TSR Collaboration
Apr 1613 min
Updated: Apr 17
Written by Ian Dickenson & Gavin Struve
Additional edits & commentary by Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve
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, but not strict, guide when determining eligibility.
Don't see a top name? Click here, they may be listed as a redshirt this season.
It’s difficult to parse out what all of the outstanding performances from Bryan Clay mean, but we can be sure that Felix Perrier has just confirmed that he has a national-level quality of talent after running 13:48 for 5000 meters.
Perrier was great in his 8:50 steeplechase effort at the Stanford Invitational a few weeks back, but it wasn’t anything exceptionally new from the man who ran 8:54 last year and placed 9th at the outdoor national meet in that event.
This performance, however, is clearly a sizable step forward.
Perhaps it was the combination of the home track and the unrivaled atmosphere of Bryan Clay, but we have never seen this kind of non-obstacle fitness from Perrier before and it’s incredibly encouraging. With a stacked steeplechase field this spring, it would be easy to overlook the Azusa Pacific junior, but this performance suggests that would be a serious mistake.
24. Dayton Brown, Senior, Adams State (Unranked)
Oftentimes, we laud runners for displaying consistency and reliability on the track. That, however, is not quite the case for Dayton Brown who has shown to be something of a wild card. Even so, we’ve seen him be one of the top distance runners in the nation on his best days and the 10k race at Bryan Clay was one of those days.
Running 28:35, Brown put himself at NCAA #2 and all but guaranteed a spot at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Momentum is in Dayton Brown’s favor at the moment and he'll be eager to hold onto it longer than he has in the past.
In a Division Two middle distance scene that has been dominated by the likes of Wes Ferguson, Harry Ross-Hughes, David Cardenas and (last year) Oussama El Bouchayby, it may have been easy for Drew Dailey to fall off of your radar.
However, this established and highly talented 800-meter veteran has seemingly returned to a level of racing that is more on par with his All-American potential that he has flashed throughout his career (but has yet to deliver on).
The Shippensburg standout ran 1:49 for 800 meters to open up his outdoor track season and recently posted a very quick 1:48 mark at Bucknell this past weekend. In fact, at that meet, he was less than half a second off of Harry Ross-Hughes. He also two defeated two accomplished Penn State runners in the process.
Dailey looks like he has returned to the peak levels of his fitness. And if that's the case, then he should be a very challenging athlete to race against in the men's 800 meters on the national stage.
22. Prince Mcabelo, Junior, West Texas A&M (-3 / 19)
It could be slightly puzzling to see a recent 4th-place finisher at the indoor national meet down at TSR #22, but we can’t help but be a little underwhelmed with Prince Mcabelo’s efforts at Bryan Clay. A 1:51 (800) effort is solid, but not truly reflective of Mcabelo's talent, especially considering he finished in 6th place and was way off of the win in his heat.
If it was just this one slightly poor race, we would be less inclined to drop the West Texas A&M star, but after also running 1:51 for 800 meters at the Texas Relays, it seems he’s just not in his best form at the moment. We do know that Mcabelo can peak very well at the right time and he's not too far from his prime fitness. But for now, he takes a small drop to accommodate the success of others.
21. George Couttie, Freshman, Charleston (WV) (+3 / 24)
Has not competed since our last rankings update.
20. Maxime Touron, Sophomore, NW Missouri (+5 / 25)
What Maxime Touron showed more than anything else over the last weekend was unseen strength. He ran a commendable, but not earth-shattering, 1:50.04 mark for 800 meters on Friday. He then came back on Saturday to run a personal best of 3:47 in the 1500 meters.
While that was roughly in line with his mile PR that he ran during the winter, the ability to run those times back-to-back is what really impressed us. By comparison, that Bryan Clay performance dwarfs the double that he ran at the indoor national meet when he went 4:05 (mile) and 1:53 (800) and continues to confirm that this NW Missouri sophomore is a top-level middle distance runner.
19. Titouan Le Grix, Junior, Wingate (+3 / 22)
Last weekend was another confirmation of Titouan Le Grix’s excellent range.
On the west coast, the Wingate standout ran 3:47 (1500) at the Bryan Clay Invitational to post a big PR. Granted, he did run 4:06 (mile) this past winter, and that's roughly the equivalent, but it’s still a positive performance. And don't forget, he ran a 13:49 (5k) PR at the Raleigh Relays two weeks back.
Those two races complement each other quite well and they continue Le Grix’s 2024 hot streak. After his best-ever season on the indoor track, the Wingate junior is setting himself up for another career campaign and we are especially interested to see where he fits in the landscape of this outdoor track season given his newfound strength combined with the foot speed that he continues to show in the metric mile.
18. Sam Wilhelm, Junior, Alabama-Huntsville (Unranked)
This past indoor track season marked the first time that Sam Wilhelm competed at the NCAA Indoor Championships. And now, by running 28:43 in the 10k at the Bryan Clay Invitational to complement his 13:48 (5k) from the Raleigh Relays, Wilhelm has seemingly solidified his spot for the outdoor national meet, which will also be his first appearance.
The Alabama-Huntsville junior has had a massive rise this year. Don’t count him out as a real podium threat in either long distance event at the national meet. His raw fitness seemingly allows him to thrive in fast-paced environments and he only seems to be getting better. That, on paper, is a recipe for a few potential upsets later this season.
17. James Dunne, Junior, Adams State (-1 / 16)
Has not competed since our last rankings update.
16. Albert Hesse, Sophomore, Western Colorado (-2 / 14)
Has not competed since our last rankings update.
15. Jagger Zlotoff, Rs. Sophomore, UC-Colorado Springs (0 / 15)
Jagger Zlotoff is a runner who can reliably run eight to 10 different races in a season and still be in the mix when it matters the most. And with that information in the back of your mind, his 3:45 mark over 1500 meters at the Bryan Clay Invitational was very exciting. That's nearly a two-second PR which is hard to come by for someone who’s been so solid for so long.
Zlotoff is fresh off of his best finish at any national meet, but it seems that there’s still more room for him to grow. For someone who loves to peak late, this is a fantastic place to be so early in the season.
14. Tyler Nord, Sophomore, Western Colorado (+3 / 17)
In the night of PRs that the Bryan Clay Invitational was, Tyler Nord came out with a substantial 17-second 5k personal best of 13:46. Despite having competed in six national meet races as just an underclassman, he hadn’t shown truly elite fitness in any of the long distance events on the track until now.
We’ve seen a lot of runners round-out their skillset, but this is maybe the most impactful display of improved range yet. We already know Nord has the turnover to race tactically, but adding this kind of time to his resume theoretically makes him more dangerous than he’s ever been.
13. Matthew Storer, Rs. Sophomore, Colorado Christian (-1 / 12)
We thought that Matthew Storer would start to truly show his long distance chops on the outdoor oval and it looks like that seems to be the case. He just set another PR (that makes it three in a row) this past weekend, this time in the 5k with a 13:47 effort at the Bryan Clay Invitational.
While the excellent talent at the top of this list will certainly make it difficult for Storer to capture his first national title (or deserved recognition), it should speak to his ability that it still feels like a real possibility. He is only getting better with each passing race and he has seemingly improved his understanding of competitive racing as far as nuance and tactics are concerned.
12. Ricardo Barbosa, Junior, Wingate (-4 / 8)
It's rare that an athlete moves down in our rankings while simultaneously improving their stock. But that's seemingly what happened for Ricardo Barbosa after this weekend.
The recent JUCO transfer took to the Bryan Clay Invitational and ran a personal best time of 8:40 in the 3000-meter steeplechase. He was also second-best on his own team (more on that shortly) and saw multiple other high-octane Division Two stars have successful weekends in his primary event.
Barbosa is the only D2 steeplechaser to twice run 8:42 or faster this season, but he might not even favored to earn a top-three finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in his first NCAA outdoor track season.
Of course, he could prove us wrong with how quickly he's assimilated to this level.
11. Soheil Boufrizi, Junior, Wingate (+10 / 21)
The primary reason for Ricardo Barbosa's slight demotion is the success of his teammate, Soheil Boufrizi. As such, Boufrizi is the biggest winner/riser in this week's rankings update. In short, we felt Barbosa couldn't reside above Boufrizi after losing to him head-to-head.
Plus, even in this golden age of the men's steeplechase at the D2 level, four of those event specialists in our top-10 felt like too many. All of that brings us to our actual analysis of Boufrizi who was the top D2 steeplechase finisher at Bryan Clay by a somewhat comfortable margin as he shattered his previous personal best with an 8:37 clocking.
That time put him ahead of Barbosa, Caleb Futter and D3 superstar, Christian Patzka.
Boufrizi's result at the Bryan Clay Invitational would be a nationally competitive, All-American-caliber mark on the Division One scene (or at least close to it). And more importantly, it suddenly thrusts him into the national title conversation at the D2 level.
Already a two-time "Most Improved" nominee in our End of Season Awards this academic year, Boufrizi is in line to produce something even more impressive than his 10th-place finish at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships and 5th-place 3k result from the indoor national meet.
10. Jan Lukas Becker, Senior, Mississippi College (+1 / 11)
The past couple of weeks proved to be a nice open to Jan Lukas Becker's final collegiate outdoor track campaign. A strong start was especially important after a less-than-ideal finish to his indoor track season.
Becker began the month of April with a 13:50 (5k) effort in a runner-up finish against Division One competitors. He then took to his optimal distance, the 10,000 meters, where he ran 28:40 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. That was his fastest time in over two years dating back to when he ran 28:27 at Raleigh Relays.
He has competition in the 10k (see a few names below), but Becker is still a grizzled veteran and the defending champion in an event that's more open than most others on the distance spectrum.
9. Juan Diego Castro, Junior, Azusa Pacific (0 / 9)
Has not competed since our last rankings update.
8. Harry Ross-Hughes, Sophomore, Lake Erie (+2 / 10)
Harry Ross-Hughes is in an enviable position.
No, he's admittedly not a strong national title contender or favorite like many of his top-10 contemporaries. However, he's a heavy favorite for runner-up honors over 800 meters in late May, especially now that indoor national meet silver medalist David Cardenas isn't racing.
And this sophomore could be primed to become the D2 half-mile national title favorite once all-time star Wes Ferguson graduates later this spring.
The personal best mark that Ross-Hughes ran this month actually came in the 1500 meters (4:01), but he also had a strong showing in his primary distance. Instead of taking to the Bryan Clay Invite like many other distance stars, the Lake Erie sophomore competed at the also-competitive Bucknell Bison Classic and finished runner-up in 1:48.62 (800) against a field of D1 and D2 talents.
When it comes to middle distance talents in Division Two, he's one of the more complete athletes who you are going to find.
7. William Amponsah, Junior, West Texas A&M (+6 / 13)
If not for a record-breaking effort detailed later in this article, William Amponsah may have a claim to the most impressive weekend effort of all of the men in these rankings.
The NCAA rookie emerged as one of the top collegians over 10,000 meters at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Amponsah toppled individual D1 stars from distance-centric programs like Alex Maier (Oklahoma State), Aaron Las Heras (Northern Arizona) and Devin Hart (Oregon) among others as he placed 4th overall.
Perhaps most important of all, his 28:00 mark put him 40 seconds ahead of reigning D2 10k national champion, Jan Lukas Becker, and 35 seconds ahead of Adams State's Dayton Brown. While one could argue it'd be wise to take the field over any one individual, Amponsah has to be the new 10k national title favorite...right?
6. Reece Smith, Senior, NW Missouri (-1 / 5)
Reece Smith hardly produced the nation's fastest steeplechase time this past weekend. Even so, it's hard to find too many flaws with his 8:47 effort over the barriers and water pits en route to a victory in his first race since last May.
Smith sat out the first two-thirds of this academic year and finally made his outdoor track debut well into the month of April. Now, he'll be hard-pressed to win a third-consecutive NCAA title in the 3000-meter steeplechase. That said, it's hard to argue with Smith's pedigree and he gave us no reason to move him too far from the top of our rankings.
5. Caleb Futter, Senior, Grand Valley State (-1 / 4)
An 8:42 steeplechase effort at the Bryan Clay Invite this past weekend was just off of Caleb Futter's personal best and a few seconds behind the above-listed Wingate star duo. Even so, Futter's elite range, finishing speed and history of success in that event keeps him in our top-five overall and as a national title contender over the barriers and water pits.
With that being said, we're beginning to wonder if the steeplechase is really Futter's optimal event or if he should perhaps focus on the metric mile at the outdoor national meet. After all, he won the mile national title at the NCAA Indoor Championships last month. Plus, Miguel Coca is not racing on the outdoor oval this season, so Futter (a 3:58 miler with 1:50 half-mile chops) would arguably be the favorite in that event.
4. Hamza Chahid, Sophomore, Wingate (-2 / 2)
It was a mixed weekend for Hamza Chahid at the Bryan Clay Invitational. He ran a solid 5000-meter mark of 13:40 which wasn't all too far from his personal best. And yet, that mark put him a ways back of the D2 all-time record that was produced at the same meet.
A year ago this time, Chahid may have been the first name to come to mind if you told purveyors of the Division Two scene that the outdoor 5k record would be broken. Instead, the man who achieved it ran 24 seconds faster than the Wingate ace in the same venue (different heat) and surpassed him in these rankings.
If Chahid was disappointed with his 13:40 mark, then he certainly salvaged the weekend in part with a 3:44 personal best over 1500 meters. That effort proves that he still has some of the better outright speed among 5k contenders (he was the indoor national champion in the 5k last month, after all).
It also showed us that it probably makes sense for him to contest the 1500/5k double on the national stage again despite recording a "DNF" in the latter event when doing so last year.
3. Simon Kelati, Rs. Junior, Western Colorado (0 / 3)
Aside from our TSR #1 name, Simon Kelati is the only individual among our top-eight to have his ranking unchanged. That's a good thing as the Western Colorado ace ran a 5k PR of 13:34 this past weekend, taking down Chahid in the process.
Kelati also ran a solid 1500-meter mark of 3:48 for good measure.
Last year, the Western Colorado juggernaut ran a 1500-meter PR (3:46) during his 1500/5k double at Bryan Clay before contesting the same double at the indoor national meet. Given the superstar rise that he's experienced this academic year (up to and including a huge 3k national title), this past weekend was an auspicious sign for Kelati.
2. Romain Legendre, Junior, Adams State (+4 / 6)
Despite holding two NCAA records (both over the 5k distance) from the past several months, Romain Legendre is a more unknown quantity than some of his peers among this prestigious range of our rankings.
But after a colossal 13:16 (5k) personal best and yet another NCAA D2 record (same distance, different season), we had little choice but to move the Frenchman up in our rankings.
That's especially true given how wide open (but still replete with talent) the 5k picture appears to be after Legendre ran significantly faster than national champions like Kelati and Chahid in both the 5000 meters and the metric mile (where he ran a PR of 3:41) at Bryan Clay.
1. Wes Ferguson, Rs. Senior, Nebraska-Kearney (0 / 1)
Even with a handful of impressive results from his star contemporaries, Wes Ferguson remained unchallenged for his long-held TSR #1 perch. And there's frankly not much more to say beyond that.
The Loper megastar was the top collegian (including D1 runners) over 800 meters at Bryan Clay as he posted a 1:45 mark en route to an overall runner-up finish among a slew of pros and D1 talents alike. With his greatest threat to another national title being the underclassman sitting at TSR #8, Ferguson is in the midst of an incredible encore season.
Sam Wilhelm (Alabama-Huntsville)
Dayton Brown (Adams State)
Felix Perrier (Azusa Pacific)
Drew Dailey (Shippensburg)
KICKED OFF
Josh Pierantoni (Colorado Christian)
Jared Gregoire (MSU-Moorhead)
David Cardenas (Adams State)
Kaleb Tipton (CSU-Pueblo)
JUST MISSED (in no particular order)
Josh Pierantoni (Colorado Christian)
Kaleb Tipton (CSU-Pueblo)
Jared Gregoire (MSU-Moorhead)
Ryan Hartman (Augustana (SD))
Harry Louradour (West Texas A&M)
Duncan Fuehne (Colorado Mines)
Dominic Suliman (Saginaw Valley State)
Awet Beraki (Adams State)
Mason Strader (Pittsburg State)
Josphat Meli (Harding)
Daylen Madison (Ashland)
Scott Spaanstra (Grand Valley State)
Paul Knight (Colorado Mines)
Angel Luera (Dallas Baptist)
Dillan Haviland (Northwood)
Kevin McDermott (Western Washington)
Alberto Campa (Colorado Mines)
Braxton Bruer (MSU-Moorhead)
Aziz Mohamed (West Texas A&M)
Tanner Chada (Grand Valley State)
Benjamin Sumner (Azusa Pacific)
Logan Bocovich (Colorado Mines)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)
Jacob Hatcher (Lee (Tenn.))
Jeret Gillingham (Western Washington)
Koby Fraaza (Grand Valley State)
Louis Moreau (West Texas A&M)
Dawson Gunn (Colorado Mines)
Cas Kopmels (Wingate)
Daniel Appleford (Colorado Mines)
Ramen Felumlee (Cedarville)
Warren Thiel (Charleston (WV))
Brock Drengenberg (Colorado Mines)
John O'Malley (Colorado Mines)
Nicolas Melendres (Azusa Pacific)
Ethan Lang (Fort Hays State)
Zach Van Brocklin (Nebraska-Kearney)
Lewis Cotterill (Tiffin)
Noah Bernarding (California (PA))
Patrick Lyell (Grand Valley State)
Jordan Foster (Findlay)
Enrico Oddone (West Texas A&M)
Aris Houston (Cal Poly Humboldt)
Trever Medina (Fort Hays State)
Titus Lagat (Lee (Tenn.))
Shannon Turner (Cal St. Los Angeles)
Drew Weber (Western Washington)
Jakob Rettschlag (Wingate)
Trent Cochran (Colorado Christian)
Alexander Vance (Colorado Christian)
Elliot Dotson (Anderson (SC))
Noah Fisher (Findlay)
Scott Nutter (Wingate)
Nick Melanese (San Marcos)
JP Rutledge (Colorado Mines)
Ero Doce (Stanislaus State)
Mitchel Dunham (Walsh)
Evan Horgan (Lewis)
Cortland Ross (Illinois-Springfield)
Cole Nash (Alaska Anchorage)
Kidus Begashaw (Adams State)
Emil Bezecny (Adams State)
Lars Laros (Wingate)
Grant Bradley (Fort Hays State)
Andrew Kaye (Colorado Mines)
Colton Thress (Ashland)
Nixon Korir (Azusa Pacific)
Peter Kipkemboi (East Central)
Aspel Kiprob (East Central)
Notes
- Miguel Coca (Adams State) recently ran unattached at New Mexico Spring Invite. And with him not listed on Adams State roster for this spring, we are under the impression that he will not be racing as a collegian this season. It's the same case for his teammate David Cardenas who was in the top-10 of our rankings.
- Reece Sharman-Newell (CSU-Pueblo) and Loïc Scomparin (Colorado Mines) are both listed as redshirt/unattached athletes on TFRRS. As such, they're not featured in our rankings, but would otherwise have strong cases for top-10 placements.