TSR's 2022 Preseason D2 XC Top 25 Rankings: Just Missed & Honorable Mentions (Men)

John Cusick
Jul 26, 2022
9 min read

Updated: Jul 29, 2022

Additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin

Here we go. Our 2022 men's and women's preseason individual cross country rankings. Let's start out with our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.

As a reminder, you can find our rankings rubric here. This week will be our D2 and D3 rankings.

Please note: The Stride Report made every effort to contact standout teams and key individuals who could have (potentially) had an influence in our rankings. While we do feel confident in the integrity of our lists, it is possible that the altered eligibility from the last two years forced one or two key names to unintentionally miss a spot in our rankings.

JUST MISSED (in no order)

Jack Emanuel, Senior, Chico State

Jack Emanuel will indeed be back for another year at Chico State and it’s not too much of a surprise to find him in our preseason rankings – even if he's in the "Just Missed" portion.

Emanuel got off to a slow start in 2021 as he finished 13th at the Cougar Classic and then 22nd at the WWU Bill Roe Classic (10k). Things were corrected at the CCAA XC Championships where we saw Emanuel climb his way up to a 4th place finish and help Chico State to yet another dominating CCAA title.

Another hiccup at the West Regional XC Championships saw Emanuel slip to the fifth scoring spot within his own team, but he once again rebounded when we saw him at the NCAA XC Championships.

The Chico State veteran has run at three NCAA XC Championships in his career and each time he has improved his standing in the results. Sure enough, the last time he made an appearance, Emanuel finished 24th overall to earn cutch All-American honors all while helping the Wildcats secure a top-10 team performance.

Since then, we’ve only seen the Chico State veteran on the outdoor oval as the Wildcats don't participate during the indoor track season.

During that spring months from earlier this year, Emanuel ran personal bests of 3:55 (1500), 8:23 (3k), 14:08 (5k), and 29:44 (10k). While those marks may not scream "national elite", the overall progression that we've seen out of Emanuel just in 2022 alone is something that we always looked for -- and now we have it.

What’s holding us back from ranking Emanuel in our top-25 is his consistency...or lack thereof. His regular season results weren't ideal and his regional result left us wanting more. On paper, there's just not enough there for him to be a top-25 name, at least not for now.

Even so, Emanuel has proven that he can show up at the right time. He was at his best when he was needed the most and his outdoor season was an extension of that momentum. On paper, those are all super encouraging signs.

Still, we’d like to see him be THE guy for the Wildcats this fall before he gets ranked.

Luke Julian, Senior, Colorado Mines

When we started these rankings, Julian was one of those runners who we had moved back and forth from the “Just Missed” portion of our rankings to the actual XC Top 25 multiple times.

But when it came down to it, we just couldn't find enough room in our top-25 for this Colorado Mines star despite Julian’s resume being one of the most underrated in the country. The Oredigger veteran raced four times last cross country season and three of those meets were in the postseason.

In the fall of 2021, Julian had two 14th place finishes. One was at the RMAC XC Championships and the other came at the South Central Regional XC Championships. He later ended his season with a 34th place All-American result at the NCAA XC Championships where he was the fourth scorer for his team, keeping Colorado Mines in the title hunt.

It’s no surprise that Julian ran well on the grass as he finished 41st at the national meet back in 2019, so this kind of repeated success is nice to see. Of course, Julian did remind us that he is more of a middle distance athlete as he later ran an absurd 4:00 PR for the mile (in Boston) before finishing 6th at the NCAA Indoor Championships in that same event.

There is almost definitely a bad taste in Julian's mouth after his 1500 meter race at the NCAA Outdoor Championships this past spring. However, we’d consider that more of a blip on his radar rather than an actual indicator of his talent. The Colorado Mines star has, after all, been incredibly consistent in each and every season dating back to 2018.

The potential for Julian as a cross country athlete is seemingly unlimited based off of his performances on the track. With personal bests of 4:00 (mile), 8:13 (3k) and 13:52 (5k), there’s no reason that he couldn’t be an elite low-stick for the Orediggers a few months from now.

The only reason why were holding Julian out of our top-25 is because his cross country results are good, even really good, but they're not exactly amazing or good enough to suggest that he's one of the 25 best cross country runners in D2.

But I'll admit, even that felt wrong to type out.

Zach Kreft, Senior, Walsh

A solid Division One talent, Zach Kreft is leaving Notre Dame and joining the Walsh men as a graduate transfer. On paper, he should be able to make an immediate impact within a quietly strong Cavaliers program.

While Kreft isn’t necessarily a cross country ace, his overwhelming experience should allow him to navigate the upper-end of the D2 realm just fine. After all, his modest results at Notre Dame don’t do him the justice that his times on the track do.

The former Irish runner has posted times of 8:03 for 3000 meters and 14:04 for 5000 meters, both during the indoor season, taking six and 16 seconds off of each of his previous bests, respectively.

Kreft then stepped onto the outdoor track and ran 8:53 for the steeplechase, qualifying for the East Regional Championships where he finished 25th.

The times that Kreft has run stack up with some of the best in the country for Division Two, but his past results on the grass tell us that we will need to see those marks actually translate before we can say that he’s worthy of being inside the top-25.

Still, if you're looking for a high-upside talent, don't look past this former high school superstar.

Mikah Paiz, Rs. Junior, Adams State

It’s a bit painful that we are leaving Mikah Paiz out of our top-25, but that’s just how things panned out when comparing his resume to a few others.

Part of the reason why this is a painful spot for Paiz is because he was an essential part of the success that Adams State had last fall.

A 47th place finish at Paul Short was respectable, but it was after that race when we really began to see Paiz come into his own during the cross country season.

At the RMAC XC Championships, Paiz finished 14th overall and then improved upon that result with a 10th place finish at the South Central Regional XC Championships two weeks later. His postseason peak continued at the national meet as Paiz found himself finishing 24th at the NCAA XC Championships, all while being the fifth scorer for the Grizzlies.

Everything had seemingly come together for Paiz entering the indoor season and it showed. He ran 4:07 for the mile and 8:33 for 3000 meters at the Husky Classic – both personal bests. That mile time was good enough to send him to the NCAA Indoor Championships where he finished 8th (All-American) and ultimately proved to be one of the most versatile runners in the country.

Now, admittedly, Paiz didn't have the same success story during the most recent outdoor track season as the Adams State ace failed to run similar times. Still, all things considered, his resume held far more positives than negatives.

Paiz has plenty of accolades and given us enough reason to believe he'll be a factor yet again this fall. However, we have yet to see the same kind of consistency from him that we have seen from others in our rankings.

As a result, this has caused us to put him in the “Just Missed” portion of our rankings.

Miguel Coca, Senior, Adams State

Much like his teammate Mikah Paiz, leaving Miguel Coca out of our rankings was brutal. This was the absolute last name we wanted to omit from our top-25. In fact, a few of us actually got together and attempted to find an argument that allowed Coca to earn a ranking.

And as you can see, we were unable to make that work.

The greatest value on Coca's resume can admittedly be found on the track, not necessarily the grass. This past spring, he ran an exceptional mark of 13:58 for 5000 meters. He later ran 3:42 for 1500 meters in the prelims of the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Coca would go on to earn a 5th place All-American finish in that event as well as a 20th place finish in the 5k.

In theory, those performances would put Coca in our XC Top 25 rankings...but his cross country seasons haven't always held the same spark.

Last fall, the Adams State standout finished 178th at Paul Short and 115th at Fort Hays State Tiger Open. There are past results of his that have been better, such as a 24th place finish at the 2020 RMAC XC Championships, but none of those results suggest that he's a top-25 talent on the grass.

Yes, his track times do suggest that he should be in the conversation for a ranking, but we just have to see him actually deliver on his outstanding potential on the grass before that actually happens.

Rory Abberton, Junior, Chico State

With Rory Abberton, we find a second Chico State runner inside the “Just Missed” portion of our rankings, and it’s no surprise that we see him here as he’s had a similar career to that of his teammate Jack Emanuel.

Now look, Abberton's finish to the 2021 cross country season was not ideal, but that’s not indicative of the runner who Abberton actually was last year. Prior to his 143rd place at the NCAA XC Championships, the Chico State standout had proven to be a vital component to the Wildcats’ success.

Abberton did, in truth, have a slow start to the 2021 cross country season, but he found himself near the top of the results at both his conference and regional meets. The Chico State veteran finished 7th overall at the CCAA XC Championships and then 10th at the West Regional XC Championships.

Yes, that 143rd place finish next to his name at the national meet is a glaring concern, but we don’t think that is the version of Abberton who we will see in 2022.

That's because during the outdoor track season, Abberton continued to improve upon his fitness and had the most successful season of his Chico State career.

In early March, he lowered his 3000 meter personal best to 8:21, showing signs that his fitness carried over from cross country. Abberton then ended the outdoor track season with a personal best of 3:44 in the 1500 meters -- and a new All-American honor to go along with it.

Abberton's improved fitness also helped him run 14:26 (5k) at the Bryan Clay Invitational and while it’s not the fastest time ever, it’s a good reminder that Abberton still has plenty of room to grow and progress.

If this Chico State standout takes another leap like he did during the spring months, then he will be someone to watch out for this fall.

Brayden McLaughlin, Sophomore, Chico State

Last year, Brayden McLaughlin was everything that the Chico State men were hoping for when he finally donned a Wildcats uniform.

Sure, there may be a bad taste in his mouth after his 22nd place finish at the outdoor national meet this past spring, but one thing that we do know now is that this Chico State athlete is the real deal.

In a span of five weeks, we saw McLaughlin run incredibly well on the outdoor oval. He debuted with a 3k where he ran 8:22 which was encouraging after Chico’s winter hiatus. He’d later run 14:16 for 5k and then he prove how good he was, aerobically, by running 29:29 for 10k.

While we loved what we saw from him on the track, it’s what McLaughlin did during the fall that really makes us like him in the 2022 season. In his first year on the grass, McLaughlin finished no worse than 4th before the NCAA XC Championships.

He was 2nd at the San Francisco State Invitational where he finished behind Simon Fraser's Aaron Ahl. He later grabbed another 2nd place finish at the Cougar Challenge behind Shea Vavra.

In a test over the 10k distance at the WWU Bill Roe Classic, McLaughlin finished 4th, once again behind Aaron Ahl and a couple of unattached athletes, bringing an end to his regular season.

Somehow, the youngster was able to elevate his fitness even further during the postseason as he won the CCAA XC Championship title, avenging his earlier loss to Vavra during the regular season. He then took home bronze at the West Regional XC Championships where he finished behind D1’s TSR #22 Patrick Kiprop and the aforementioned Vavra.

McLaughlin would go on to finish 32nd at the NCAA XC Championships, securing his first All-American honor as well as helping the Chico State men to a top-10 finish as a team.

Some people may believe that McLaughlin should be ranked -- and we wouldn't argue! He was consistent throughout the entirety of last year and earned an All-American honor. What's not to like?

In the end, his competition was limited to his team a few select individuals, many of whom (Kiprop, Vavra, Ahl, etc.) he didn't always beat. And while a 32nd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships is extremely impressive, factoring in breakout track seasons and a mass number of returners forced us to wait and see a little bit more from him this fall.

Even so, if that is what McLaughlin can do in his first real year of competing, then we can only imagine what he’ll be capable of doing in year number two.