TSR's 2022 D2 XC Top 25 Individual Rankings (Men): Update #3

Written by John Cusick, additional edits and commentary by Garrett Zatlin

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NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared 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 team has moved in the rankings.

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

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25. Clayton Sayen, Senior, Michigan Tech (-4 / 21)

Moving this Michigan Tech veteran backward in our rankings feels a bit criminal after his 5th place showing at the GLIAC XC Championships.

However, the move stems from multiple reasons.

It’s because a) others had stronger performances from their conference championship weekend, and b) Sayen finished 4th in 2021 at the GLIAC XC Championships, one spot higher.

Admittedly, a one-spot difference isn’t anything that should cause us to have any serious concerns. This movement backward is more us acknowledging that Sayen is one of the country's best, but others are proving to be just as good, if not better, than he is right now.

Sayen was 11th at the Midwest Regional XC Championships last year and he should finish better than that this fall. We’ll wait to see how he performs on that stage before moving him out of our rankings (or moving him forward).

24. JP Rutledge, Sophomore, Missouri Southern (-10 / 14)

JP Rutledge is going to take a fairly big hit backwards in our updated rankings.

The Missouri Southern athlete hasn't been bad this season, but he has faltered outside of the top-five in some meets that should have essentially been layups for him. There were also plenty of strong performances over the weekend.

Rutledge’s 6th place finish at the MIAA XC Championships simply left us wanting more, especially after seeing that he finished 2nd at last year’s conference meet. And truthfully, this isn’t the first instance of Rutledge finishing worse than we expected this season. That partly factors into this rankings drop.

Rutledge is deserving of being inside our top-15 based on his raw talent from 2021, but we’ve been underwhelmed this season. With just one guaranteed race to go, time is running out for this Lion ace to build our confidence in him.

23. Charlie Dannatt, Sophomore, Simon Fraser (+2 / 25)

The Simon Fraser standout continues to impress during his 2022 fall campaign.

After a top-10 performance at D2 Pre-Nationals, Dannatt followed up that performance with a runner-up finish at the GNAC XC Championships this past weekend. He was only behind Cole Nash of Alaska Anchorage, but was three seconds ahead of 3rd place finisher, Jeret Gillingham.

Dannatt has impressed in back-to-back outings, showing above-average racing savvy. He’s stayed within himself against strong competition and we think this is only the beginning for the Red Leaf ace.

A third-straight showing of strong racing will put Dannatt in our top-half of rankings. We’re not ready to do that just yet, but we are getting close.

22. Issac Prather, Rs. Senior, Concord (Unranked)

Issac Prather has been downright dominant so far in 2022.

He just won the MEC XC Championship title by 31 seconds, making it his second-straight individual title in as many years. He’s also walked away with five individual victories, including his victory this past weekend, since he began racing back in early September.

His only loss?

Paul Short where we saw him finish 2nd in the “Brown” race.

Prather was an All-American last season and he appears to have returned to the NCAA in even better fitness. He won the Atlantic Regional XC Championships last fall and is the early favorite to do so yet again in two weeks.

Can he be competitive against some of the best names in the country? That answer is yes and we think that Prather will only reinforce that in two weeks.

21. Clement Duigou, Senior, Adams State (-3 / 18)

A 12th place finish at the RMAC XC Championships this past weekend wasn’t anything spectacular, but it wasn’t anything that has us too terribly concerned, either.

The Adams State harrier competed in his first-ever conference meet on the grass and it went just about as expected for the French runner. He crossed the line in 12th place and served as the Grizzlies' fourth scorer.

Admittedly, there’s not a ton for us to analyze from Duigou this season. His “debut” race at the Highlander Invitational was strong and it provided us with some confidence going into this last weekend. But generally speaking, it's been hard to gauge him this fall.

With another race under his belt, we should see Duigou get more comfortable against others in a strong regional field. However, the biggest question for him right now is, how will he fare racing on the grass over 10,000 meters?

20. Luke Julian, Rs. Senior, Colorado Mines (+3 / 23)

Luke Julian has been incredibly consistent for the Orediggers throughout his career. We’ve harped on that before, but we’re going to harp on it once again.

The Oredigger veteran finished 9th at the RMAC XC Championships this past weekend and was Colorado Mines’ fifth scorer. This marks the 12th time that Julian has been part of the Orediggers' top-five.

If that number doesn't make you turn your head, then how about we rephrase that. Every time that Julian has donned an Oredigger singlet on the grass, he has scored for the deepest team in the country.

This feels like the year where Julian busts through that top-30 door at the national meet. He’s done everything else when it comes to racing on the grass. It’d only be fitting for the veteran to help lead this team to a national title in December.

19. Chris Cathcart, Senior, Colorado Mines (Unranked)

What a season it has been for Chris Cathcart.

After placing 9th at D2 Pre-Nationals, we were curious as to how this Colorado Mines veteran would perform at the RMAC XC Championships, a stage with tons of high-level stars that we could compare him to. Plus, seeing him finish as the sixth runner on his own team a few weeks ago also made it a challenge to properly gauge Cathcart.

However, after a monster 3rd place in the strongest conference meet in the country (by a lot), we have no choice but to place Cathcart at TSR #19. And truthfully, the argument for him could be that he deserves to be higher! After all, he did take down Awet Beraki, Simon Kelati, Cameron Allan, all of his teammates not named Dillon Powell and many more.

This is a result that came somewhat out of nowhere for Cathcart. His D2 Pre-Nationals result was really solid, but it didn't suggest that he'd be running at the equivalent level of a D2 megastar.

So while Cathcart still needs to prove himself at the regional and national meets, he likely has the most upside when it comes to us altering our rankings. We won't be afraid to give him another massive jump up if necessary.

18. Ransom Allen, Junior, Wayne State (MI) (+1 / 19)

Ransom Allen toed the line at the GLIAC XC Championships as an athlete who was expected to finish inside the top-five as an individual.

Those expectations were fulfilled with Allen’s 4th place finish as he was narrowly clipped at the line by Caleb Futter who snuck ahead of him. This now makes it five-straight top-six finishes for Wayne State’s top runner.

For what it’s worth, that’s one spot better than he finished a year ago.

In fact, at last year’s conference meet, we saw Allen finish behind the already-mentioned Clayton Sayen. This year, the roles are reversed with Allen getting the nod by eight seconds.

Allen has a 2nd place finish behind a top-ranked runner earlier in the season and his overall resume allows us to put him at our TSR #18 spot in this rankings update.

17. Josh Pierantoni, Senior, Colorado Christian (-3 / 14)

We have yet to see Josh Pierantoni race since the Lewis Crossover in early October.

He’s one of the country’s best runners and his movement in our top-25 is simply because of his lack of racing in 2022. We expect him to be a top runner at the South Central Regional XC Championships.

We will reassess where he belongs in these rankings two weeks from now.

16. Andrew Hylen, Junior, Grand Valley State (-3 / 13)

Laker veteran Andrew Hylen turned in one of the more interesting performances of the weekend late last week.

After being Grand Valley State’s second-best runner all season long, he fell to the fourth scoring spot in his team's lineup at the GLIAC XC Championships this past weekend, settling for an unexciting 9th place result.

That's admittedly a bit of a surprise as we've previously talked about the consistency from Hylen and his ability to perform well on championship stages.

Yes, the Lakers’ dominated their conference meet for the 20th straight season, but seeing how Hylen fares two weeks from now is certainly something to monitor. He is one of Grand Valley State’s key pieces and if he’s not the same low-stick that he was at last year's national meet, then it lowers the ability of a podium finish for this team in December (although probably not dramatically).

With all that said, this could be an outlier. We know that the Lakers can handle business within their conference, relying on their depth alone. Training through this meet could lead to some improved fitness two weeks from now where Hylen is arguably better with 2000 meters of extra racing.

He might move three spots backwards during this update, but he could easily move back into our top-15 before he toes the line at the national meet in December.

15. Ryan Hartman, Sophomore, Augustana (+1 / 16)

The jury is still out on Ryan Hartman for the 2022 season. Through three races, the Augustana ace is still showing some signs of rust thus far, but it's also hard to say that he's had a poor race this fall.

The Viking star finished 2nd at the NSIC XC Championships this past weekend, making it the second-straight year that he’s earned that result. With such a dominating team performance, there’s not much to truly pull away from Hartman’s conference meet performance.

The Vikings are gearing up for their regional meet where Hartman led the Vikings to a team title last fall with his 4th place finish. They’ll be tested more than they were last year and we’ll see if Hartman is up to the task against some of the best in the country.

We’re still two weeks away from seeing that race, so we will place Hartman at our TSR #15 spot for the time being. His performance in two weeks will ultimately shape how we feel about him for the national meet in December.

14. Simon Kelati, Junior, Western Colorado (+10 / 24)

Simon Kelati introduced himself as a national-caliber scorer at D2 Pre-Nationals race two weeks ago. And after his performance at the RMAC XC Championships this past weekend, that introduction is now over as we are fully in the midst of a breakout campaign for the Western Colorado low-stick.

Kelati finished 6th at the RMAC XC Championships this past Saturday, bettering his performance from the aforementioned D2 Pre-Nationals race. The only names to finish ahead of him were Dillon Powell, Afewerki Zeru, Chris Cathcart, Cameron Allan and Duncan Fuehne.

It’s clear that Kelati belongs in the same conversation as the men on the latter end of that list. He’s performed at a high level all season long and his resume has only gotten better.

It’s true that the South Central Regional XC Championships will be his biggest test, but we’re prepared to move Kelati higher up than TSR #14 if he performs well again.

13. Cameron Allan, Junior, Adams State (+4 / 17)

Cameron Allan had arguably the best weekend performance of anyone, relative to expectations and in terms of relative team scoring value, after he placed 4th at the RMAC XC Championships.

The biggest takeaway from his performance is that he was Adams State’s top runner. After seeing him perform well at the Highlander Invitational, we knew that Allan had the makings of being a top runner within the conference.

However, what we didn’t know was that he could be a legitimate all-star low-stick against a ridiculously strong field.

There were expectations that he’d be inside the top-10. That happened, but we also saw Allan display an elite combination of tactics and fitness to snag a top-five finish. He’s got the potential to give the Grizzlies one of the best 1-2 punches in the country.

12. Jan Lukas Becker, Senior, Mississippi College (0 / 12)

It doesn’t matter who Jan Lukas Becker is racing for during championship season. All you need to know is that he performs at his best when the lights are bright.

The Mississippi College athlete held off challenges from Sam Wilhelm and Aaron Himes en route to the Gulf South individual crown. He put three seconds between him and the others, giving him his second-straight conference title (he won the SAC title in 2021 for Queens).

While he won’t get to defend his Southeast regional title from last year, he’ll have the ability to take home the victory at the South Regional XC Championships in two weeks.

He’ll stay put at our TSR #12 spot as this was an expected performance from him in a conference where he was clearly the best runner. Another victory in a regional format should move him into our top-10.

11. Zach Kreft, Senior, Walsh (0 / 11)

This past weekend, Zach Kreft secured a comfortable 10-second victory at the G-MAC XC Championships. That victory came over a “Just Missed” runner in Noah Fisher who has proven to be a very good runner in his own right.

That being said, we’ll leave Kreft at our TSR #11 spot. The G-MAC doesn’t hold a whole lot of weight when we start to compare nationally competitive fields. The Walsh athlete was clearly the best runner in this field.

Even so, his victory echoed the sentiment that he's an elite talent at the D2 level. And as we head into the Midwest Regional XC Championships, we’ll see what Kreft is truly made of.

10. Dayton Brown, Rs. Junior, Saginaw Valley State (0 / 10)

Dayton Brown’s stock is at an all-time high after his runner-up performance at the GLIAC XC Championships this last weekend.

Heading into the weekend, you could have talked yourself into Brown upsetting Tanner Chada for the individual title. But eventually, you’d have settled that finishing 2nd overall would be good enough to believe in him as a top-10 runner moving forward -- even if that finish was 30 seconds behind Chada.

This is the best performance that we've seen from Brown in a Saginaw Valley uniform. It betters his 3rd place performance from the 2019 season where, get this, he also finished 30 seconds behind Chada. Brown finished 5th at that year's regional meet before finishing 32nd at the national meet.

We have plenty of reason to believe that Brown is better than he was in 2019, so we don’t see him moving out of our TSR #10 spot in this update.

9. Ryan Riddle, Senior, Missouri Southern (0 / 9)

Ryan Riddle took care of business at the MIAA XC Championships this past weekend.

After taking home the individual title in 2021, he’d have to settle for a runner-up finish this time around. Normally, that would be a knock against him, but that loss was to his own teammate, Gidieon Kimutai, who has proven to be one of the best runners in the country.

He’ll stick at TSR #9 this update and look to the Central Regional XC Championships where he’ll try to defend his title. He may come up short to Kimutai again, but we think that a team victory is the most important hardware that the Lions after two weeks from now.

8. Loic Scomparin, Sophomore, Colorado Mines (-2 / 6)

Loic Scomparin did not toe the line with the Orediggers at the RMAC XC Championships.

Colorado Mines admittedly proved that they don’t need Scomparin to be a dominant team, but his return only makes them better. We expect him to return at the South Central Regional XC Championships in two weeks.

7. Cole Nash, Sophomore, Alaska Anchorage (+1 / 8)

Cole Nash has continued to impress throughout the 2022 cross country season.

He won the GNAC XC Championships over our TSR #23 runner, Charlie Dannatt, by 17 seconds. And for what it’s worth, Nash was 2nd at that meet last year and just a second ahead of Dannatt who was the 3rd place finisher in 2021.

The continued improvements from Nash is why he’s currently trending so high. He has shown us that he can race in a high-leverage situation and deliver when it matters most.

He’ll face his biggest test this season at the West Regional XC Championships, but we believe he will deliver another strong performance.

6. Awet Beraki, Junior, Adams State (-3 / 3)

Some days, an athlete just doesn’t have it.

And unfortunately for Awet Beraki, that day was the RMAC XC Championships. After finishing 7th in his first taste of conference meet racing, we see the Adams State superstar take a three-spot tumble.

There’s no telling why Beraki finished where he did, but we think that the ripple effect of racing hard from the gun could be part of the problem. The good news about this finish is that Beraki will have two more races to prove that he’s a top name in Division Two.

That, of course, is not to say that he is no longer part of that group, but we’ve only seen him on the grass in a competitive race twice this season, one of which (the Highlander Invite) was tough to gauge.

What he does at the South Central Regional XC Championships will tell us just how good we should expect him to be in December at the national meet.

5. Duncan Fuehne, Sophomore, Colorado Mines (+2 / 7)

Duncan Fuehne continues to climb our rankings and deservedly so. He was 3rd at D2 Pre-Nationals two weeks ago and he just finished 5th at the RMAC XC Championships this past weekend.

He’s continued to be a consistent third option for the Orediggers this season. While being that consistent scorer, he’s also evolved into one of the better runners in the country. His RMAC finish is a seven-spot improvement from last year where he placed 11th.

We fully believe that Fuehne will be better than 11th at the South Central Regional XC Championships in two weeks. We are also confident that Fuehne can remain as a top-five runner in the country if he continues to race like this.

4. Gidieon Kimutai, Rs. Junior, Missouri Southern (+1 / 5)

Gidieon Kimutai has not missed a beat since returning to Missouri Southern's cross country lineup in 2022.

He has now won three-straight MIAA individual titles on the grass when he toes the line. He won the title in 2018, in 2019 and now again in 2022.

He’s the favorite to win the Central region title when he also toes that line in two weeks. If he does indeed win that race, then it will also be the third-straight time that he’s won that crown when entered in the race.

It’s hard not to like Kimutai after seeing that there’s been very little rust for him to shake off this season. He has four top-10 finishes with three of those being victories. His lone non-victory came at the Chile Pepper XC Festival where he finished 7th.

We are seeing the same kind of performance from Kimutai in 2022 as we did in 2018 and 2019 before he finished as a top-five athlete at the national meet. The expectations surrounding him this fall are all the same as they were a few years ago and Kimutai doesn’t seem to be bothered by those expectations one bit.

3. Afewerki Zeru, Rs. Senior, UC-Colorado Springs (+1 / 4)

Afewerki Zeru has quietly worked his way up our rankings this season. This time, he moves up another spot after a strong 2nd place showing at the RMAC XC Championships this past weekend.

Going into the meet, we had discussed the senior potentially upsetting Dillon Powell. Maybe we got a little too far ahead of ourselves, but he still beat Beraki and took down everyone else. Zeru finished 2nd overall, but essentially ran his own race after letting Powell work hard from the front.

And that is arguably what makes Zeru so good. He knows his limitations and trusts his training all at the same time. Had he gone out with Powell, maybe he finishes alongside the aforementioned Beraki. If he had sat too long, he may have been caught by the 3rd place finisher, Chris Cathcart.

Instead, much like the 2021 RMAC XC Championships, Zeru ran the race that he wanted to and was rewarded for it. He’ll likely take the same approach at the South Central Regional XC Championships in two weeks as he’ll be looking for his second-straight runner-up finish (or higher) on that stage.

2. Tanner Chada, Senior, Grand Valley State (0 / 2)

Tanner Chada handled his business just as we expected him to. As the best runner in the GLIAC, we felt like the Laker veteran would have no trouble with his competition at the GLIAC XC Championships.

However, we’re not so sure that we could have predicted a 30-second victory over the likes of Dayton Brown. That just proves that Chada is on another level right now.

You could make the case that he's in the best cross country fitness of his storied Grand Valley State career. And if that is the case, then we should watch Chada closely over the next month.

He’ll have to get through the Midwest Regional XC Championships first, but as of right now, he’s the man with the best chance to upset our TSR #1 runner in December.

1. Dillon Powell, Junior, Colorado Mines (0 / 1)

Let’s make this clear right now: Dillon Powell is the favorite to win the individual title at the national meet in December.

He’s decimated both fields that he’s been in so far this season. Those races haven’t been remotely close, either. Powell knows that he can outrun just about anyone in the country and it shows each time the gun goes off.

We thought that he would have a challenge at the RMAC XC Championships, but that was just simply not the case. Powell won the race by 14 seconds over Afewerki Zeru and was running with that lead less than 20 minutes into the race.

He’s only going to get better as the race distance gets longer in two weeks, too. Powell has been on a mission all season long and we’re seeing it unfold right before our eyes.

The last question we have is this: Can anyone keep up with him to make it a close race? The best bet will likely be Chada. Outside of him, we’re not sure anyone else can stake a claim in the individual title race...at least, not right now.

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ADDED

Isaac Prather (Concord)

Chris Cathcart (Colorado Mines)

KICKED OFF

Andrew Amor (New Mexico Highlands)

Joao Pereira (Charleston (WV))

JUST MISSED (in no particular order)

Pierre Galbourdin (Wingate)

Scott Nutter (Wingate)

Paul Kraemer (Embry-Riddle)

Nixon Korir (Azusa Pacific)

Xavier Smith (Fresno Pacific)

Caleb Futter (Grand Valley State)

Bryan Banuelos (Fresno Pacific)

Matthew Storer (Colorado Christian)

Matt Steiger (Augustna (SD)

Sam Wilhelm (Alabama-Huntsville)

Rory Abberton (Chico State)

Jack Emanuel (Chico State)

Joao Pereira (Charleston (WV))

Noah Fisher (Findlay)

Benjamin White (Biola)

Paul Knight (Colorado Mines)

Joshua Chepkesir (UNC-Pembroke)

Andrew Amor (New Mexico Highlands)

HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)

Myles Bach (Nebraska-Kearney)

Koby Fraaza (Grand Valley State)

Trent Cochran (Colorado Christian)

Oliver Kiptoo (East Central)

Amos Pkiach (East Central)

Bastian Mrochen (Wingate)

Kevin McDermott (Western Washington)

Silas Eckenroad (Lee (Tenn.))

Thomas Termote (Charleston (WV))

Salvador Capetillo (Azusa Pacific)

Drew Kolodge (Michigan Tech)

Emeric Arnaud (Davis & Elkins)

Matthew Oglesby (Pittsburg State)

Brian Mitei (Central Missouri)

Diego Contreras (Pittsburg State)

Medhane Woldu (Stanislaus State)

Cameron Duquette (Chico State)

Brayden McLaughlin (Chico State)