TSR's 2022 Preseason D1 XC Top 25 Rankings (Men): #20 Arkansas Razorbacks

Written by Gavin Struve, edits by Garrett Zatlin

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Something that a lot of cross country fans overlook, especially those newer to the sport, is that the Arkansas men hold the most national titles of any NCAA Division One program.

This is a historic dynasty similar in scope to Alabama football or perhaps even UCLA basketball in the mid 1960s and 70s. The Razorbacks' run of title contention -- 11 championships from 1984 to 2000 -- was longer-lasting than the current streak of dominance that we've seen from Northern Arizona.

Since then, the Razorbacks haven’t won a cross country national title in the ensuing two decades and when we look at their 2022 roster, the departure of numerous stars suggests that their title drought will continue for one more year.

NCAA gold won't necessarily be the task at hand for the Arkansas men later this fall. Still, throughout history, this is a program has hardly disappointed 'Hogs fans. While significant challenges lie ahead, history suggests that the Razorbacks will be a problem for their conference and regional rivals over the next few months.

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The Arkansas men were very good last fall, just as they were the year before that and many years before in their storied program’s history.

At the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, Arkansas secured a statement win over a solid field of teams including Syracuse, Duke, Harvard and Providence. Amon Kemboi won the race individually and was followed in close succession by three other Arkansas men in the top-six -- Gilbert Boit, Emmanuel Cheboson and Andrew Kibet. Their fifth scorer was a ways back in 25th place, but this squad did enough for a comfortable 20+ point victory.

After a few key backend pieces competed at the Chile Pepper XC Festival, an even larger national-caliber field lied ahead as the Razorbacks ventured to Pre-Nationals.

In Tallahassee, Kemboi was again rock solid, finishing 10th overall while Gilbert Boit was right behind him in 16th place. Together, those two gave the Arkansas men a very encouraging 1-2 punch at the front of their lineup.

However, maybe even more importantly, Kibet and Cheboson kept the ensuing lineup gaps fairly small with 26th and 31st place finishes, respectively. In fact, there wasn’t much of a drop-off to their fifth scorer either as Myles Richter finished 44th and was then followed closely by Jacob McLeod in 47th.

The Razorbacks were rewarded with a 3rd place team finish thanks to having one of the most complete scoring fives in the country. If there was any critique we could find, perhaps their low-stick scoring could have been better. Still, Arkansas had a very close top-five time spread with nobody having a poor race, something that we couldn't say about their Battle in Beantown performance.

Fast forward to the postseason and things somehow got even better.

Arkansas had little trouble at the SEC XC Championships with Kemboi earning a runner-up finish while Richter, Kibet and Cheboson finished 10-11-12. Meanwhile, Boit faltered a bit to 17th place, but Jacob McLeod came up huge with an unexpected (but outstanding) 5th place run.

McLeod's next-man-up performance was pivotal, especially with Boit having a minor "off" day. While Arkansas would have won the SEC title without McLeod, the overall team score between the Razorbacks and the Ole Miss Rebels would have been much closer.

But in the end, Arkansas won the conference title, their eighth in a 10-year span.

The South Central regional meet went to plan as they coasted to a runner-up finish and punched their ticket to the national meet.

The Razorbacks would go on to post an incredible 4th place finish at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships. That performance shouldn’t necessarily qualify as an outlier given their steadily great regular season, but it was almost inarguably their best result of the season.

One again, Kemboi flexed his experience on the national stage with a strong 12th place finish. Not far behind was Boit who had a career-defining result in his last NCAA race, placing 15th overall. However, the most surprising development was Emmanuel Cheboson joining those two front-runners in the top-20 with a largely unexpected 17th palace finish.

Arkansas joined Northern Arizona as the only teams to put three men in the top-20 spots at the national meet.

While not disastrous, the Razorbacks's backend scoring could have been slightly better. Their fourth and fifth scorers, Kibet and Richter, placed 56th and 127th, respectively. Although, in the grand scheme of things, Kibet's result was actually pretty darn good and Richter's race was far from bad.

In the end, none of that took away from the fact that Arkansas had finished 4th place overall at the cross country national meet for the second year in a row.

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Alright, here’s the bad news: With the top-four scorers gone from last year's roster, it is too much to ask the Razorbacks to repeat their 2021 performances later this fall.

Fortunately, the cupboard was hardly left bare as Coach Chris Buckham will enjoy the return of a couple varsity runners paired with young talent waiting in the wings, as well as some strategic transfer additions.

Admittedly, those returners and transfers won’t be enough to offset the overwhelming scoring losses of Kemboi, Boit, Cheboson and Kibet. Even so, the Razorbacks’ long-standing streak of national meet appearances should not be in jeopardy.

In 2022, Myles Richter will be thrust into the role of Arkansas’ top returner. While he won’t have to lead this team on his own, he’s also not unqualified to be one of the top runners on an upper-echelon team.

It's true, Richter's 2021 national meet performance could have been a little bit better, but he had a very consistent fall campaign, placing 2nd at the Chile Pepper XC Festival, 44th at Pre-Nationals, 10th at the SEC XC Championships and 12th at the South Central Regional XC Championships. That was a much better regular season compared to his 2019 national meet finish of 132nd.

Not only that, but Richter earned strong personal bests nearly across the board in his 2022 track campaign. Marks of 7:56 (3k) and 13:44 (5k) were nationally competitive times on the indoor oval and they hinted at low-stick potential on the grass.

Richter also proved to be one of the conference’s most underrated distance aces with a bronze medal finish at the SEC Outdoor Championships in the 10,000 meters. His 10k personal best of 29:04 remains from the 2021 spring season.

And yet, despite all of his success and all of Arkansas’ departures, Richter may not even be in this team’s top-three later this fall!

That’s in large part due to two key additions.

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Former Fresno Pacific superstar Patrick Kiprop went undefeated in his 2021 cross country campaign before recording a DNF at the Division Two cross country national meet. After transferring to Arkansas in the middle of the 2021-22 school year, he quickly assimilated to the Division One level.

As a Razorback, Kiprop displayed outstanding aerobic prowess across the longer distance races, running 7:56 for 3000 meters, 13:35 for 5000 meters and 28:21 for the 10,000 meters. He won SEC titles in the 5000 meters between both seasons and then placed 14th in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

In theory, those results that should translate extremely well to the Division One cross country scene.

Kiprop, who is ranked at TSR #22, provides a new true low-stick for the Razorbacks. And while he has yet to race on the grass at the Division One level, Arkansas has an extensive (and successful) history of developing Kenyan runners.

Just look at the four departees who led this team last year on the grass.

Joining Kiprop from the transfer ranks is a man familiar with racing within the state: Arkansas State’s Lexington Hilton.

The former Sun Belt runner will actually be the Razorbacks' top returner from the 2021 fall national meet as he finished a bit ahead of Richter at 105th place, although he did so competing for the Red Wolves.

On the track, Hilton has run encouraging times of 8:07 (3k), 14:10 (5k) and 29:20 (10k). However, those marks should only get better with improved training partners and greater racing opportunities.

But make no mistake, his greatest impact will come on the grass.

Hilton already flexed his value to Coach Buckham upon placing 8th at the South Central Regional XC Championships where he would have been the Razorbacks’ fourth runner. Before that, he won the Pre-Nationals "Open" race (by over 25 seconds to boot) and finished runner-up at the Sun Belt XC Championships.

Rounding out what will be the established top-half of this lineup is veteran Jacob McLeod. The former Belmont transfer has been somewhat up and down throughout much of his career, but he does not lack for talent in the slightest.

Truthfully, his performance at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships, where he placed 161st overall, left us wanting more. But one could argue that his national meet result was offset by his tremendous 5th place run at the SEC XC Championships three weeks prior.

The rest of McLeod's efforts throughout last fall admittedly don't match up to that flash of conference meet brilliance as he was 25th at the Battle in Beantown, 47th at Pre-Nationals and 30th at the regional meet.

Of course, there are just as many pros on McLeod's resume than cons. This is also a guy who placed 57th at the winter cross country national meet and he also placed 10th at the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships with a 13:39 mark for 5000 meters.

On paper, those results suggest that McLeod can be a fringe low-stick this fall.

This Arkansas veteran has been an All-American-caliber talent before and we feel very confident that he's going to a key scorer for this team in 2022. In fact, he could realistically be anywhere from the second to fifth runner in this lineup, although it's unclear if McLeod can be the dependable front-runner that he has teased in the past.

After those four men, the proven contributors are fewer and further between. Still, Buckham should have a very strong talent pool to pull from.

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Perhaps the most notable young runner who could make a splash for this team is redshirt freshman Ben Shearer. He was a top Class of 2021 recruit from the state of Texas, but he was buried under the Hogs’ depth last year.

However, the fall of 2022 may be his time to shine.

While he has yet to debut on the grass as a collegiate, Shearer was excellent across the longer distances in high school and has acclimated incredibly well to the competition in the NCAA by running 4:00 in the mile and 7:54 for 3000 meters this past year.

If Ben Shearer develops into the top-five scorer that we think he can be, then the complexion of this team looks much more exciting.

But what if we told you that he had a brother?

Ben is joined by his older brother Josh who has found similar success on the track with 7:59 (3k) and 13:59 (5k) marks. While he still has work to do on the grass, one should expect the elder Shearer to eventually make an appearance in this team's top-seven later this fall.

We then move to Elias Schreml, a sophomore from Germany, who was a national-caliber miler last year after running 3:40 for 1500 meters and 3:57 in the mile. We should also note that Schreml made an appearance in the team’s varsity lineup at Pre-Nationals and that he also ran 7:57 for 3000 meters last winter.

While Schreml is certainly more of a mile and middle distance specialist, it's clear that he has promising potential on the grass. How translatable that speed is to the 8k and 10k distances will be tested this fall.

Be sure to also keep an eye on Reuben Reina. The Class of 2021 high school graduate was a phenomenal distance runner at the prep level. His times of 4:07 (mile) and 8:58 (3200) certainly catch your attention and it's nice to know that he has a year of NCAA experience under his belt going into this fall.

One last name who we need to highlight is redshirt senior Ryan Murphy. If none of the younger athletes on this team flash any promise, then this long-time veteran can step in after proving to be a dependable backend scorer.

In fact, this guy has already proven that he can be an effective scorer in the past. Although his 2021 cross country saw its ups and downs, Murphy placed 18th at the SEC XC Championships. That's a huge result which, if consistently replicated, could change the dynamic of this Arkansas squad later this fall.

It also doesn't hurt that Murphy boasts marks of 14:04 (5k) and 29:07 (10k).

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All this considered, it’s actually amazing that the Arkansas men have this level of depth. When you consider all of their recent departures and the fact that they only have 12 athletes on their current 2022 cross country roster, it seems like Coach Buckham is getting the absolute most out of his team.

And not all top-ranked programs can say that.

Kiprop should be able to replicate the scoring of one of the Razorbacks' graduated front-runners. McLeod has an abundance of potential to tap into if he can improve his consistency from his 2021 campaign. Richter seems due for a breakout season after excellent performances on the track. Hilton is a very strong middle lineup piece and holds the upside for something even greater.

With those four men possessing experience, paired with the upside of Ben Shearer, this could be a nationally competitive Arkansas team full of new faces. Interchangeable options like Jack Shearer, Reina, Schreml and Murphy should solidify the backend as well.

Still, the Razorbacks have lost a massive crux of what made them such an elite team in 2021 -- and 2020 for that matter.

Kiprop, while as talented as nearly anyone in the SEC, has yet to race in a Division One cross country meet. We also don’t know for sure that McLeod, Richter or Hilton can display the necessary consistency to develop into a second low-stick, although that seems more likely than not for at least one of those men.

In other words, the success of this team is banking on a lot of highly variable factors.

Even so, the depth of this team should keep the Razorbacks near the top of the SEC and all but guarantee another national meet berth as well as a top-25 finish. From there, the projections become blurrier.

But if history has taught us anything, it's that the Arkansas men will be a major problem for any team that they toe the line against later this fall.