TSR's 2022 D1 XC Top 50 Individual Rankings (Men): Update #4

NOTE: Theses rankings are based on how an individual fares throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships or at a singular meet.

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KEY

(Unranked):

Was not ranked in our last update.

(#/#):

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

The second number indicates where the athlete was ranked in our last update.

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ANOTHER NOTE: The Stride Report does not typically put much ranking weight on the regional results. Oftentimes, certain teams and individuals will not place much emphasis on these races and will simply run with the goal of advancing to the national meet. This is not to say that all regional results are negligible (as you'll see below). In fact, our D1 women's team may value regional results differently than our D1 men's team. However, you may notice less movement within our top-50 lists this week than usual.

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50. Isaac Alonzo, Sophomore, Texas (Unranked)

I desperately wanted to fit Isaac Alonzo into our top-50 list during our last rankings update, but just couldn't find the room to do so. Luckily, his 2nd place finish in the South Central region, paired with a few men falling out of our rankings, was enough to give this Texas ace our last spot.

The Cowboy Jamboree was admittedly a tough start to the season for Alonzo as he placed 83rd overall in that field. However, since then, he has rallied exceptionally well, finishing 7th at the Panorama Farms Invitational, 3rd at the BIG 12 XC Championships and most recently runner-up at the South Central Regional XC Championships.

This Texas sophomore has fared well against a variety of different competition, although we still want to see how he handles a truly elite national-caliber field.

49. Thomas Vanoppen, Senior, Wake Forest (-7 / 42)

Thomas Vanoppen faded to 21st place at the Southeast Regional XC Championships, effectively crossing the line next to teammate, Aaron Las Heras.

If he had the same long distance credentials that Las Heras did, then his ranking wouldn't shift as much. But for someone who is predominately a miler to fade outside of the top-20 in his first 10k of the season isn't the greatest sign ever.

Even so, Vanoppen still deserves to be in these rankings given what he has accomplished this season.

48. Nathan Lawler, Junior, Syracuse (-2 / 46)

Could Nathan Lawler have been better than 6th place in the Northeast region? Maybe, but that's hardly a poor result and his season as a whole makes him one of the more reliable front-runners in the nation.

47. Jackson Sharp, Senior, Wisconsin (+2 / 49)

Jackson Sharp finished 10th at the Great Lakes Regional XC Championships last Friday, although he was clearly part of a coordinated effort. The Wisconsin men packed together and crossed the line all at once.

Sharp does move up two spots in our rankings, but that's largely due to other men in our rankings trending backwards.

46. Rory Leonard, Sophomore, Oklahoma State (+1 / 47)

Nothing much to talk about here. Rory Leonard finished 12th at the Midwest Regional XC Championships, crossing the line at the exact same moment as our TSR #1 runner, Alex Maier. This was clearly a conservative effort by the Oklahoma State ace who is looking for All-American honors this weekend.

45. Wil Smith, Sophomore, Gonzaga (Unranked)

A 50th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree was a result that made it challenging to keep Wil Smith in our rankings, especially since he was already on the fringe.

However, since then, this Gonzaga standout has rallied and produced some undeniably great performances. He was 32nd at Nuttycombe, placed 3rd at the West Coast Conference XC Championships (which featured BYU and Portland) and most recently placed 4th at the West Regional XC Championships.

I truly don't know if Smith is going to be an All-American this weekend, but he's showing far more consistency than he did last fall. And in my eyes, that improvement is enough to put him back in our rankings.

44. Liam Murphy, Sophomore, Villanova (Unranked)

I've always really liked Liam Murphy, especially since his high school days where he was dominating his competition on the east coast. And over his last two years with Villanova, I've only ever viewed him as a really solid cross country scorer who is also a sub-four miler.

However, when you step back and look at his resume this fall, it's hard not to be impressed.

Murphy scored a very strong 4th place finish at Paul Short, produced a respectable (but modest) 51st place finish at Nuttycombe and a 3rd place finish at the BIG East XC Championships.

And after easily winning the Mid-Atlantic regional title over the defending regional champion from last year, Parker Stokes, it's time that we start respecting Murphy as one of the top low-sticks in the country.

Admittedly, Murphy is still young, the Mid-Atlantic region is relatively weak and his one appearance in a loaded this field this fall wasn't super exciting.

Even so, I like the consistency and momentum that this Villanova ace has right now. He has been sneaky-good throughout the entirety of this season.

43. Eliud Kipsang, Sophomore, Alabama (-12 / 31)

A 7th place finish at the SEC XC Championships wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't the result that we expected from Eliud Kipsang who was the defending SEC cross country champion coming into this season.

But after a 28th place finish at the South Regional XC Championships, we have to begin questioning whether or not Kipsang is still favored to be an All-American.

Now, that said, the Alabama ace was apparently knocked down during the first mile and struggled to rally from that point. That fact is enough to at least keep him in our top-50, but his 3rd place result at Joe Piane can only carry him so far in these rankings.

42. Anthony Camerieri, Senior, Ole Miss (+3 / 45)

When Anthony Camerieri finished 61st at the Cowboy Jamboree, I didn't think twice about it.

When Anthony Camerieri finished 5th at the Panorama Farms Invite, I thought it was respectable, but not enough to counter his Cowboy Jamboree result.

When Anthony Camerieri placed 6th at the SEC XC Championships, I began to realize his actual talent, although I still needed more validation.

And last Friday, Camerieri delivered once again.

A 5th place finish in the South region isn't the most exciting result ever, but when you consider that he crossed the line alongside Yaseen Abdalla, Dylan Jacobs and Kirami Yego, it's hard to argue the idea that Camerieri isn't one of the top cross country runners in the nation this fall.

41. Patrick Kiprop, Sophomore, Arkansas (+3 / 44)

If someone had to bet their life savings on one runner winning a regional title on Friday, I would have picked Patrick Kiprop who was the overwhelmingly obvious favorite to win the South Central title.

And sure enough, he did (easily).

However, the reason why he moves up a few spots is because a few runners fell back in our rankings and because other men who Kiprop defeated earlier this season also improved their stock.

40. Hillary Cheruiyot, Sophomore, Alabama (0 / 40)

An 8th place finish at the South Regional XC Championships isn't bad, but it's not exactly great, either. Even so, Hillary Cheruiyot still has a 4th place result at the SEC XC Championships and a 6th place result at Joe Piane on his seasonal resume.

Those two performances are good enough for me to ignore his most recent result, especially since he hasn't really had a truly poor race this season.

39. Brian Fay, Senior, Washington (+9 / 48)

I really do like the West regional victory that we saw from Brian Fay last Friday. He seemed to be truly going all-out in order to take home the win.

Fay is undoubtedly getting better and seems to peaking at the right time. He hasn't had a bad race all season long, but this is clearly the best result of his 2022 cross country season.

At the same time, I don't want to overreact to just one race where Charles Hicks and Ky Robinson probably weren't focused on winning. That's why, for now, a TSR #39 ranking seems appropriate for Fay.

38. Devin Hart, Sophomore, Stanford (0 / 38)

37. Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau, Senior, Stanford (+4 / 41)

A 6th place finish for Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau and an 8th place finish for Devin Hart aren't totally surprising. As long as they finished in the top-10, they were going to keep their ranking (or improve).

Beaudoin-Rousseau does move up four spots and jump past Hart. That's largely because the Stanford veteran has just been a bit steadier than his teammate throughout the entirety of this season and because he's beaten Hart in their last two races.

36. Aaron Las Heras, Senior, Wake Forest (0 / 36)

Someone is probably going to be upset that Aaron Las Heras finished 20th at the Southeast Regional XC Championships, but is keeping the exact same ranking as last time.

But are you really going to suggest that a guy with a 28:13 (10k) personal best, who just earned bronze at the ACC XC Championships, isn't one of the 40-best cross country runners in the NCAA?

I imagine Las Heras was just trying to score for his team and get to the national meet without overly exerting himself. And in my eyes, he did exactly that.

35. Graham Blanks, Sophomore, Harvard (+4 / 39)

Yes, Graham Blanks does move up a few spot in our rankings because of his win at the Northeast Regional XC Championships. However, the other reason is because a handful of men moved backwards in our rankings, naturally granting Blanks a few spots in our list.

34. Kirami Yego, Sophomore, Southern Alabama (+3 / 37)

Kirami Yego tied for 3rd place at the South Regional XC Championships with Dylan Jacobs. He also finished alongside Yaseen Abdalla and Anthony Camerieri, two other men who are ranked in our top-50.

Yego's performance was super encouraging to see, especially since his best competition this fall has been limited to the Alabama men. And while racing in the South region isn't the same as racing at the NCAA XC Championships, it's still encouraging to know that Yego's raw talent translates to the larger stages with different competition.

33. Creed Thompson, Sophomore, BYU (+2 / 35)

32. Davin Thompson, Sophomore, BYU (+2 / 34)

31. Aidan Troutner, Sophomore, BYU (+2 / 33)

30. Brandon Garnica, Senior, BYU (+2 / 32)

The Thompson brothers and Aidan Troutner didn't race last Friday at the Mountain Regional XC Championships while Brandon Garnica finished the race with teammates Casey Clinger and Joey Nokes close behind.

Nothing to chat about here, let's move on.

29. Isaac Akers, Senior, Tulsa (0 / 29)

See Michael Power (TSR #17) for analysis.

28. Dylan Schubert, Sophomore, Furman (-1 / 27)

A 4th place finish at the Southeast Regional XC Championships was probably one of the most predictable results that I saw in each of the nine regional races. Schubert does fall one spot in our rankings, but it's more because Isai Rodriguez moved up a good bit.

27. Shay McEvoy, Sophomore, Tulsa (-1 / 26)

See Michael Power (TSR #17) for analysis.

26. Cormac Dalton, Senior, Tulsa (-2 / 24)

See Michael Power (TSR #17) for analysis.

25. Barry Keane, Rs. Senior, Butler (0 / 25)

Winning the Great Lakes regional title builds on Barry Keane's impressive resume which makes me want to rank him higher than where he's at. However, Duncan Hamilton beat him at Pre-Nationals and the Montana State ace is running just as well.

For that reason, Keane will remain at TSR #25...but I don't like it!

24. Duncan Hamilton, Senior, Montana State (-1 / 23)

Yet another solid race for Duncan Hamilton who locked down a 3rd place finish at the Mountain Regional XC Championships. He does drop one spot in our rankings, but that's to no fault of his own.

23. Isai Rodriguez, Senior, Oklahoma State (+7 / 30)

Although we don't often put much emphasis on regional meets, seeing Isai Rodriguez take home the Midwest title was super encouraging. His 5th place finish at the BIG 12 XC Championships was fine, but we needed to see more low-stick scoring potency from him last Friday.

And sure enough, that was exactly what we saw.

22. Sam Gilman, Rs. Junior, Air Force (0 / 22)

I'll admit, I was a little concerned when I saw that Sam Gilman placed 24th at the Mountain Regional XC Championships last Friday.

However, I then realized that during the 2019 fall cross country season, Gilman placed 34th at the Mountain regional meet and went on to finish in the top-30 at the NCAA XC Championships.

So yeah, I'm not worried.

21. Victor Shitsama, Senior, Oklahoma State (0 / 21)

A 7th place result at the Midwest Regional XC Championships may not seem great on paper, especially for a guy who faded to 15th at the BIG 12 XC Championships.

However, when you consider that five of the six men who beat Victor Shitsama are ranked while other top talents held themselves back, we're not going to look into this result too much.

20. Yaseen Abdalla, Junior, Tennessee (0 / 20)

Yaseen Abdalla was one of four men who crossed the line together at the South Regional XC Championships. The Tennessee ace ultimately got the edge for that 2nd place.

We're not going to overreact to that result and the names who he beat, but Abdalla's performance on Friday continues to validate him as one of the premiere distance runners in the country.

19. Andrew Kent, Senior, Colorado (0 / 19)

Seeing Andrew Kent settle for a 12th place finish at the Mountain Regional XC Championships is a result that we're going to brush aside. An 8th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree and a 4th place finish at the PAC-12 XC Championships are better indicators of his talent.

18. Christian Allen, Senior, BYU (0 / 18)

If you're worried about Christian Allen's 13th place finish at the Mountain Regional XC Championships, just remember that Allen placed 14th at that same meet in 2019 and then went on to finish 14th at the national meet a week later.

17. Michael Power, Senior, Tulsa (0 / 17)

The Tulsa men went 3-4-5-6 at the Midwest Regional XC Championships, clearly running together as a pack given their 0.80 second top-four time-spread. This was obviously a relaxed effort for the Golden Hurricanes who have their eyes set on the podium.

16. Joey Nokes, Sophomore, BYU (0 / 16)

Joey Nokes was less than a second behind Casey Clinger at the Mountain Regional XC Championships where he placed 8th. And while finishing top-10 in the Mountain region is almost never an easy task, it also seems fair to suggest that Nokes was maybe not going entirely all-out last Friday.

15. Nickolas Scudder, Junior, Charlotte (0 / 15)

A Southeast regional title validates Nickolas Scudder's phenomenal season where he has gone from good to great. Even so, he beat everyone he was supposed to beat, although I'm admittedly unsure how much stock we want to put into him defeating Parker Wolfe.

14. Aaron Bienenfeld, Senior, Oregon (0 / 14)

A 2nd place finish at the West Regional XC Championships seemed to be an honest effort from Aaron Bienenfeld. However, with Stanford not putting a major emphasis on this race, it's hard to gauge his performance relative to the rest of the field.

13. Dylan Jacobs, Senior, Tennessee (0 / 13)

Dylan Jacobs may have tied for 3rd place, but the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place finishers in this race all finished within 0.30 seconds of each other.

I imagine that as long as Jacobs produced a low-stick result, Coach Sean Carlson and the Tennessee men would be satisfied with his effort. That's not to say that Jacobs didn't put in a serious effort, but it's hard to really put much stock in this result when a point or two wasn't going to make any difference in team standings.

12. Casey Clinger, Senior, BYU (0 / 12)

Casey Clinger finished 6th at the Mountain Regional XC Championships, running alongside teammate Brandon Garnica in what seemed to be a somewhat controlled effort to finish next to each other with teammate Joey Nokes less than a second behind.

11. Acer Iverson, Junior, Harvard (0 / 11)

Acer Iverson fell to teammate Graham Blanks at Northeast Regional XC Championships, but still finished 2nd overall to give Harvard their patented 1-2 finish. And frankly, as long as that happened, I can't imagine that Iverson was too concerned about which spot he placed.

The national meet, after all, is his bigger priority.

10. Carter Solomon, Sophomore, Notre Dame (0 / 10)

Pretty much every team in the Great Lakes region employed some type of pack-running tactic during last Friday's race. And with the Wisconsin men clearly conserving their energy, it's hard to put much stock or emphasis into Carter Solomon's 5th place finish.

9. Parker Wolfe, Sophomore, North Carolina (0 / 9)

A 2nd place finish at the Southeast Regional XC Championships roughly matches our expectations for Parker Wolfe who has been outstanding this year. Even so, last Friday's race didn't really influence his current ranking.

8. Cole Sprout, Junior, Stanford (0 / 8)

Alright, let's chat about Cole Sprout.

The Stanford star didn't race at the West Regional XC Championships. That, however, isn't usually a big deal. Top teams often hold out some of their best runners at their regional meet in order to preserve them for the national meet.

However, based on Sprout's Strava profile, the Cardinal ace was running very limited mileage earlier this month and was doing a lot of bike work. That, paired with his recent racing absence, is legitimately concerning.

That said, Sprout's recent efforts via Strava have looked stronger and there's growing optimism that he'll toe the line at the NCAA XC Championships. Even so, we'll be monitoring his status going into the national meet.

7. Drew Bosley, Junior, Northern Arizona (0 / 7)

Finishing runner-up at the Mountain Regional XC Championships is nice to see for Drew Bosley, but it doesn't really change any of our original thoughts about him. That said, he continues to look the sharpest that he has ever been in his career.

6. Bob Liking, Rs. Sophomore, Wisconsin (0 / 6)

There's not a whole lot to talk about with Bob Liking who packed together with his Wisconsin teammates at the Great Lakes Regional XC Championships, placing 13th in a race where he clearly let off the gas.

5. Victor Kiprop, Sophomore, Alabama (0 / 5)

It was yet another convincing victory for Victor Kiprop at the South Regional XC Championships, once again taking down the likes of Yaseen Abdalla, Dylan Jacobs, Kirami Yego, Anthony Camerieri and the rest of his Alabama teammates.

Kiprop is still undefeated this year, but he has yet to toe the line against the superstars from the nation's top powerhouses. It will be interesting to see how the Crimson Tide star handles a higher level of competition on Saturday.

4. Ky Robinson, Sophomore, Stanford (0 / 4)

3. Charles Hicks, Junior, Stanford (0 / 3)

Charles Hicks placing 3rd and Ky Robinson placing 5th at the West Regional XC Championships was super unsurprising.

Even in a post-race interview with RunnerSpace, there seemed to be an unspoken understanding that last Friday's race didn't hold much emphasis for the Cardinal men as a whole.

Still, this duo ran well and are looking as sharp as ever.

2. Nico Young, Junior, Northern Arizona (0 / 2)

Nico Young won the Mountain regional title, but he could have placed 20th and I wouldn't have felt any different about him than I do now. That said, I don't think Nico Young has ever had such a strong chance of winning a national title than he will when he toes the line on Saturday.

1. Alex Maier, Junior, Oklahoma State (0 / 1)

I know he was only 12th at the Midwest Regional XC Championships, but no one is looking at that result and thinking that Maier isn't one of the 10-best runners in his region. This was clearly a conservative effort to prepare himself for the national meet.

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ADDED

Isaac Alonzo (Texas)

Wil Smith (Gonzaga)

Liam Murphy (Villanova)

KICKED OFF

Luke Tewalt (Wake Forest)

Ian Shanklin (NC State)

Haftu Strintzos (Villanova)

JUST MISSED (in no particular order)

Justin Wachtel (Virginia)

Luke Tewalt (Wake Forest)

Ian Shanklin (NC State)

Haftu Strintzos (Villanova)

Seth Hirsch (Colorado)

Austin Vancil (Colorado)

Parker Stokes (Georgetown)

Ryan Kinnane (Auburn)

Thomas Boyden (Stanford)

Luke Combs (Air Force)

Ryan Johnson (Air Force)

Sean Maison (Air Force)

Izaiah Steury (Notre Dame)

Fearghal Curtin (Florida State)

Vincent Mauri (Arizona State)

Yacine Guermali (Gonzaga)

Jonathan Shields (Boise State)

Ryan Martins (Loyola (Ill.))

Tom Brady (Michigan)

HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)

Zach Facioni (Wake Forest)

Said Mechaal (California Baptist)

Ethan Marshall (Air Force)

Gable Sieperda (Iowa State)

Ezekiel Rop (Iowa State)

Patrick Anderson (North Carolina)

Antonio Lopez Segura (Virginia Tech)

Matthew Ricthman (Montana State)

Jake Ritter (Cal Poly)

Ryan Schoppe (Oklahoma State)

Ahmed Jaziri (Eastern Kentucky)

Santiago Prosser (Northern Arizona)

Luke Houser (Washington)

Tyler Berg (Columbia)

Perry Mackinnon (Cornell)

Jesse Hamlin (Butler)

Arjun Jha (Michigan)

Notes

- N/A