TSR's 2022 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Rankings (Men): #8 Colorado Christian Cougars

Edits and additional commentary by Garrett Zatlin

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On paper, the Colorado Christian men have one of the better returning cross country squads from the 2021 season, and that's true even when you consider that they are losing one of their All-American finishers in Ryder Searle.

The Cougars have been slowly improving their consistency and depth over the course of the last five years. And in 2022, this is the year when it might all finally pay off.

Of course, we're sure you’re wondering how losing an All-American finisher can result in this team being ranked higher than where they finished at last year's national meet.

But before we explain that, we need to revisit how CCU performed in the fall of 2021.

* * *

Last fall, the Cougars knocked off some rust at the JK Gold Classic where they secured their first team victory of the 2021 season with just 21 points.

Ryder Searle led this CCU squad by finishing 2nd with Josh Pierantoni, Trent Cochran and Alexander Vance finishing 3-4-5 before Aidan Day finished 14th. The Cougars took down the Wichita State men who finished runner-up with 36 points.

That result, while strong, was certainly nothing to brag about as it was a simple 6k cross country course. Nonetheless, taking down a Division One opponent could only bolster this team's confidence heading into the rest of the season.

Two weeks later, the Cougars got their first taste of competition as they attended the Roadrunners Invitational where they would end up with a runner-up finish to RMAC foe, Colorado Mines.

It was once again Searle, Cochran and Pierantoni serving as the team's top-three scorers as they would finished 2-3-4, sandwiched between Colorado Mines’ Chris Cathcart and Duncan Fuehne. While the Orediggers weren't fielding their full squad, having the Cougars put three men ahead of eventual distance star Duncan Fuehne, as well as Luke Julian and Jake Mitchem, had to be encouraging.

After those three men, the CCU duo of Brendan Oury and Kyle Gee would round out the scoring for the Cougars that day.

There is, however, a wrinkle from this race that we would like to point out. The Orediggers were not at full strength like we already said...but the Cougars were not at full strength, either.

There’s no reason to believe that one person would have changed the dynamic of a 15-point loss, but it does ultimately make us feel better that the Cougars were competitive with one of the best teams in the country despite not having their full lineup.

Next up was the Lewis Crossover, a national-caliber Division Two meet where we truly saw this team shine and deliver on the exciting potential that we knew they possessed.

The scoring trio of Searle, Cochran and Pierantoni continued their strong running by finishing 2nd, 5th and 7th, respectively. That three-headed monster led the Cougars to a team title over the likes of Lewis, a short-handed Grand Valley State team, Wayne State (MI) and midwest standout Walsh.

However, this time, Alex Vance made his return to this lineup and finished 16th overall, offering extremely valuable middle lineup scoring. Isaac Russo was the team's fifth man, finishing in 29th place to close out CCU's top-five fairly quickly.

If you’ve made it this far into our rankings, then you already know how impressive it is to defeat the likes of Lewis, Wayne State, Walsh and a limited GVSU team. In fact, those first three programs were all listed as "Just Missed" teams a few days back.

And with Colorado Christian putting down 59 points, winning by more than 25 points over the next-best team, one has to believe that this was a group capable of being a top-10 at the national meet...right?

When you see a 7th place team finish at the 2021 RMAC XC Championships, that would usually ring some alarm bells for a team that is ranked at TSR #8 this fall. However, when you take a closer look, you’ll see that the Cougars opted to give some underclassmen experience in a high-level racing environment.

As a result, there was not much to digest from that conference meet.

Instead, Coach Jon Poag and his team chose to focus on the South Central Regional XC Championships and the NCAA XC Championships.

At the South Central regional meet, the Cougars truly flexed how good their top-three was.

Searle was 5th overall as he continued to serve as the team's top runner. Cochran and Pierantoni finished 8th and 9th, respectively, while Russo and Vance capped their scoring in 29th and 40th, respectively.

Those five scorers were good enough to put up 91 points and a 3rd place team finish, enough to take down the likes of UCCS and Western Colorado, two juggernaut conference rivals. That bronze medal result was also the highest team finish that CCU had ever posted at the regional meet.

Following a fantastic season leading up to the national meet, expectations were enormous. And things looked like they were going to play out as well as they could…until they didn’t.

The Cougars wound up placing 10th overall at the NCAA XC Championships and we were only left asking what had happened to this team that had just beaten UCCS (5th) and Western Colorado (7th) two weeks prior.

Searle and Pierantoni took care of their part of the deal as they both finished inside the top-40 in 19th place and 29th place, respectively, offering top-tier scoring potency that we knew they were each capable of.

However, after those two men, it became apparent where things went wrong. Russo was the team's third scorer in 59th place, which was actually great compared to the rest of his season, but then CCU's final two scorers placed 117th and 181st.

Cochran, who had been the team's clear second or third runner all year long, was well back in 235th place, a result which simply suggested that he had a poor outing.

However, knowing where Cochran finished and still earning a 10th place team finish almost feels like a successful showing for Colorado Christian.

That was clearly not their best performance given the expectations that they had heading into the final meet of the year, but if they were to do that without racing at 100% then...what can they do this fall?

* * *

Let’s talk about this current 2022 cross country season for the CCU Cougars.

Yes, Searle has graduated and yes, that is going to be a major blow in terms of lost scoring potency. On a team that rallied around their top-three men, he was a major reason why this team was so good.

However, the rest of this squad is returning for the fall months and that may simply outweigh Searle's departure.

Josh Pierantoni is currently listed at TSR #16 in our preseason rankings and we wouldn’t be surprised if he added a top-10 national meet finish to his resume in December.

On the track, this CCU star posted times of 8:09 (3k), 14:01 (5k) and 29:43 (10k), making him an boarderline elite D2 runner as he heads into his senior year. He’ll definitely be back in the All-American mix, tasked with leading this CCU team in 2022.

Cochran is also returning and despite a bad finish to his 2021 cross country season, that shouldn’t omit him from being a key low-stick on this team over the next few months.

The returning veteran lowered his personal bests to 3:48 (1500) and 14:07 (5k) during the outdoor track season, times which tells us that his overall fitness has improved beyond last fall.

Another leap forward in Cochran's fitness should make him a viable secondary scorer once again. And as long as he produces his best results on the national stage, the idea of him being an All-American isn't just realistic, it's probable.

We then come to Russo, an underrated talent was thrown into being the third scorer at the NCAA XC Championships last fall -- and he may have that same role again in 2022.

However, this season, Russo will be more than capable of holding onto that third scoring role and building upon the momentum that he had in the spring.

We saw huge improvements from this returner during the course of both track seasons as he ran 4:12 (mile), 8:17 (3k) and 14:18 (5k). It’s clear that he is capable of stepping up when called upon and while track times don’t always translate, it's more likely than not that Russo will be better (and even more consistent) than he was last fall.

As for Alex Vance, he is the biggest wildcard on this team when it comes to last year's returners. He has shown us that he can consistently be part of this scoring five, but we are not sure that his level of improvement during the winter and spring will be enough to put him in the same tier as Russo.

Of course, let's not dismiss what he did this past year. Running 14:36 (5k) and 9:16 (steeple from 2021) are not at all bad times. Still, Vance will need to take a step forward to help this team improve their scoring potency in 2022.

Luckily for him, he won’t be the only carrying the burden of backend scoring for CCU this fall.

Joining the Cougars for the 2022 cross country season is Matthew Storer. The incoming distance talent actually transferred from RMAC rival Western Colorado and was forced to sit out the 2021-2022 campaign due to transfer rules.

Storer raced unattached at the Roadrunners Invitational last fall where he finished 6th overall. He also raced at the Fort Hays State XC Open and took 4th overall behind our TSR #24 runner Andrew Amor and a couple of JUCO athletes.

Storer was someone we thought would immediately impact the Western Colorado men and that opinion still stands...just for a different team.

He’ll add some much needed depth for the Cougars' lineup and while he won’t immediately replace what Searle was doing last fall, he'll certainly shore up some of the backend scoring weaknesses that were prominent in CCU’s lineup last year.

Another name who should provide depth later this fall is returner Luke Meyer. He saw improvement from him during his most recent track seasons, but not quite enough for us to warrant him as anything more than a depth piece at this point.

One last name to monitor this fall Hudson Majeski, a sneaky-good x-factor who could be due for a few varsity appearances in 2022.

Majeski first debuted for the Cougars back in 2020 and has since shown some drastic improvement. He now owns personal bests of 3:54 (1500), 8:28 (3k) and 14:48 (5k). He has some experience racing for this team at the RMAC XC Championships and if he has put together a strong summer of training, then he could certainly find himself as part of this varsity squad.

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Last year was the best season that the Colorado Christian men have ever had and their goals going into this season are likely, at the very least, to replicate that success. Despite losing one of the better runners in the country, the Cougars have prepared for the 2022 season as if it could be even better than last year.

Of course, laying everything out on paper is a much easier thing than actually going out and running the races. There's no guarantee that Searle's All-American scoring potency will be replaced and there's also no way of knowing whose improvements from the track will carry over to the grass.

Still, few teams have flexed a greater upwards trajectory than the Cougars have. On paper, this team could even threaten for a top-five ranking this fall if everything goes perfectly.