2022 D2 Indoor Top 25 Rankings (Men): Update #3

John Cusick
Feb 22, 2022
20 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.

NOTE: The GNAC Indoor Championships, which begin today, are not factored into this week's rankings update. They will, however, be factored into our next update.

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. Terrell Patterson, Senior, So. Connecticut State (-6 / 19)

Since our last update, Southern Connecticut State's Terrell Patterson has shown us that he should be considered as a serious All-American threat in the mile. He only falls in our rankings because performances from others over these last two weeks were unreal.

We thought that Patterson was in better shape than his 4:06 mile suggested and he certainly proved that theory correct. At the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, we saw Patterson split 4:01 on the anchor leg for the Southern Connecticut State's DMR, leading them to an NCAA #7 mark.

He then came back the next day to set a new personal best of 4:04.47, good enough for a top-15 mark in the event as well as what’s likely to be a national qualifying mark. However, the most impressive aspect of that mile race was Patterson doubling back as strong as he did.

The biggest uncertainty, however, is how he will handle potentially three races (including prelims) in 48 hours come March.

With the NE-10 Championships coming up this weekend, we should get a small glimpse into what his future may look like. That will also be a potential venue where he battles the American International men for conference gold.

24. Dennis Mbuta, Senior, Grand Valley State (-6 / 18)

The reigning indoor national champion in the 800 meters drops again this week after a lackluster showing at the annual GVSU "Big Meet". The good news is that Mbuta improved his spot from outside the top-30, all the way up to NCAA #17 on the national leaderboard in the 800 meters.

The bad news is that Mbuta hasn’t really shown us the same kind of fitness that we saw last year. He did, however, double back the next day to run in the 800 meter portion of Grand Valley State’s DMR team which currently ranks the Lakers at NCAA #9.

There’s a serious concern over whether or not Mbuta makes the national meet with that 800 meter time, so expect to see him try and run another fast mark at the GLIAC Indoor Championships.

If Mbuta is at the NCAA meet, then he’s a major threat, don’t get that wrong. However, you have to actually qualify for the national meet first and right now, that is far from a given for for the GVSU superstar.

23. David Cardenas, Sophomore, Adams State (-7 / 16)

Cardenas’ stock took a minor tumble over the last two weeks after his performance at the Husky Classic, as well as others performing extremely well – mainly the latter.

Cardenas opted for the 800 meters while in Seattle where he clocked a time of 1:51.89.

Now, on paper, that mark isn't necessarily a national qualifying performance that turn heads in a major way. Don't get us wrong, it was a fairly solid race, but it didn't really change our perspective of Cardenas in any meaningful way.

However, when you dig a bit deeper it, the effort IS a good indication of where Cardenas may be headed. That is the fastest 800 meter time he’s ever run during an indoor season and it is three seconds ahead of where he was at this point last year.

We didn’t see any other races from him over that weekend, but it’s more than likely that Cardenas will show up in Adam State’s DMR at the RMAC Indoor Championships while also racing the 800 metes or the mile.

We’d guess that he'll take another crack at the 800 meters as he is currently ranked at NCAA #18 on the national leaderboard with his mile time (NCAA #10) almost certainly securing him a bid to the indoor national meet as of right now.

22. Titus Lagat, Freshman, Lee (Tenn.) (-7 / 15)

The Gulf South Indoor Championships were this past weekend and Lagat was part of three runner-up honors which helped secure a team title for the Lee Flames.

Lagat finished 2nd in the 800 meters with a time of 1:53.24 and aided his 4x400 team to a 2nd place finish as well. He was also on the DMR team (the 800 meter leg) which earned a runner-up.

There’s not a whole lot to decipher from that DMR effort as the Flames; didn’t run their strongest lineup.

If there’s anything that causes us to be concerned, it’s that Lagat finished 2nd in the open 800 meters in a conference where he was clearly above everyone else in terms of talent.

Even so, Lagat is still a key component to the Flames’ DMR team at the national meet and is still a viable All-American threat. He’ll get an important two and a half weeks of rest and training which should benefit him when he toes the line in March.

21. Tony Torres, Rs. Junior, Colorado Mesa (-8 / 13)

After a late start to his indoor season, we’ve now seen Torres run on Colorado Mesa's DMR team, contest a mile, run the 3000 meters and finally drop to the 800 meters.

Torres’ most recent showing in the 3000 meters, which produced a time of 8:22.17 at the Don Kirby Open & Elite, is a huge improvement of what he had run in the past. Ultimately, that converts to a mark of 8:09 after altitude adjustments.

Prior to this season, the only event that we hadn’t seen Torres run well in was the 3000 meters and he seemed to hush that noise with his latest effort. He followed up that performance the next day with an 800 meter result of 1:51.17, a time that now sits at NCAA #19 on the national leaderboard.

Torres appears to be safe in terms of national qualification with his mile time sitting at NCAA #12. He is the last man under the 4:04 barrier.

The chances of Torres repeating his runner-up finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships are getting tougher and tougher with each passing week. Admittedly, it would have been great to see Torres chase the 4:00 barrier like a lot of others have prior to his conference meet.

With the RMAC Championships in Gunnison, Colorado this weekend, we won’t have a real gauge of Torres' sea-level fitness until he spikes up for the preliminary rounds at the indoor national meet.

20. Cole Willis, Rs. Senior, Nebraska-Kearney (Unranked)

Willis is having the best season of his career and it’s coming at arguably the best time of the year for the Lopers. After running at the Loper Tune-Up, the redshirt senior currently finds himself with the NCAA #5 time in the 800 meters for the season.

Willis ran 1:52.06 and after the flat-track conversion, that time was moved to 1:49.63. That result makes him one of seven men to have a time under 1:50 (raw or converted) this season. On an individual level, Willis has inserted himself as someone to watch when we get to the national meet.

To put Willis's current winter campaign into perspective, he had never broken 1:53 for the indoor 800 meters prior to this season and his most recent, unconverted personal best of 1:51.76 came at the end of last month.

Simply put, Willis is on a major hot streak.

The rising Nebraska-Kearney star will get a chance to race alongside his teammate, Wes Ferguson, at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Willis could also be thrown into a DMR, potentially freeing up Ferguson for an attempt at an individual 800 meter crown or strengthening one of the legs of that already-talented DMR lineup.

19. Tanner Maier, Sophomore, Minnesota State-Mankato (Unranked)

Maier barrels into our rankings after his NCAA #2 time (via conversion) came at the NSIC & Friends Indoor Challenge. Maier covered the half-mile distance in a time of 1:50.48 and after the track conversion goes into effect, he sits at a time of 1:48.93.

That converted result is just three-tenths of a second slower than his personal best from last year’s outdoor season.

Maier is quietly trending in the right direction and at the right time of the year. With his national qualifying spot in the 800 meters now secure, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see Maier go after a faster mile time soon in an attempt to improve upon his 4:10 personal best.

The Minnesota State-Mankato star also ran 2:25 for 1000 meters at the same meet where he ran that 4:10 mile time, leading us to believe that Maier was already capable of running faster than his 4:10 mark suggests.

The 800 meters is a volatile race at the national meet and one bad move can change things dramatically. Luckily, Maier has experience from the 2021 indoor national meet after finishing 11th place overall in this exact event.

This is not us saying that Maier is immediately going to jump in and win the title, but experience matters and another year has clearly helped Maier immensely. We expect to see significant improvements in his tactical approach at the national meet.

18. Dylan Ko, Senior, Colorado Mines (-4 / 14)

When the indoor season started way back in December, running 13:47 for 5000 meters would have placed you at NCAA #7 All-Time list for the D2 indoor season. As it turns out, that's what Dylan Ko of Colorado Mines ran at Boston University two weekends ago.

Except now, that 13:47 mark sits as the 11th-fastest D2 time ever on a regulation track.

Additionally, Ko now has the NCAA #8 time in the 3000 meters to pair with his NCAA #7 time in the 5000 meters...and yet's he’s moving back a few spots. That’s how unreal some of the performances were over the last few weekends.

Now that he has legitimized his 3k performance, it’s time to talk about where Ko might be most successful as an individual at the national meet. He is more than likely to commit to both events at the indoor national meet, and the 5000 comes first which looks to be Ko’s best event.

On paper, everything works out for him.

His 8:05 (unconverted) personal best for 3000 meters isn’t quite up to par with the rest of the competitors in that 3k field, although that time was good enough to place 7th at the indoor national meet last year.

However, given the various ways that the 3k is run on the national stage, it will be hard for Ko to replicate that All-American result with that same racing style/approach.

However, replicating his 3rd place finish in the 5000 meters seems realistic, especially if racing as a team is a priority for the Orediggers. Ultimately, that 5k battle at the NCAA Indoor Championships will come down to him having more strength than speed at the end of the race.

17. Tanner Chada, Junior, Grand Valley State (-12 / 5)

It feels odd to see Grand Valley State's Tanner Chada slip this far down our rankings after such a strong cross country season. However, his time of 8:06 for 3000 meters at the GVSU "Big Meet" didn’t do anything to move the needle in the right direction.

That time is currently sitting at NCAA #19 on the national leaderboard and puts Chada in very serious danger to not be a national qualifier in the 3000 meters this year.

That is not at all something that we were expecting from him this winter.

The standard that Chada has set for himself is a very high one and it’s well deserved after his immediate and career-long success. However, all we are trying to say right now is that Chada doesn’t look like the runner that we saw this past fall and in early December.

He's still a top talent, but the GLIAC Championships will be one of his last chances to prove that he's a national-level threat before the national meet in March.

16. Luke Julian, Rs. Junior, Colorado Mines (+7 / 23)

This is the Luke Julian that we have grown accustomed to seeing over the last couple of years. Julian made the trek east the other weekend and reaped the benefits of doing so, as did his teammates.

After the smoke cleared, Julian found himself with a new shiny personal best of 4:00.81 in the mile and nearly the fourth athlete (at the time) under the 4:00 barrier this season.

With that run, Julian has thrown himself back into the tier of contenders for the NCAA mile title come March. Right now, there is no other event for Julian to contest at the indoor national meet as Colorado Mines’ DMR team is ranked outside of the top-12 and Julian has yet to run a qualifying time in any other event.

After his 4th place finish at last year’s indoor national meet, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see the Oredigger ace throw all of his chips in on the mile. He could be one of the few athletes who doesn't double and with a few tactical improvements in the final, Julian could be bring home the title despite this winter being the best season ever for the D2 men's mile.

15. Mason Strader, Junior, Pittsburg State (Unranked)

Look, Strader was going to be in our rankings this third time around for what he accomplished at the 7th Annual Indoor Gorilla Classic from a couple of weekends ago. We weren't expecting to consider any other performances.

At that meet, Strader anchored the Gorillas' DMR squad to the NCAA #2 time via a mark 9:37.45 (prior to this year, that would have been a D2 record by three seconds). He followed that up with a really solid mile effort, finishing a narrow runner-up to Augustana’s Austin Miller en route to a very solid time of 4:02.

At the time, that 4:02 mark was a personal best by two seconds and it increased the chances of Pittsburg State repeating as DMR champions in the year of 2022.

However, that wasn’t enough for Strader who ventured to Arkansas to take one last crack at the mile...and he was rewarded in a major way for doing so.

Strader ran 3:58.47 in the mile, leading three others under the 4:00 barrier in his section.

Strader had been relatively quiet this season compared to his competition and we weren’t quite sure how to read his early results. However, it’s quite clear now that Strader has indeed taken a leap upwards and has become a legitimate threat to win the mile national title.

Even so, there is something to be said about being back-to-back DMR champions and right now, the Gorillas may be the national title favorites in that event as they’ll attempt to defend their title on their home track.

D2 is on pace for the most competitive NCAA Indoor Championships ever. Yet, despite that, Strader has made it clear that last year was no fluke and that he somehow has outpaced the mass improvements from the rest of the NCAA.

14. Jake Mitchem, Sophomore, Colorado Mines (+6 / 20)

Colorado Mines' Jake Mitchem currently owns the fourth-fastest 5000 meter time ever in Division Two after his run of 13:40 at Boston University. And yet, somehow, that result is only listed at NCAA #3 on the national leaderboard this season behind his two teammates.

We knew that Mitchem was in good shape, but he had been looked at as mostly a 3000 meter runner who could move upwards in distance with some success. We didn’t know "success" equalled a time of 13:40, but it’s certainly a welcomed sign for the talented Oredigger.

The last time Mitchem ran the 5000 meters on a track? That would be in 2019 with a time of 14:45 in Golden, Colorado.

It’s clear that Mitchem is building upon the success from his cross country season and there’s now real reason to believe that on the right day, Mitchem could run for an NCAA title in either the 5000 meters or the 3000 meters. After seeing him run 13:40, his converted time of 7:59 in the 3000 (NCAA #7) is certainly feasible and now an accurate indication of his fitness level.

Mitchem has proven that he can race on the big stage and in an event with three other teammates, so there’s no doubt in our mind that he’ll show up.

The only question is...what he will walk away with in the end?

13. Callum Elson, Senior, American International (+4 / 17)

We knew that American International's Callum Elson was fit from his early 5000 meter time and his recent 3000 meter time. We also knew that he was a decent miler and was going to be able to choose which events he wanted to run at the national meet.

Elson is now one of three athletes ranked inside the top-18 for three individual distance events this season, joining Lee teammates Christian Noble and Carson Bix.

Despite his options, things on the individual front have changed dramatically since the last time we wrote about him. Elson became the third man this season (there are now four total) to break 4:00 in the mile at the David Hemery Invitational two weekends ago. Elson was already part of the AIC's record-breaking DMR team on the anchor leg.

Not only has Elson solidified his anchor position on that Yellowjackets' squad, but he’s now a serious contender to take home the national title when it’s all said and done.

Elson’s 3:59.71 mile effort was the fourth-fastest D2 time ever on a regulation track. It’s more than likely that we will see Elson running the DMR, the mile and even the 3000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

That’s a rigorous schedule, but the focus will be on the mile and this race is going to be much closer than anticipated.

12. Ezra Mutai, Sophomore, American International (0 / 12)

It’s unreal that you can run 13:41 for 5000 meters like American International's Ezra Mutai did at Boston University and not move up or down a single spot. It speaks more to Mutai’s competition than it does about his fitness level this season.

Two weeks after a solid 3000 meter race, Mutai was back at BU setting his fifth personal best of the season, running 13:41 for 5000 meters. It just so happened that Mutai was in the same race as the Colorado Mines athletes and that has mostly overshadowed his performance.

That race was the first time that Mutai has broken 14:00 in his AIC career.

Something that we always have wondered about Mutai is if he could run fast enough in the 5000 meters to be a title contender.

The answer to that has moved from "potential contender" to "actual contender" when it comes to the 5000 meter title. If that race unfolds into an all-out aggressive affair like we think it will, then Mutai should be right there for a chance at gold...in theory.

11. Wes Ferguson, Rs. Sophomore, Nebraska-Kearney (-2 / 9)

Ferguson has continued his tear on the 2021-2022 indoor season as he most recently ran a 4:07.15 mile at the Nebraska Tune-Up to set a new personal best. That time is also good enough for NCAA #26 on the national leaderboard.

However, that’s not what we want to talk about with Ferguson.

The week prior, he was the 800 meter leg on the Lopers’ DMR team when they ran 9:41 which is currently the NCAA #5 time. What’s important here is that with a breakthrough from aforementioned teammate Cole Willis, we could see Ferguson move towards the 1200 meter leg or the anchor leg to improve the overall strength of his DMR come March.

Ferguson appears to be the perfect 1200 meter leg after seeing him run 4:07 this last weekend. He’s got the D2 record in the 1000 meters and what’s another 200 meters for him? Especially if he’s only moving at 4:00 mile pace instead of 3:50 mile pace (and yes, I know, that's easier said than done).

Ferguson is the best middle distance athlete that Nebraska-Kearney has and he’ll be vying for the 800 meter title as well. He’s as much of a threat for that as the Lopers are for the DMR title which are both highly realistic.

10. Ryan Riddle, Junior, Missouri Southern (-3 / 7)

Has not raced since our last update.

9. Titus Winders, Junior, Southern Indiana (+1 / 10)

Remember when we blatantly asked Winders to run a fast 3000 meter time to validate his 5000 meter time? Yeah, us too. I guess, "ask and you shall receive" is the saying and Winders certainly delivered a sensational performance.

His 3000 meter PR prior to running his recent 7:59 time was 8:08 set back in 2020. After the track conversion, Winders now holds the NCAA #2 time with a mark 7:54.07.

This result does wonders for any stock that was bought in this Southern Indiana athlete. The 13:54 (5k) effort that Winders ran the last time we updated rankings was no fluke. It appears that his 3000 meter time even suggests that he’s in better shape than we previously thought.

That’s the third personal best of the season for Winders who has solidified his position as a serious contender for both the 5000 meter and 3000 meter titles. Although, it is more likely that we see him have greater success in the 3k based on his most recent performance.

Winders' foot speed will likely translate better to the championship-style racing of the 3000 than what we are expecting the 5000 meter final to look like.

However, regardless of his race style, Winders will be towards the front and is someone worth watching as he seems to have made the leap into our next tier of runners.

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

West Texas A&M's Butare Rugenerwa has raced twice since our last update and nothing really stuck out in terms of him making a splash.

He recently ran 1:49.89 for 800 meters, his second time under the 1:50 barrier this season. He then also ran a mile at the GVSU Big Meet and ran a semi-disappointing time of 4:17. In a race that was won in 4:13, there wasn’t going to be much of a positive result even if Rugenerwa had taken home the victory.

Even so, Rugenerwa has risen to the occasion multiple times in the last calendar year, highlighted by his recent top finishes at national meets and that’s what continues to keep Rugenerwa inside the top-10.

We know that he will be in the 800 meter final and that he will run well in that final.

Will it come with another crown? I guess we'll find out soon...

7. Clement Paillon, Junior, American International (+1 / 8)

It was another strong weekend for American International's Clement Paillon after he finished 3rd at the David Hemery Invitational, running 1:48.55 for the half-mile distance, just a few clicks off of his personal best from two weeks prior.

There’s not much to dissect here except for whether or not Paillon is the clear-cut title favorite in this event. If you asked us, the answer would be yes.

He’s the only athlete to to break 1:49 this season with a raw time and the fact that he’s done it twice in 14 days tells us that he’s just stronger than everyone else at the moment.

The Northeast-10 Championships are this weekend, so we will get a better idea of how Paillon performs over a strenuous two days. However, nothing should knock him backwards before heading into the NCAA Indoor Championships.

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

The Gulf South Championships happened this past week and Bix got the full introduction of being a Lee Flame during conference season. Bix tripled up, running the mile, the 3000 meters and the 5000 meters over the course of two busy days.

Bix was runner-up in the 3000 meters behind teammate Christian Noble and placed 4th in a tactical 5000 meter race where it appears that he (maybe?) just didn't have the same kick as the rest of the field.

He finished 9th in the mile, though, and that result does give us some potential concern. Bix ran a time of 4:14 in that race and didn’t look like anything we had seen this season.

It’s more than likely that it was just a tough couple of days for Bix considering they race on Monday and Tuesday. That triple was also a heavy workload in an effort to help his team.

Luckily, the early conference meet leaves Bix with nearly two and a half weeks of rest and training to get back on track for what really matters.

5. Kyle Moran, Junior, Colorado Mines (+20 / 25)

After running the second-fasted 5k time ever in Division Two, it should come as no surprise that Kyle Moran has moved up 20 spots all the way to our TSR #5 spot this week. The Colorado Mines star's spectacular season continues rolling after he ran 13:35 at Boston University to help reset the record books for D2.

That 13:35 mark sits at NCAA #2 on the national leaderboard this season behind only Dillon Powell and his converted 8:00 (3k) mark that we talked about last time? It’s not only legitimate, but it may even be a bit slow for Moran.

He just took 21 seconds off of his 5k personal best and there’s no reason to think that losing another 20 seconds from his 3k personal best (which would be 7:55) isn’t doable.

If Moran is able to race the way that he did at Boston University, then there’s a belief that he could take home the NCAA title in the 5000 meters. He’s able to push just as hard as Powell and in races that are that fast and that aggressive, sometimes the cookie crumbles in favor of someone else.

However, the biggest question at hand is whether or not Moran would be able to kick with the rest of the field, especially if this 5k race somehow turns tactical.

The fact that he has not run faster than 8:15 for 3000 meters is a tad bit concerning. His PR of 4:22 in the mile also doesn’t help with our confidence level for Moran in anything lower than a 5k right now.

Luckily for him, the 5000 meters is the first distance final of the weekend. In our minds, that sets him up perfectly for a bid to earn NCAA gold.

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

Another Gulf South Conference meet for Christian Noble and three more gold medals for the D2 legend. That now makes it now seven total GSC victories for Noble’s indoor career, making him one of the most decorated athletes in conference history.

We already know who Noble is so, we won’t harp too much on these performances.

The Lee veteran claimed victory in the 5000 meters (14:37), the 3000 meters (8:16) and the mile (4:04), displaying yet another strong performance of championship racing over the course of two days.

We can speculate all we want, but Noble and teammate Carson Bix raced three events, and it’s possible that along with trying to win a GSC title, they were prepping for how the NCAA meet may go.

It’s still hard for us to believe that Noble won’t choose the DMR over the 5000 when it’s all said and done. There has been chatter that winning that relay this winter would bring home major bragging rights in a year where the DMR is just on another level.

That being said, no matter the decisions that Noble makes and despite slipping down the our rankings the last few weeks, he’s a title favorite and the reigning champion in the 5000 meters and the 3000 meters.

Others will have to go through him to take the title and we promise you, Noble won’t make it easy for them.

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

We finally saw Grand Valley State's Isaac Harding for the second time this year and his result in the 3000 was bit more on par for what we were expecting for someone who waited nearly six weeks into the new year before racing again.

Harding ran 8:00 for 3000 meters and is comfortably sitting inside the top-10 for the event this season. He’ll be in both the 5000 meters and the 3000 meters when it’s time to toe the line at the indoor national meet.

Despite his lower-distance accolades, we think that Harding's best chance at a title is going to come in the 5000 meters. He ran 13:41 in early December and did nothing until the weekend of February 11th and 12th.

We were really hoping that Harding would post something stronger than 8:00 to tell us that he’s improved upon his fitness, but we’re not so sure that we can definitively say that right now.

A lot has yet to be determined about this Laker athlete this winter, but with the GLIAC Championships right around the corner, we should get a better idea of where Harding is right now.

At the moment, he’s still in title contention and he could improve that status to "title contender" with a strong weekend of championship racing.

2. Dillon Powell, Sophomore, Colorado Mines (+9 / 11)

Have yourself a weekend, Mr. Powell. After the fireworks went off for the fast sections, Powell ensured to keep them going in section four of the 5000 meters at Boston University.

As we all know by now, Powell set the NCAA D2 5k record by running 13:33.68 and knocking Christian Noble out of the top spot.

This was a legendary run for the active Colorado Mines legend who took 38 seconds off of his previous PR from last year’s indoor national meet. And much like his teammates, Powell's time also tells us that his 7:56 (3k) conversion is accurate, maybe even on the slower side.

As we enter conference championship weekend for Powell, it’ll be interesting to see how he races at the RMAC Championships and if his approach for that race will differ from the 5k/3k double that we expect from him in March.

No the matter the outcome this weekend, Powell is the clear front-runner to win the 5000 meters now and he has likely made his opponents stress a little more about their tactics in the 3000 meters.

All of this bodes well for an athlete who is notorious for running hard from the get-go. That’s more than likely his strategy for the 5000 meters and with the 3000 being the last distance event of the competition, we would expect him to do the same when the gun goes off.

The strength is there, but is it there for two races where he has to push the pace?

We’ll find out soon enough.

1. Aaron Ahl, Junior, Simon Fraser (0 / 1)

Simon Fraser's Aaron Ahl has raced twice since his huge breakthrough of the 4:00 barrier. He’s been the anchor on another DMR team that featured Charlie Dannatt (which is more than likely their NCAA squad) as they ran 9:42.95. He didn’t have quite the same anchor leg as he did when they ran 9:38 at Boston University, but it was impressive nonetheless.

He followed that DMR effort with another mile the next day, running 4:05 to take home the victory at the Whitworth Invitational. He secured the win by two seconds over his teammate Dannatt and was three seconds ahead of Gonzaga’s James Mwaura.

In reality, his recent results doesn’t do much to affect the stock of Ahl.

He’s the fastest D2 miler this season and he’s the fastest D2 3k runner this season. He’ll have to prove that at the NCAA Indoor Championships as well, but until someone knocks him from those top spots, Ahl is your athlete to beat.

That is why he remains at TSR #1 for the time being.