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TSR's 2022 Preseason D2 XC Top 25 Rankings: #20-16 (Men)
- John Cusick
- Jul 29, 2022
- 7 min read
Additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin
20. Cade Michael, Rs. Senior, Western Colorado
Death, taxes and Western Colorado finding individuals who can standout in the loaded Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. And when you look at last year's results, Cade Michael seems to be the new name who is on the rise for the Mountaineers.
The RMAC veteran just had a breakout academic year, posting phenomenal times on the track and securing quietly strong finishes on the grass.
Last fall, Michael started out his season with a rust-busting 9th place finish at the Wyoming Invite which featured teams like Colorado Mines and Wyoming. He later secured a small-meet win at the Cowboy Invite.
However, Michael's 43rd place finish at the Chile Pepper XC Festival wasn't great. The Western Colorado ace failed to standout in a loaded field and has numerous teammates well above him in the results.
But then, slowly but surely, Michael began to pick up momentum.
The WCU runner secured a promising 10th place finish at the loaded RMAC XC Championships and then earned a similar-caliber result at the South Central Regional XC Championships by placing 12th.
However, it wasn't until the national meet when Michael had the best race of his career. The Western Colorado standout placed 28th overall on that stage, earned a huge All-American honor and validating the small moments of brilliance that he flashed throughout the fall.
And while those results were encouraging, it was Michael's outdoor track season that truly caught our attention. The Mountaineer ace ran eye-catching personal bests 14:06 (5k) and 8:55 (steeple), both at Bryan Clay. He would later qualify for the outdoor national meet in both events.
On paper, Cade Michael isn't a perfect runner. His resumes has a few highs and a few lows. In some meets, he's great and in other meets, he's just ok. Still, this is someone who peaked in the postseason, earned a top-30 All-American finish and then flexed improved aerobic dominance with multiple nationally competitive personal bests.
Knowing the history of success at Western Colorado, it's hard to imagine Michael not being a major factor on the grass this fall. He still needs to offer greater consistency and scoring potency, but he seems more likely to deliver on that potential than not.
19. Clayton Sayen, Senior, Michigan Tech
When you look at Clayton Sayen's entire resume, you may ask the same question that we did.
"How on Earth do you rank a guy like this?"
The Michigan Tech veteran is best known for his middle distance track performances. However, his cross country results are far better than some people realize.
Most people will look at Sayen's most recent showing at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships and find it challenging to understand why we ranked him -- and understandably so. That's because the Michigan Tech runner finished 127th at the cross country national meet last fall.
However, out of all of the men who are already ranked in our D2 XC Top 25, one could argue that Sayen has (one of) the best non-national meet resumes in the country.
After a 3rd place rust-buster at the Warrior Challenge, Sayen took home the victory in the "Maroon" race at the Roy Griak Invitational. He later placed 6th at the absolutely loaded Lewis XC Crossover and then a highly impressive 4th place the GLIAC XC Championships.
Sayen would go on to place 11th at the Midwest Regional XC Championships before underwhelming at the national meet.
From that perspective, it's understandable why we have Sayen ranked. He was excellent in the regular season, strong at his conference meet and really only faltered at the national meet...but isn't TSR #19 still a little high? Especially with a poor national meet showing?
Maybe, but when you consider that Sayen ran 1:49 (800) and 3:43 (1500) this past spring, we have reason to believe that this overall fitness has made a significant jump.
Of course, there are still fair questions to be asked.
How much of Sayen's middle distance fitness is transferrable to the grass? Are we sure that this middle distance success didn't already stem from the 2021 cross country season? Does his track success really alter our opinion of Sayen in a dramatic way?
Everyone's answers to those questions will be different, but for now, we like Sayen and think he's going to be a problem for his competitors this fall (again).
18. Dayton Brown, Rs. Junior, Saginaw Valley State
The last time we saw Dayton Brown on a cross country course, he was finishing 32nd at the NCAA XC Championships...in 2019.
To quickly recap that season, Brown finished 3rd at the GLIAC XC Championships and then 5th at the Midwest XC Regional Championships two weeks later. His impressive All-American finish was encouraging to see and it left us excited about his potential in the fall of 2020.
Of course, for obvious reasons, that didn't happen.
In fact, he didn't even race in the fall of 2021 for that matter!
Fast forward to 2022 and the potential that Brown once flashed in 2019 has finally come to the forefront of his track resume. Since that 2019 cross country All-American result, Brown has improved in multiple different racing facets which is what makes him (potentially) so dangerous in 2022.
In 2021, he ran times of 8:10 (3k) and 29:31 (10k) – neither of which were good enough for a qualifying mark to the NCAA Indoor Championships.
However, in 2022, that changed.
Despite only running 8:12 for 3000 meters, Brown found himself at the NCAA Indoor Championships and then once more at the NCAA Outdoor Championships as he ran 29:32 for the 10k.
Prior to those national meets, Brown had finished 3rd at GLIAC Indoor Championships in the 3k and then 2nd at GLIAC Outdoor Championships in the 10k, indicating that he was getting more comfortable racing from the front with other elite athletes.
All of this is to say that we really like what we have seen from Brown on the indoor and outdoor ovals. He has already shown that he can be successful in cross country and we have reason to believe that he'll be even better this fall after making noticeable improvements on the track.
No, his track times don't necessarily suggest he'll be a cross country star, but Brown strikes us as someone who is clearly at his best on the grass in comparison to the oval.
This Saginaw Valley State ace has been consistent, his race tactics continue to get better and with another year of experience under him, Brown has all the potential in the world. Sure, he's three years removed from his 32nd place All-American finish, but we struggle to see a scenario where he's not noticeably better than that.
With the departure of veteran teammate CarLee Stimpfel, the low-stick scoring potency of this team has been left up to this Cardinal veteran to lead this team -- and he has all the necessary racing tools to take on that responsibility.
17. Ransom Allen, Junior, Wayne State
Admittedly, Allen is a name we almost missed. But as we looked deeper into his results and those around him, it became clear that this Wayne State star could be a problem for his competitors this fall.
Allen was basically the 2021 cross country rival of Michigan Tech's Clayton Sayen. At a rust-buster meet (the Warrior Invite), Allen showed promise by taking down by Sayen and CarLee Stimpfel (now at Michigan State). However, in the Roy Griak "Maroon" race, Allen would settle for 2nd place behind Sayen.
Allen and his Michigan Tech counterpart once again met at the Lewis XC Crossover, an absolutely loaded meet with top-tier standout distance talents. That, however, didn't stop Allen from securing a marquee 4th place finish and taking down Sayen who was two spots behind him.
And at the GLIAC XC Championships, the roles were reversed once more, this time with Allen finishing a very strong 5th place overall while Sayen placed 4th.
But from there, Allen would find the edge over Sayen and hold it. The Wayne State star would place 7th overall at the Midwest Regional XC Championships and then advance to the national meet where he placed 25th overall.
All-in-all, Allen had one of the most complete 2021 cross country seasons of anyone in the first-half of these rankings. He was extremely consistent, competitive in major meets on numerous occasions and peaked right on time.
For the most part, we don't have many critiques about this up-and-coming talent. However, the next goal for Allen will be to go from "great" to "elite". And after seeing how well he performed last fall, that possibility seems probable instead of just possible.
16. Josh Pierantoni, Senior, Colorado Christian
Josh Pierantoni has put together one of the better distance resumes in Division Two. However, from our perspective, he doesn't always seem to get his due credit. Luckily, that changes this year as the veteran athlete finds himself at our TSR #16 spot to open the preseason.
Pierantoni finished 29th at the NCAA XC Championships last fall, capping off his breakout season on the grass and cementing himself as one of the premier distance athletes in D2.
Prior to that result, he had never finished outside of the top-10 in any race he toed the line for that fall. Sure, the JK Gold Classic (3rd) and the 2021 Roadrunners Invitational (4th) weren’t loaded with talent, but those meets still stood as good measuring sticks for where he was fitness-wise.
The Colorado Christian star then finished 7th at the talent-laden Lewis XC Crossover -- and that’s really when we knew that he’d be someone to watch later in the fall.
Pierantoni finished third on his team that day, but the only non-teammates to beat him in that meet were D2 distance stars like CarLee Stimpfel, Shea Vavra, Ransom Allen and Clayton Sayen.
After skipping his conference meet, we saw Pierantoni place 9th at the South Central XC Championships while helping his team to a top-three finish. He then picked up right where he left off at the NCAA XC Championships as finished 29th overall, earning All-American honors.
On paper, that is a very impressive resume, but shouldn't Pierantoni be ranked behind a few other men listed in this section?
Well, it depends on how you view track his performances...
This past winter, we saw Pierantoni drop his 3k time down to 8:09. When you add that new 3k PR to his current string of personal bests, which include marks of 14:01 (5k) and 29:43 (10k), then there’s no reason to doubt that this CCU star will be back in the mix this fall.
Pierantoni has experience on the national stage in all three seasons and he’s continued to improve upon his fitness year-in and year-out. All of these things point to Pierantoni taking yet another step forward this in 2022.
And if he does, then he could be top-five guy before the season is over.
Yep, we're that high on him.
