2022 D2 Indoor Top 25 Rankings (Men): Update #2

John Cusick
Feb 8, 2022
17 min read

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.

KEY

(Unranked):

Was not ranked in our last update.

(#/#):

First number indicates how much the individual has moved in the rankings.

The second number indicates where they were ranked in our last update.

25. Kyle Moran, Junior, Colorado Mines (-1 / 24)

Moran finally opened his 2022 indoor track season, and his season debut took place at the Steinhauer Fieldhouse, a facility known for its friendly conversions. The Oredigger junior finished 4th in the 3000 meters this past Friday, clocking a time of 8:25.26.

After the math was all said and done, Moran’s time landed him at NCAA #9 on the 3000 meter national leaderboard with a time of 8:00.96.

Is it a friendly conversion? Yes.

Does it warrant omitting Moran from our rankings? Absolutely not.

Moran has proven that’s he a legitimate All-American threat in the 3000 meters and up. His past experience and personal best of 13:56 for 5000 meters tells us that this past weekend, and all other future conversions, aren't flukes.

And for what it’s worth, this time was slower than his time last season, and he ran that 5k personal best just six weeks later.

24. Charlie Dannatt, Junior, Simon Fraser (-4 / 20)

Dannatt has not raced since our last update.

23. Luke Julian, Colorado Mines (-11 / 22)

It was the debut of the Colorado Mines distance program on the indoor track this past weekend and it was rather odd to check the start lists and see Julian lined up to compete in the 800 meters. What’s even more peculiar is that the mile ace clocked a time of 1:56 for the half-mile distance.

It’s a personal best, but that’s because he’s only ever contested the 800 meters once.

It is worth noting that Julian is a tall human being, and the tight turns in Steinhauer certainly do not play to his strengths. Julian was also on the DMR team the night before where he anchored home his relay to 3rd place finish and a time of 10:14, now good enough for an NCAA #7 on the national leaderboard.

We are two weeks into February and so far, Julian hasn’t really shown us what kind of shape he is in. Expect that to change when they travel to Washburn for the Ichabod Invitational.

22. CarLee Stimpfel, Junior, Saginaw Valley State (-10 / 12)

Prior to our last rankings update, we had not seen Stimpfel race on the track since he ran a 5k immediately after finishing 3rd at the NCAA XC Championships.

That changed over the last two weeks, although his latest performance wasn’t something that made us feel any better about his ability to compete for a national title in an event shorter than the 5000 meters.

Stimpfel clocked a time of 8:07 for 3000 meters and that’s good for an NCAA #15 spot on the national leaderboard this season. He falls as many spots as he does in our rankings for a couple of reasons.

First, there were tons of good performances from other athletes across the country. Second, I think it’s safe to say that everyone expected him to run closer to that 8:00 mark after his fall season.

His 14:17 mark from December is still good enough for the NCAA #10 spot on the national leaderboard in the 5000 meters right now, but that result isn't truly indicative of his actual talent.

Stimpfel, after all, owns a personal best of 13:45 and we’d be lying if we said that we didn’t expect more from him at the GVSU Holiday Open back in December.

Regardless, Stimpfel is too talented, too accomplished and was on too much of a hot streak last fall to be immediately ousted from our current rankings. We'll see what the latter-half of the season has in store for him.

21. Ahmed Sado, Sophomore, Adams State (+1 / 22)

Has not raced since our last update.

20. Jake Mitchem, Sophomore, Colorado Mines (+1 / 21)

Mitchem was part of the Colorado Mines brigade that ran in the 8:20s for 3000 meters this past weekend. Mitchem placed 2nd in that race, running a true time of 8:22.56. After the conversion, he received a comfortable mark 7:59.34, good for NCAA #6 on the national leaderboard.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to see Mitchem run well when asked to do so. He is coming off his best calendar year of training and racing and appears to be ready to do the same thing in 2022.

Expect Mitchem to knock some time off of his 8:17 best in the near future. It also wouldn’t surprise us to see him run a 5k where things might mesh a bit better with his speed and endurance.

If he does indeed run a 5k, he’ll only be solidified as a legitimate dual threat All-American talent, like Colorado Mines runners are, when the indoor national meet rolls around.

19. Terrell Patterson, Senior, Southern Connecticut State (Unranked)

Patterson is new to our rankings entirely and if you haven’t heard of him, then you're probably on par with the rest of the country.

Patterson most recently turned heads when he ran 1:50.31 for 800 meters at Boston University this past weekend. That’s good for NCAA #5 on the national leaderboard and it's the fourth-fastest raw time this season. Couple that result with his NCAA #15 time in the mile (4:06.27), as well as an 8:14 mark for 3000 meters, and you’ve got potent range.

Patterson's 1:50 result certainly tells us that he’s got the leg speed to contend with any fast and tight finishes in championship settings. Meanwhile, his 3k mark, while not anything amazing, is still a really good baseline for how fast Patterson can potentially run. It also offers a level of stamina that is rare in 800 meter runner as fast as him.

You will likely see Patterson run another mile here soon, and when he does, it could be faster than 4:06. Between his 800 meter and 3000 meter marks, he's due for something pretty special.

With the 800 seeming to be a bit watered down this season, at least as we near mid-February, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if we're talking about Patterson being a dark horse title candidate when the indoor national meet rolls around.

For all we know, he might join the sub-1:50 club in the coming weeks and become one of our main talking points heading into the weekend.

18. Dennis Mbuta, Senior, Grand Valley State (-13 / 5)

We were hoping to see big names debut over the last weeks and we were also hoping to see strong times next to those big names. That, however, was not the case this time around with Dennis Mbuta.

The reigning indoor champion in the 800 meters debuted at the GVSU Bill Clinger Classic the other weekend and ran 1:51.85. That’s the NCAA #23 time on the national leaderboard, and while it’s certainly not terrible, it’s not quite where we expected Mbuta to be.

Normally, there would be no concern for an opener like this. However, now that we are nearly two weeks into February, and this is the only time that we’ve seen Mbuta race, it does leave us a little unsettled about his postseason endeavors.

17. Callum Elson, Senior, American International (Unranked)

Elson has quietly put together a really strong resume. After a strong fall season which ended in All-American honors, the graduate transfer clipped off a quietly strong mark of 14:11 for 5000 meters. That time still stands inside the top-10 of the national leaderboard this season.

Fast forward to mid-January and Elson also ran a time of 4:06 in the mile, currently ranking him at NCAA #16 in the country for that event. Elson capped off his two months of great racing with a 3000 meter time of 8:02, a mark that also placed him inside the top-10 of the national leaderboard.

Only time will tell in regards to how Elson fares in championship-style races as we're still learning more about him with each passing week. However, one thing we do know is that he can fight for an All-American spot and can do so with relative ease.

He has very good range and running 8:02 suggests that Elson is even faster in the 5000 meters than his 14:11 time suggests. Don’t be surprised if Elson takes another crack at a fast 5k in the coming weeks.

16. David Cardenas, Sophomore, Adams State (Unranked)

Cardenas is currently ranked inside the top-10 for both the 800 and the mile. He is currently the only athlete who can say that about himself. Now, it probably needs to be taken with a grain of salt as his 800 meter time is converted down to 1:50 from an original mark of 1:53.

But what does feel legitimate is Cardenas’ mile from the New Mexico Team Open where he ran 4:07 and later saw his time convert down to 4:01, good enough for NCAA #7 on the national leaderboard.

That 4:07 mark was good enough for an outright personal best and it's a clear indicator that Cardenas has begun making a leap up in fitness that many expected him to do when he signed with Adams State.

Cardenas also helped the Adams State men earn an NCAA #10 mark in the DMR where he served as the 800 meter leg the night prior to his open mile. It will be interesting to see which events Cardenas focuses on in the next couple of weeks, but whichever open event he chooses, he’s got the potential to snag an All-American spot in it.

15. Titus Lagat, Freshman, Lee (Tenn.) (-1 / 14)

Lagat helped the Lee Flames' distance medley relay to a converted mark of 9:43 and the NCAA #3 time in the country. He later recorded a DNF result in the 800 meters at Camel City which is disappointing given that he was in the elite section.

He really only falls because of other performances. Nothing about this past weekend has us majorly concerned with how Lagat will compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

14. Dylan Ko, Senior, Colorado Mines (+2 / 16)

Ko is the penultimate Oredigger harrier who we have to talk about in our rankings. He finished 2nd at the Mines Winter Classic (only to teammate Dillon Powell) running 8:23.53 for 3000 meters. The conversion sets his time at 8:00.27 which places him at NCAA #7 mark on the national leaderboard this season.

There’s not a whole lot to talk about with Ko. We’ve seen Ko run well at altitude before and we have seen him run well at sea-level. He’s run 8:05 (3k) and 13:50 (5k), so his credentials check out. We should expect another fast effort from him this weekend when the team heads to Kansas.

13. Tony Torres, Rs. Junior, Colorado Mesa (-6 / 7)

Torres has likely been chomping at the bit to get back to racing since the end of his 2021 fall season. Well he finally debuted, and he debuted at Western Colorado State University where he ran 4:18 for the mile at heavy altitude and on a flat-track.

After the conversion, he owns a mark of 4:03 in the mile this season, a time good enough for the NCAA #8 spot on the national leaderboard.

That was a good showing for the indoor runner-up in this event and he likely qualified himself for the NCAA meet in March. We would love to see him dip down to sea level and rip a fast mile to solidify his ranking, but there’s no doubt that Torres is still one of the better milers in the country.

His experience, poise and understanding of how other elite talents race makes Torres a scary-good name to watch in the postseason.

Something worth watching is if Torres decides to move up in distance. He was extremely fit during the fall before illness derailed the end of his cross country season. He could move to the 3000 meters as his 8:38 personal best doesn’t match up with the rest of his resume.

If he does indeed throw down a solid time in the 3k, he’ll begin to rise in our rankings once again.

12. Ezra Mutai, Sophomore, American International (-2 / 10)

This season, we had seen Mutai race his "off" events as he contested the 800 meters and then followed that up with a mile effort. Both of his results are good for top-32 marks in the NCAA, but that’s not what we were expecting Mutai to excel at.

In fact, we were expecting him to excel in the event that we saw him run in Boston two weekends ago. In the 3000 meters, Mutai clocked a personal best of 7:58 and became one of the few men who have broken 8:00 in the history of D2 (the third addition just this year).

While doing that, he also solidified himself as a threat to take home the 3000 meter title.

There was concern that Mutai’s best events would be centric to the 5000 meters and 10,000 meters, so it’s good to see him put together a really strong 3000 meter result and show some respectable turnover.

And yes, we know we're dropping him in our rankings, but the sudden rise of elite stars, the season debut of established veterans and the increasing level of competitiveness in the 3000 meters has forced us to push Mutai back in our rankings.

It will be interesting to see how Mutai continues to race, especially in the postseason. A sit-and-kick affair would still not benefit him, but he has clearly worked on his turnover this winter.

All of that is to say this: Mutai will factor into a 5000 meter race of any kind and of any fashion. He’s proven that he can run fast and he’s clearly been working on his foot speed. With a plenty more time to further develop that speed, he could be a problem in the postseason more so than he already was.

11. Dillon Powell, Sophomore, Colorado Mines (+4 / 15)

Let’s start with this: It’s great news to see Powell’s name on start lists and in the results once again. He had a rough finish to the 2021 cross country season, but it appears he has regained his form and hasn’t skipped a beat given his result from this past weekend.

Powell won the Mines Winter Classic this past weekend, running 8:20.03 for 3000 meters and eventually saw himself get a converted mark of 7:56.93, the current NCAA #3 time on the national leaderboard.

Again, this isn’t much surprise for Powell, or any of the Colorado Mines athletes for that matter. This is pretty standard for them.

One thing we would like to see from Powell is for him run fast at sea level. He’s run 8:12 for 3000 meters and 14:11 for 5000 meters. We know he's capable of producing top-tier times at sea level as his results on the grass suggest that he can.

10. Titus Winders, Junior, Southern Indiana (Unranked)

It is good to see Winders back and running to the caliber that was expected of him after his strong finish at the 2019 NCAA XC Championships. Obviously, 2020 was a rocky year for all involved, but Winders didn’t seem to get on track until the spring of 2021.

This year, however, Winders has quietly put together one of the best early-season resumes in the country. He ran 4:04 for the mile a couple of weeks back and that was the first time he’s ever contested that event!

Winders then followed up that performance this past weekend with a very strong 5k effort of 13:56, a result that gave him the win at the Meyo Invitational over a couple of talented D1 names.

That 13:56 mark is just a couple of ticks off of his personal best (13:54) and it’s a really good sign after a disappointing end to the cross country season.

Winders is also someone who we kind of grouped into the "can’t kick" portion of runners. However, that take might be worth reconsidering after his mile outing. We'll watch out for that.

Even so, what will really solidify his ability to contend in the postseason is running a fast 3000 meter time. He ran a mark of 8:08 for the distance back in 2020, but he wasn’t in the kind of shape that he is now.

Based on his current fitness and recent results, the 3000 meters could be Winders' home run event this season. And honestly, he could be one of the scarier contestants in that event nationally if that's what he chooses at the indoor national meet.

9. Wes Ferguson, Rs. Sophomore, Nebraska Kearney (+4 / 13)

We’re not sure if there is a better feeling than breaking the D2 record for 1000 meters, but if Ferguson’s season continues to trend the way that it is, then we could very well be talking about a newly-minted 800 meter national champ.

Ferguson followed up his all-time performance with a victory at the Frank Sevigne Invitational this past weekend. The win included dipping under the 1:50 barrier for the first time in his career.

In doing so, he now sits at NCAA #3 on the national leaderboard. Ferguson was listed at NCAA #7 for this event during the 2021 indoor track season, but he’s clearly showing us that he has leveled up since then.

A handful of athletes have broken 1:50 since 2019 and all have been serious title contenders when they entered the NCAA meet. There’s no reason why Ferguson can't be part of that group moving forward.

We're partially curious to see what Ferguson could run for a mile, but that would all be for show after seeing how good Ferguson has been in the 1000 meters and the 800 meters.

8. Clement Paillon, Junior, American International (Unranked)

Paillon enters our rankings for the first time after a stunning 1:48.47 mark for 800 meters that he threw down at the John Thomas Terrier Classic two weekends ago. That’s nearly a full second better than his previous personal best, a time which he set at the 2021 NE-10 Championships (1:49.51).

Add in the fact that his 1000 meter personal best is 2:26, and we’ve got ourselves a very talented middle distance athlete.

Paillon's current 800 meter time is a full second better than anyone else’s on the national leaderboard and that includes reigning outdoor national champion, Butare Rugenerwa.

Paillon was also the 800 meter leg of the Yellow Jackets' DMR team. They just set the new D2 record in that event with Paillon splitting 1:48.00 in the process. That split gives us even more evidence that Paillon has reached a new level of fitness this winter.

Few middle distance talents at the D2 level are as consistent as Paillon. He never has a bad race and was actually an All-American in this event last spring. He is easily one of the nation's most reliable half-milers.

Even so, we've never seen Paillon at this level before, so to be on the more cautious side, we're ranking him just outside of our top-five as we aim to see if he can put together another star-caliber performance.

7. Ryan Riddle, Junior, Missouri Southern (+2 / 9)

Fresh off of his brand new time of 7:58 for 3000 meters, Riddle wasted no time in securing a spot to the indoor national meet in his second event. A few weekends ago, Riddle traveled to Pittsburg State and took home a three-second victory over underrated mile talent Mason Strader. Riddle ran 4:01.59 in the process.

That mark is the sixth-fastest time this season, and the fourth-fastest time before altitude conversions.

Riddle doesn’t need justification in terms of how fast he’s run, he just needs justification when it comes to how he approaches a championship-style race.

It’s clear that Riddle will be a factor at this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships, and he will likely be a title contender in both the mile and the 3000 meters. Of course, actually coming through and becoming a gold-medal winner isn't exactly easy.

Last year, Riddle seemed to get lost during the mile final before salvaging a good result and finishing 3rd overall. Then, during the outdoor season, he opted to solely run the 5000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships before he faltered to place 12th overall.

It appears that Riddle's tactics have gotten better over the course of a year, and if Riddle truly wants to be a contender in both events, then he will need to be sure he can cover any move thrown his way.

And on paper, he's someone who actually do that.

6. Butare Rugenerwa, Junior, West Texas A&M (+2 / 8)

We hadn’t seen Rugenerwa race since his thrilling victory over Grand Valley State’s Dennis Mbuta during the outdoor national meet last May. It’s safe to say that his efforts at last weekend’s Texas Tech Open has reminded everyone why he’s the 800 meter title favorite coming into this season.

Rugenerwa began his indoor 800 meter campaign for this season with a very impressive mark of 1:49.69. That time currently sits as the NCAA #2 mark on the national leaderboard.

Right now, the 800 meters is Rugenerwa’s race to lose. He came close to winning gold last winter (emerging as the 3rd place finisher) and checked all of the boxes during the outdoor season to take home the national title.

With Mbuta not impressing us early-on, this West Texas athlete stands at the forefront of our 800 meter runners. It will take a dedicated effort to take him down come March.

5. Tanner Chada, Junior, Grand Valley State (-1 / 4)

Hasn’t raced since our last update.

4. Carson Bix, Senior, Lee (Tenn.) (+2 / 6)

We harped on how fast Bix ran the mile during our last set of rankings and hopefully that has changed the tune of how some view Bix as we see him move up yet another two spots in our rankings this time around.

Bix is coming fresh off of a 3000 meter effort where he 8:00.68 at Camel City Elite. After the flat-track conversion, he secured the NCAA #2 time on the national leaderboard with a mark 7:55.16!

We thought there might be some kind of plateau for Bix this winter as he switched coaches fresh off of the best cross country season of his career, but that’s clearly not the case. Bix currently holds three(!) top-five marks on the national leaderboard from the mile, to the 3000 meters, to the 5000 meters...and that was all done in just four weeks!

And for good measure, Bix was the 1200 meter leg on the Flames’ distance medley relay this past weekend which currently sits at NCAA #3 on the national leaderboard behind American International and Simon Fraser.

Bix has hinted that he’d like to take another shot at breaking the 4:00 barrier, and if he does indeed break that barrier, then him and teammate Christian Noble would become the first pair of teammates in D2 history to break 4:00 in the same year AND the first pair of teammates to break 4:00 ever.

There aren't many men at the D2 level who are as versatile and as elite as Bix. He's a true distance running weapon in every event he toes the line for.

3. Christian Noble, Senior, Lee (Tenn.) (-1 / 2)

Speaking of Christian Noble, he was also part of that DMR team that ran 9:51 at Camel City. He ran the mile portion and by the looks of the results, was essentially time-trialing his leg. Give him some competition, and it’s likely that the Flames would have earned a conversion that was just as fast as American International and Simon Fraser.

Of course, Noble did run more than the DMR at Camel City as he also participated in the 3000 meters. He didn’t run faster than his teammate Bix, but his 8:06 mark still converts down to 8:00 and will secure him a spot to the national meet where he'll defend his title.

Noble no longer needs a time in any event to qualify for the NCAA meet. He has his options of running the DMR and adding on to that. If we were to guess, Noble's national meet schedule will look something like the DMR, the mile and the 3000 as the events he chooses.

It’s been made pretty clear that the Flames are all-in on the DMR and that nearly guarantees that Noble won’t pick the 5k due to the time crunch between the events on day one.

Of course, make no mistake, this is your reigning 5k/3k champion. He has all of the ability in the world to win that double again if he so chooses. He only slips a spot this week because of some all-time performances from another athlete.

2. Isaac Harding, Senior, Grand Valley State (-1 / 1)

Hasn’t raced since our last update.

1. Aaron Ahl, Junior, Simon Fraser (+2 / 3)

It’s February folks, and guess what? Aaron Ahl is listed at TSR #1 in our rankings.

And right now, it’s not even that close.

After running an incredible mark of 7:53 for 3000 meters, Ahl followed up that performance with a ridiculous weekend at Boston University, splitting 3:58 on Simon Fraser’s DMR, leading them to an NCAA #2 mark of 9:38. They placed 2nd behind American International.

Then, two days later, Ahl ran 3:57.95 in the mile, placing 5th overall behind three professional runners and D3 superstar Aidan Ryan.

In the history of D2, there’s only been one man to run sub-4:00 twice in their career and that was Kip Cheruiyot back in 1986 and 1987. While it’s not "official" for record books sake, Ahl did that in the span of 48 hours when you factor-in his DMR split.

Ahl has seemingly skipped a level since he was last on the indoor track. Prior to this season, his personal bests were 4:06 (1600) and 9:02 (steeple). He had never run an indoor 3000 meter race before and while his 3:42 mark for 1500 meters signaled that he was in 4:00 shape, no one thought Ahl would take this big of a leap...

...well, not until this past summer when he ran 1:48 for 800 meters and 3:38 for 1500 meters.

This Simon Fraser veteran is the clear front-runner to win the national title in the mile and/or the 3000 meters. He’s also a huge part of that Simon Fraser DMR which ran the NCAA #2 time in the country.

We should get a better idea of what Ahl wants to race at the indoor national meet after the GNAC Championships. However, our expectation of what we will see him enter is the same as what we except from Noble: the DMR, the mile and the 3000 meters.

If that’s the case, then get your popcorn ready, because there will be some high-level racing in Pittsburg, Kansas and it’s going to end with some fireworks.