TSR's 2022 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Rankings (Men): #3 John Carroll Blue Streaks

Additional commentary and edits by Garrett Zatlin

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The Stride Report first began covering Division Three distance running at the start of the 2019 cross country season. If we had to award a “Most Improved Program” honor to a Division Three team during that time period, then we would have to select the John Carroll men as our winners.

Before the 2021 cross country, the Blue Streaks’ highest finish at a cross country national meet was 19th. That result was earned in 2019, proving to be an already-great step in the right direction for the Ohio-based team.

But just two years later, that top-20 finish would turn out to be more of a precursor rather than a sign of this team's actual potential.

That's because last fall, John Carroll finished 4th at the NCAA XC Championships, a new program best which felt like a massive statement to the rest of the Division Three scene.

But...how did they get to that point?

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It’s easy to attribute John Carroll’s recent success to having a national champion low-stick in Alex Phillip, the most dominant individual force on the Division Three scene.

Phillip did not lose to a single Division Three runner throughout his entire 2021 fall campaign while also placing 6th against some talented Division One runners at the Paul Short Invite – a wildly impressive achievement.

However, the way that the Blue Streaks developed throughout last fall as a unit was tremendous. The rising D3 stalwart experienced huge growth, developing key varsity pieces who would turn out to be the major reasons why this team had so much postseason success.

At the All Ohio XC Championships, John Carroll had a decent start to their 2021 cross country season. With Phillip taking the win, teammate Ian Pierson served as their group's second scorer with a very solid 18th place finish. Meanwhile, the scoring contingent of Andrew Miner, Jared Arnold and Adam Shah finished 33rd, 34th and 44th, respectively.

Pat White and Ethan Domitrovitch finished right behind Shah, giving John Carroll a very tight knit group in their 3-4-5-6-7 varsity spots. On paper, the Blue Streaks showed limited scoring flaws at the backend of their lineup, but that latter group, as a whole, likely needed to be better.

Why's that?

Well, that's because their top-five time-spread was one minute and 41 seconds, a stat that would usually be concerning for most teams.

But for the Blue Streaks, that kind of time-spread would prove to fairly understandable. With a superstar low-stick combined with a massive field of highly respectable D1 and D2 programs, a near-two minute spread didn't stop John Carroll from placing 3rd overall.

The JCU men were the top D3 team in that All Ohio field and lost to two very respectable programs in Miami (OH) and Walsh. When it came to the other D3 opponents in this field, Otterbein and Case Western fell well behind the Blue Streaks.

Competing against Division One competition at the Paul Short Invite, John Carroll placed 15th; defeating many Division One teams in the process and destroying fellow Division Three foe, Carnegie Mellon.

Arnold (101st), Miner (112th) and Pierson (131st) all finished roughly 90 seconds back of Phillip (6th), with Shah (161st) and Barrett Scheatzle (171st) another 10 seconds back of Pierson, giving the team roughly the same kind of time-spread that we saw at the All Ohio XC Championships.

While this team seemed to maintain a competitive edge by utilizing a deep scoring pack, the Blue Streaks admittedly lacked another low-stick next to Phillip who could propel them just a step further.

And yet, at the same time, it was hard to look at the Paul Short results and truly get an accurate gauge of what this team was going to be do against strictly Division Three competition. Defeating Carnegie Mellon at the Lehigh-hosted course was encouraging, but how effective would this lineup structure be in smaller, more compact fields?

Well, as it turns out, it would be pretty darn effective.

The Oberlin Regional Rumble saw very similar results as far as scoring structure was concerned. Phillip went out front (eventually securing the win) while an interchangeable contingent of Blue Streak men stayed together in close-knit fashion.

However, this time, Jamie Dailey began to play a bigger role in the team’s scoring.

While he did have a slower start to the year, Dailey was coming off of an All-American performance in the 10,000 meters from the 2021 outdoor national meet. With the way he was progressing during the fall months, it became clear that he would keep moving up the ranks of the Blue Streaks’ lineup.

In a field that featured D3 standout programs like UW-Whitewater, Carnegie Mellon, UW-Oshkosh and Case Western, it was John Carroll that emerged victorious.

Phillips' win was complemented by Miner, Pierson, Dailey and Arnold going 12-14-16-17 in what was arguably their effort to quickly close out the team's scoring. In the end, they would edge the Warhawks by seven points for the win.

That momentum was later carried the Ohio Athletic Conference XC Championships where Phillip earned the title and Dailey (4th) was a very solid second scorer for John Carroll yet again. Four additional men would finish in the top-10 and another three would finish in the top-15 of the overall results.

At this point in the season, it was becoming increasingly clear that freshmen Barrett Scheatzle, Ryan Champa, Ethan Domitrovitch and Cormac Peppard-Kramer were all on the cusp of consistently entering the scoring lineup, already providing an exciting future path for their team despite being in the early portions of their eligibility.

After getting the job done at the Great Lakes Regional XC Championships with a team title, the men of John Carroll looked poised to do something big at the national meet. If they could have a breakout performance or two, then that would result in a potential podium finish...right?

Seeing Alex Phillip win the national title was beyond fantastic, but his scoring value was hardly surprising. Instead, it was Jamie Dailey who gave the Blue Streaks the extra scoring punch that they needed all season long, placing 16th overall in what was an incredible finale to his season.

Meanwhile, rookies Champa and Scheatzle also stepped up in a huge way, placing 60th and 66th, respectively, while Pierson rounded out the scoring-five in 81st place. That top-five showed great lineup stability and almost no weaknesses.

Not only that, but Miner (92nd) and Arnold (127th) were not too far behind, either, providing some solid depth to push all seven runners on the team under 25:00 at the national meet.

Ultimately, that collective team effort was the culmination of many things going really well for the John Carroll men. A 4th place podium result acted as the true starting point for a program revitalization that has been under the tutelage of Coach Kyle Basista for the last few seasons.

And sure enough, that success carried to the track as well.

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Let's start our analysis portion of this article with Jamie Dailey. The 2021 cross country All-American and outdoor 5k national champion from this past spring isn't returning to John Carroll this fall. Instead, he's advancing to the Division One level and is joining the Cincinnati Bearcats as a graduate transfer.

Losing Dailey, even if it was anticipated, is an absolutely brutal departure. Without his rise during the 2021 cross country season, the Blue Streaks were almost certainly not a podium squad. We knew how strong Phillip was a low-stick, but this team simply needed more firepower beside him, something that Dailey provided.

And with Dailey now gone, there is less certainty as to who that second All-American is going to be for the Blue Streaks in 2022.

To make matters even more challenging, the John Carroll men no longer have Ian Pierson on their current roster.

Pierson who was very valuable as a scorer this past year. He emerged as a consistent second or third runner for JCU throughout last fall. And even when he didn't have his best day at the national meet, Pierson was still his team's fifth scorer in 81st place.

So how on Earth is this John Carroll squad going to rebound from those losses? That is a ton of value that is simply no longer available for the Blue Streaks in 2022.

For most teams, losses of that magnitude would send them plummeting down our rankings. However, after seeing how dangerous this team was on the track, and how much depth they flexed on the grass last year, we actually think this group could be even better this fall than they were in 2021.

When it came to the oval, Alex Phillip simply did Alex Phillip things. He secured three more national titles, earned multiple records and will eventually leave the Division Three scene as one of the all-time greats.

He’s coming back this year and frankly, everyone should be a bit on edge. If he was undefeated last fall, then we don't know how we'll lose in the coming months.

But that's just one runner. On paper, Phillip literally can't help John Carroll any more than he already did last fall. It's everyone behind him who will have the biggest impact on this team.

One of the more impactful storylines from John Carroll’s indoor and outdoor track seasons was the arrival of Cormac Peppard-Kramer and Domitrovich as highly skilled steeplechase runners.

Yes, the steeplechase serves as a weird medium in terms of translating performances to cross country races and longer track events. But it's impossible to overlook the fact that those two men went from not making John Carroll's cross country national meet roster in the fall to finishing 3rd and 4th place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships this past spring.

That's flat-out incredible stuff.

Those kind of All-American results, along with a pair of sub-9:00 personal bests in the event, speaks volumes about Peppard-Kramer and Domitrovich’s ability to perform at a high level in a crucial scenario.

Now, it is important to note that Peppard-Kramer is not currently listed on JCU's 2022 cross country roster. However, we did we receive notice earlier this summer that CPK was expected to return this fall.

If Peppard-Kramer is, in fact, not racing this fall, then that's admittedly a tough loss to manage for the Blue Streaks. However, if he is racing, then the potential firepower on this team will be borderline overwhelming.

Behind those three men, we have to turn to Barrett Scheatzle and Ruan Champa, two runners who had decent track seasons, each running in the 14:40s for 5000 meters. However, you have to remember one other thing about these guys: They were only freshmen last year.

On paper, Scheatzle and/or Champa are due for breakout seasons in 2022. They were already highly-reliable lineup scorers last fall and have only gotten better since. They gained national meet experience last fall and even held their own despite their youth.

When it's all said and done, the overall success of this team could be solely determined by how well Sheatzle and Champa perform on the grass this fall. If one(or both) of them pop as All-Americans this fall, then things could get VERY interesting for the John Carroll men come November.

Having those four men, all of whom are now sophomores by eligibility, as the bulk of this lineup behind Phillip, will be huge for the Blue Streaks’ scoring potency in 2022. Admittedly, we need to see them actually translate this upside to the grass, but it would almost be surprising if they didn't.

Let's also not forget that Adam Shah is returning as well. He is coming off of a very limited year on the track, but still brings valuable cross country experience to this team as an upperclassman.

Jack Root and Dominic Delmoro are two additional names to monitor this fall.

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All in all, John Carroll is here to stay.

Having Phillip for one more year, an extremely well-developed group of sophomores and a large collection of other upperclassmen supporters should allow this group to remain as one of the single-best distance programs in the country.

From this point onward, the John Carroll men are no longer “underdogs”.

They are legitimate contenders and a truly nationally elite team.