gregg, Senior, UW-La Crosse (0 / 2)
1. Christian Patzka, Junior, UW-Whitewater (0 / 1)
You can’t talk about one without discussing the other. Christian Patzka and Ethan Gregg are the clear top tandem of Division Three individuals and we recently got to watch them go head-to-head at the WIAC XC Championships.
The race was tight even into the latter stages as the duo battled for every crucial team point that they could. Ultimately, it was Patzka who came out on top by a mere four seconds, pulling away from Gregg in the final kilometer.
This isn’t the type of result that indicates a significant difference in fitness between the two. You’re really splitting hairs when these men toe the line. Luckily, for our entertainment (and perhaps unfortunately for them), we’re going to get to see them go head-to-head twice more over the next two weeks at the North Regional XC Championship and then the cross country national meet.
Well, that is, if they each decide to give an all-out effort at the North regional meet.
Regardless of what happens in their next meeting, we can continue to expect to see both men employing their typical race strategies that play to their strengths on the national stage. Gregg is a "go to the front and drop everyone from the gun" type of runner whereas Patzka tends to just try to maintain contact with Gregg and deliver a late surge. At the end of the day, the individual national title figures to go through these two Badger State men.
Lowell Hensgen (MIT)
KICKED OFF
Sam Acquaviva (MIT)
JUST MISSED (in no particular order)
Sam Acquaviva (MIT)
Emmanuel Leblond (Johns Hopkins)
Lucas Florsheim (Pomona-Pitzer)
Enrique Salazar (Manchester)
Braden Nicholson (North Central)
Andrew Guimond (North Central)
Vince Simonetti (RPI)
Matthew Porter (Carnegie Mellon)
Miles Takiguchi (Vassar)
Grant Matthai (UW-La Crosse)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)
Derek Fearon (Pomona-Pitzer)
Henry Hardart (MIT)
Bradshaw Lathbury (Berry)
Gavin McElhennon (Johns Hopkins)
Charles Namiot (Williams)
Peter Weiss (George Fox)
TK Berhe (La Verne)
Chasen Hunt (Lynchburg)
Matthew Coyle (Carnegie Mellon)
Nicholas Lyndaker (St. Lawrence)
Ivan Appleton (Tufts)
Cullen Capuano (Washington U.)
Rohun Agrawal (Caltech)
Vedang Lad (MIT)
Jeff Joseph (Mount Union)
Ethan Domitrovich (John Carroll)
Anthony Rodriguez (Babson)
Notes
- N/A