TSR's 2022 D3 XC Top 20 Individual Rankings (Men): Update #3

TSR Collaboration
Nov 8, 2022
10 min read

Written by Kevin Fischer, Hannah Thorn & Brett Haffner

Additional edits and commentary by Garrett Zatlin

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.

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.

20. Frank Csorba, Junior, Lynchburg (-2 / 18)

The ODAC XC Championship was a Lynchburg sweep, with Frank Csorba finishing right along with his teammate, Corbin Green. However, it was Csorba who ultimately earned the individual conference title.

The only reason why Csorba falls a few spots in this edition of our rankings was simply due to the emergence of a few previously unranked runners. However, despite the two-spot drop in our rankings, we aren’t going to knock Csorba for tactically winning a conference meet, especially when he was the clear favorite going into the race.

If anything, it adds to his resume and gives him some momentum heading into the regional meets this upcoming weekend.

19. Mohammed Bati, Freshman, Augsburg (Unranked)

Quietly having a very good season that has flown under our radae, Mohammed Bati enters our rankings after most recently winning the MIAC XC Championships by a nice 20-second margin.

The Augsburg ace has won every race that he has contested this fall, minus the Jim Drews Invitational where a runner from Iowa Central edged him out. Even so, he’s defeated many strong runners from midwest programs along the way.

But how will his potential serve him when he gets into a bigger field? How does he truly compare to some of the most elite distance talents that D3 has?

The answers to those questions should hopefully unfold in the coming weeks for the budding Augsburg star as he aims to validate his sneaky-good season so far.

18. Isaac Wegner, Junior, UW-La Crosse (Unranked)

Even though he’s done some shifting between being ranked and being in our “Just Missed” section, Isaac Wegner has been extremely consistent as the Eagles’ second scorer this entire season behind the reins of Ethan Gregg.

His 3rd place finish at the WIAC XC Championships behind Gregg and Christian Patzka was exactly what we’d expect from Wegner who has thrown down solid finish after solid finish in every race that he’s toed the line for this fall.

With his newfound consistency and increased scoring potency on the grass, Wegner’s in a great position to improve his 67th place finish from the 2021 cross country national meet.

If he does that, and catapults into the top-30 like we think he can, then that will also help the Eagles secure a great team finish.

17. Ryan Kredell, Sophomore, Haverford (Unranked)

As someone who has sat in our “Honorable Mentions” section a few times now, Ryan Kredell was able to come away with a really solid performance at the Centennial Conference XC Championships the other weekend.

He brought home the individual title over the likes of Matthew Kleiman and Gavin McElhennon, earning him a much-deserved spot on our list.

Additionally, he led the Haverford men to a near-upset of Johns Hopkins for the team title. His low-stick prowess has really given Haverford a welcomed boost in the waning weeks of the season. On paper, it looks like he's peaking right on time.

While his 139th place finish from the 2021 national meet wasn’t his best performance, Kredell finished 45th way back in 2019 at the national meet, nearly missing All-American honors.

With a clear, large improvement in his aerobic ability, Kredell looks poised to surpass his previous national meet performances and hunt for a solid, low-end All-American honor finish.

16. Spencer Moon, Junior, Simpson (IA) (-8 / 8)

Spencer Moon flew up our list last week with his unreal 23:34 (8k) performance at the Platte River Rumble. However, he ultimately slides down our rankings this week after a sub-par 12th place showing at the ARC XC Championships.

On paper, that result is not pretty for the Simpson star. Just looking at the splits, he was in 2nd place with less than 1000 meters to run, but faded brutally hard in that final 1000 meters to slide back to 12th place.

Yes, this is only one race for Moon where he wasn't firing on all cylinders. Even so, just looking at the facts, finishing 12th place finish at a conference championship for a runner of Moon’s caliber is a bit of a concern.

The good news is that Moon will have his regional meet this weekend as a nice opportunity to bounce back and prove that he can be competitive with Christopher Collet.

15. Cal Yackin, Junior, Otterbein (-5 / 10)

Cal Yackin’s 4th place finish at the OAC XC Championships seems like a slightly underwhelming result after his excellent 3rd place finish at the Augustana Interregional Invitational earlier this fall.

We acknowledged last week that ranking him at TSR #10 might have been a slight overreaction, so slotting him at TSR #15 seems like a fitting middle ground for the Otterbein ace.

If there’s one thing that Yackin has going for him, it's that we know that he has a high ceiling. He was super competitive against the likes of Christopher Collet and Connor Riss at Augustana and his 16th place finish from last year’s cross country national meet is a further testament to his potential.

He’s generally trending in a good direction when the postseason rolls around, in both cross country and track, so we will bank on his historic success rather than this most recent performance.

14. Simon Heys, Junior, Wilmington (OH) (+2 / 16)

While losing to Alex Phillip and Jeff Joseph at the OAC XC Championships wasn’t Simon Heys’ best performance, he still knows a thing or two about turning things around when it matters the most.

In the fall of 2021, Heys finished 7th at the OAC XC Championships, but then ended up placing 5th at the D3 NCAA XC Championships, clearly showing that postseason “clutch” gene at the best time of the season.

This year, he finished 3rd at his conference meet, which isn’t a bad performance per se, but it left a little more to be desired. On the contrary, his other performances this year have been solid. His consistency has come through no matter the conditions or the quality of the field.

So all in all, we like the reliability that we get with Heys, and for that reason, he gets placed at TSR #14 in this week's rankings update.

13. Lucas Florsheim, Junior, Pomona-Pitzer (-1 / 12)

On a Pomona-Pitzer team that has seen so many changes in their lineup order, Lucas Florsheim continues to be a guy who you’d expect to be either their first or second scorer every single time.

That was certainly the case the other weekend as he finished 2nd overall at the SCIAC XC Championships behind Derek Fearon.

We know from last year’s exploits that Florsheim brings the heat in the postseason. He finished 14th at the national meet in 2021 and despite the one spot drop, we should expect him to rise to the occasion again in 2022.

His consistency for the Sagehens has been a bright spot this fall and keying in on that consistency streak should carry Florsheim to another impressive performance at the most important time of the year.

12. Matt Carter, Junior, Connecticut College (+8 / 20)

Having only raced three times this fall, Matt Carter might have some of the freshest legs in Division Three right now as it stands heading into the postseason.

He’s strung together three consecutive encouraging showings with his most recent effort coming at the NESCAC XC Championships. In that race, he finished behind Elias Lindgren and Tyler Morris, two men who are both top-five runners within Division Three according to our rankings.

Carter had admittedly been slightly off of our radar before this season. However, he's certainly rising to the occasion in this 2022 cross country season and his current momentum could carry him even higher than we expected.

11. Sam Acquaviva, Junior, MIT (+2 / 13)

In a conference affair where the MIT men claimed the top-six spots at the NEWMAC XC Championships, Sam Acquaviva once again proved that he is the Engineers’ top dog. He earned an individual conference title with Ryan Wilson close behind.

His 13th place finish from the national meet in 2021 is definitely one to keep in mind as Acquaviva has often performed exceptionally well in the postseason. And given his efforts this fall, we don't see why that would change.

Acquaviva can undoubtedly emerge as a top-10 finisher at this year’s national meet. Doing so would give MIT the true low-stick value that he's been able to offer all season long while maintaining the Engineers' integrity of their renowned scoring pack.

10. Nick Andrews, Junior, SUNY Geneseo (-1 / 9)

Finishing just ahead of his SUNY Geneseo teammates, Nick Andrews brought home the individual SUNYAC title, aiding his team to a dominant title as well.

Consistency has been the name of the game for Andrews this fall who has competed quite well against some of the best individuals in Division Three, at least on the east coast.

The real test for Andrews will come at the national meet where he will have to navigate a deep field against the rest of Division Three. He'll be looking to earn his second All-American honor on the grass after taking 39th last year.

We know that Andrews has some serious guts from his heroic front-running tactics in the 3000 meters at the indoor national meet, so we could expect him to compete near the front if the pace lags at this year’s national meet.

However, after an underwhelming result at last year's national meet (relative to expectations), it will be fascinating to see how Andrews approaches his season finale compared to last year.

9. Connor Riss, Junior, North Central (+2 / 11)

Continuing his massive rise, Connor Riss earned his first CCIW individual cross country title the other weekend, winning the 8k race ahead of a long line of North Central teammates.

Riss continues to prove that he can consistently be the low-stick star that North Central has desired in prior seasons, all while leading a depth-laden team that currently sits at our TSR #3 spot.

What Riss has done this fall is exceptional. He has been a pleasant low-stick surprise, continues to get better and is may be peaking in time for the national meet. Experience at the highest levels of D3 competition does matter, but Riss has shown very few weaknesses this fall.

8. Christian Patzka, Sophomore, UW-Whitewater (-1 / 7)

Christian Patzka’s 2nd place finish at the WIAC XC Championships was a natural step forward for the UW-Whitewater ace who has only lost to Ethan Gregg this fall.

Even though he lost to Gregg by 30 seconds, his 22-second gap over Isaac Wegner (TSR #18) was impactful enough to give him a meaningful result for the Warhawk sophomore.

Patzka's only been getting better and better with each race, which should set him up well to be a low-end All-American for the second year in as many tries. However, the question remains about whether or not he can break into the next tier which features names like Phillip, Lindgren, Gregg, Collet and Morris.

7. Cory Kennedy, Sophomore, RPI (+10 / 17)

Cory Kennedy has been one of the biggest breakout stars in the country this year.

He has continued to show improvement with a pleasantly surprising win over teammate Matthew Lecky at the Liberty League XC Championships. That result helped RPI score 18 total team points on their way to an easy team victory.

We knew that Kennedy could be a reliable secondary scoring option for the RPI men. However, it is looking more and more likely that he can be another top-10 national meet finisher alongside with Lecky. Much like a lot of other names in these rankings, his recent performances suggest that his best performances could still be coming at the regional and national meets.

And if that's true, then RPI will be a podium team.

6. Matthew Lecky, Junior, RPI (0 / 6)

Matthew Lecky may have lost to his teammate at the Liberty League XC Championships, but that shouldn’t be a concern, especially since the team race wasn’t competitive. All that really mattered was that they went 1-2 on the individual side of things.

The RPI star has already proven to be one of the top talents in the country with his most notable performance coming in his win at the Rowan Interregional Border Battle.

However, Lecky will face an even bigger test this weekend at the Mideast Regional XC Championships where he will get a rematch against Elias Lindgren who beat him by five seconds at the Siena Invitational back in September.

5. Tyler Morris, Junior, Colby (-1 / 4)

Tyler Morris has notched several big performances this season that have kept him among the elite names of Division Three. In his last two races, he has recorded back-to-back runner-up finishes behind our TSR #2 runner, Elias Lindgren, at the Connecticut College Invitational and the NESCAC XC Championships.

Even though someone at his level will always want to win those meets, it has still been incredibly impressive to see him hold his own as well as he has.

Morris should be the favorite to get his first major win of the season at his regional meet, but a group of MIT runners will be hot on his tail. A win there could be really promising towards improving his stock in our rankings.

4. Christopher Collet, Junior, Wartburg (-1 / 3)

Chris Collet took the win at the American Rivers Conference XC Championships by a pretty comfortable margin, continuing his stretch of not losing to any D3 competition this year.

That is no small feat given that he has raced against some very competitive fields, especially at the Augustana Interregional Invitational.

After having an "off" day at last year’s national meet, Collet looks like he has a chip on his shoulder. That could act as extra motivation which could make him a scary name to watch out for on the national stage.

And although he falters one spot in our rankings, there's a realistic chance that we haven't truly been able to see Collet at the fullest extent of his fitness this fall relative to other D3 competitors.

3. Ethan Gregg, Junior, UW-La Crosse (+2 / 5)

We expected that Ethan Gregg would win the WIAC XC Championships, but it looked like, on paper, that it would be a much closer individual race than it ultimately was.

The UW-La Crosse star just took the race by the scruff of the neck, going through 5k in 14:40 and putting some serious distance between him and a fading Christian Patzka in the last few kilometers.

After brushing off some elite-level competition with relative ease, Gregg will now have his eyes on his first national title. That will, admittedly, take a Herculean effort, but this Eagle superstar just looks so darn good right now. He's taking down some of the best men in the country by considerable margins.

2. Elias Lindgren, Senior, Williams (0 / 2)

Elias Lindgren won the NESCAC XC Championships by 26 seconds over our TSR #5 runner, Tyler Morris, continuing his undefeated season and his quest for his first individual title that he has come so close to several times.

Lindgren has been incredibly consistent this year and if he takes care of business at the Mideast Regional XC Championships, then he will have to feel very confident in his chances of pulling off an upset at the national meet.

In fact, given his consistency, experience and recent success, this Williams star is probably the best name who is primed to pull off an upset for gold...but like we've said with others, that will be far from easy.

1. Alex Phillip, Junior, John Carroll (0 / 1)

Despite some great performances from other names across the country, Alex Phillip is still the best distance runner in Division Three.

No other Division Three competitor has finished within 20 seconds of Phillip this fall. During that stretch, Phillip has also knocked some formidable Division One and Division Two names.

If the four-time national champion continues his momentum this postseason, then there is no reason why he shouldn’t be lifting hardware once again.