Grace McLaughlin
Sep 11, 20237 min
Written by Grace McLaughlin, edits & additional commentary by Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On rare occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
Grand Valley State is a Division Two powerhouse program with a history of excellence and consistent top-five finishes at the cross country national meet.
We don’t envision any of that changing in 2023.
Led by Coach Jerry Baltes, the Laker men enter this fall in a good position in terms of returners and overall progression. With solid depth and a high ceiling for success, this juggernaut program should have no issues matching our expectations for them this season.
Let's get straight to the point: Grand Valley State's regular season throughout last fall was simply dominant. This team flexed fantastic firepower and their depth was plenty solid as well.
They first won the highly competitive MSU Spartan Invitational as well as the Louisville XC Classic over numerous Division One programs. In those races, Tanner Chada secured incredible individual victories. Meanwhile, Andrew Hylen and Koby Fraaza looked like low-stick talents in their own right, although it was challenging to gauge them in fields that were littered with Division One talents.
At the MSU Spartan Invitational, the Lakers' depth had never been better. However, at the Louisville XC Classic, there was a bit of a gap after Brock Wooderson who placed 26th. Scott Spaanstra closed out the team's scoring in 46th place.
We would also see GVSU produce a 3rd place finish at the quietly competitive Bradley Pink Classic. The Lakers didn't have Chada for that race, but they did field Caleb Futter who made a statement with a strong 5th place finish.
And the rest of the lineup? Well, it largely looked the same (in terms of their personnel and structure) with the exception of Samuel Martens finding his way into the team's top-five.
At the GLIAC XC Championships, Grand Valley State easily took home gold with just 28 points and by placing six men in the top-10. Chada won the individual conference title and was followed by Futter with a bronze-medal performance. Then, the pack of Wooderson, Spaanstra, Hylen and Daniel Lambert finished 7-8-9-10, in that order.
The Lakers later won the Central Regional XC Championships with a score of 58 points. Low-sticks Chada and Futter went 2-3 while the Lakers managed to put another three men in the top-20 as Martens (14th), Wooderson (19th) and Lambert (20th) all had very solid races.
Going into the national meet, GVSU looked fantastic. They had multiple low-stick talents, potentially up to three or four, and a small army that offered tremendous depth. It would take a massive day at the national meet to take down Colorado Mines, but things were only looking up for the Lakers.
Unfortunately, things didn't go exactly as planned.
Chada led the way with a fantastic runner-up finish, ending a legendary career. Behind him, Caleb Futter and Brock Wooderson also earned All-American honors with their respective 14th and 39th place finishes. That was a tremendous scoring trio which delivered on their high expectations.
However, behind them is where gaps began to form. Fraaza still had a solid day in 70th place, but he may have wanted more. As for Hylen, he rounded out the team scoring in 124th place, a clear "off" day for someone who had been a top All-American in previous seasons.
Samuel Martens (125th) and Scott Spaanstra (135th) would round out the team's top-seven. And in the end, Grand Valley State settled for a 4th place finish.
It may not have been what they wanted, but that was still a solid result for the Lakers who, as they showed, were relatively younger in the latter-half of their lineup. While they certainly had the talent to finish a spot or two higher on the podium, they couldn't match the front-end success of Colorado Mines, Wingate or Colorado Christian.
This fall, the Lakers return most of their depth, but lose their focal star, Tanner Chada. We should also note that they lose veteran depth pieces such as Ben Zaremba and Samuel Baustert who occasionally played varsity roles over their careers. The former was actually an All-American in 2019.
Without Chada, this Grand Valley State lineup will be tangibly different in 2023. After all, he was the national runner-up on the grass in each of the past two seasons and provided a unique level of reliability as a four-time cross country All-American.
Losing a superstar ace like him means that this entire squad will need to collectively improve to make up for his lost scoring. And yes, that is a very big ask.
But with the progression that the backend of GVSU's lineup has shown, coupled with the addition of some promising runners, we feel like the Lakers return a team of a similar caliber. They simply have too many avenues for success to not be podium favorites in 2023.
The Lakers' 2023 podium campaign starts with Caleb Futter — listed at TSR #8 in our preseason individual rankings — who was a strong 1B option to Chada’s 1A status last fall.
Futter is more than capable of stepping into the singular top scoring role and has just about everything that you could want in a true ace. The Laker star boasts plenty of experience, has progressed throughout the years and has proven to be relatively consistent.
Futter was 46th at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships and improved to 14th last fall. On the track, he placed 4th in the steeplechase and 14th over 5000 meters at the most recent NCAA Outdoor Championships. He was also 14th in the mile and 5th in the DMR at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
He showed improvement in every event and developed strong momentum, setting PRs of 14:01 (5k), 3:46 (1500) and 8:42 (steeple) this past spring.
Behind Futter, the Lakers will rely on veteran Andrew Hylen (TSR #22), a guy who has been a mainstay in this lineup for years. The Laker senior did not have his best race at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships, finishing 124th, but was 12th at the 2021 national meet.
Hylen, when he is at his absolute best, is a star-caliber talent and has proven to be a vital asset to this Laker program. He’s been a key scorer for Grand Valley State and brings a level of experience that is hard to find.
The elder distance talent was absent from racing this past spring, but based on his history of consistently great results, we're not too worried about his fitness heading into this season.
We then come to Brock Wooderson who took the final spot in our preseason top-25 individual rankings earlier this summer. He was a bit of a surprising name to emerge as a scorer for Grand Valley State last fall, although he turned out to be very reliable despite his youth.
And this year, we can expect him to be near the very front of their lineup.
The former redshirt rookie narrowly earned All-American honors last fall with his 39th place finish at the 2022 cross country national meet, a highly impressive race for a redshirt freshman. While he didn’t quite have the same level of success on the track, he did run 14:35 over 5000 meters and 29:27 for 10,000 meters.
Wooderson represents a worthy middle-lineup piece for a top program heading into this season, although his upside makes him a major x-factor and a highly dangerous name if he continues to improve.
Similar to Wooderson, Koby Fraaza also emerged as a top runner for the Lakers last fall as a redshirt freshman. He was further back at the cross country national meet in 70th place, but he has shown improvement on the track, displaying impressive consistency and range.
Fraaza’s progression and PRs of 3:56 (1500), 14:26 (5k) and 29:44 (10k) from this past spring indicate that he’ll be able to improve upon his performances from last fall. That, and his early-season results at the MSU Spartan Invite and the Louisville XC Classic suggested that he had All-American potential.
Samuel Martens and Scott Spaanstra also return for the Lakers. Based on their results from this past spring, both men have made strides in their fitness that should translate to the grass. And despite similar success on the cross country course last fall, these two men couldn’t be more different in terms of their strengths.
Martens is an endurance specialist who set personal bests of 14:21 (5k) and 30:14 (10k) this past spring. As for Spaanstra, he is a strength-based 800-meter runner. He finished 18th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and 13th at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the half-mile and holds an impressive PR of 1:49 in the event.
Despite being complete opposites on the oval, Martens and Spaanstra finished fairly close to each other in almost every race on the grass last fall. They are key members of the Lakers’ lineup who should only improve, although by how much is the biggest uncertainty.
We then come to Daniel Lambert who is a wildcard heading into this fall. He was absent from the 2022 NCAA XC Championships as well as the the 2023 track seasons, so we are not exactly sure what his status currently is. Nonetheless, his results on the grass last year were extremely promising.
Lambert placed 10th at the GLIAC XC Championships and 20th at the Midwest Regional XC Championships, so he certainly has the talent to be a scorer for the Lakers this season. If he is in similar form, then the Lakers’ lineup and depth will be just as strong.
But wait, there's more!
On top of their key returners, Grand Valley State adds Cal Yackin via transfer, one of the better Division Three distance talents over the last few years.
Yackin comes to Allendale, Michigan by way of Otterbein College and most recently placed 11th over 1500 meters at the D3 NCAA Outdoor Championships. He holds PRs of 3:47 (1500), 14:36 (5k) and 23:50 (8k XC) which puts him right in line with the Lakers’ backend scorers.
And yes, he has had some inconsistency on the grass at times, but placing 3rd at the Augustana Interregional Invite is a very good result which suggests that he has sneaky-strong scoring potential for later this fall.
Despite losing their top runner and managing some unknown variables, the Lakers are still a talented team with an insane amount of depth beyond their multiple lead scorers.
Every runner that factors into their 2023 lineup has progressed during their time at Grand Valley State and the team has solid momentum heading into this season.
With the history of success and overall excellence of this program under Coach Jerry Baltes, we know better than to doubt or underestimate the Lakers. But to be quite honest, we may have done just that with our TSR #4 preseason ranking.