TSR's 2022 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Rankings (Men): #7 UW-Whitewater Warhawks

Edits and additional commentary by Garrett Zatlin

---

In 2019, the UW-Whitewater men finished 8th in the Midwest Regional XC Championships, sending star low-stick David Fassbender to the national meet as their lone qualifier.

Fast forward two years later and the Warhawks finished 5th at the 2021 cross country national meet, boasting three All-Americans and one of the most dangerous distance squads that Division Three had to offer.

This team experienced one of the biggest program turnarounds of the COVID-era, developing promising freshmen and later bolstering their returners to a new level of elite talent.

And in 2022, we don't expect that national-caliber success to stop.

* * *

The start of this new era (and the 2021 season) for UW-Whitewater started at their home meet, the Tom Hoffman Invitational. Taking down perennial powerhouse Washington U. by just one point would turn out to be a huge step forward for the Warhawks who hadn’t made it to the national meet in a few years.

While the Warhawks' final two scorers were just slightly behind the Bears' final two scorers, the trio of Fassbender (1st), Gunner Schlender (2nd) and Christina Patzka (4th) turned out to be enough scoring potency for the Warhawks to fend off one of the top teams in the country.

That, however, was only the beginning for this team’s resurgence as they completely dominated the Blugold Invitational, scoring a mere 38 points over many regional foes.

The trio of Fassbender (1st), Gunner Schlender (2nd) and Christina Patzka (4th) matched their previous performances while Justin Krause produced an outstanding 8th place finish. While fifth runner Kyle Neuroth was a bit further back in 23rd place, that was hardly a result that altered the final standings in any significant way.

With a 50-point margin of victory over Carleton, things were looking for good the Warhawks just a few meets into their season.

The Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble would eventually give the Warhawks a good opportunity to compete against some different (and highly-ranked) opponents, and they seized that chance, taking a close runner-up result behind John Carroll which boasted a squad that was simply more complete through five runners.

Fassbender (2nd), Schlender (6th) and Patzka (8th) continued to produce fantastic results, but with Krause finishing 21st and Neuroth placing 29th, the Blue Streaks were able to get a seven-point edge by putting all five of their scorers in the top-20.

Despite the loss, the men of UW-Whitewater had to be encouraged going into the postseason. They sported one of the most lethal scoring trios in the country and their backend was (very quietly) making improvements.

The Warhawks eventually took 2nd place at the WIAC XC Championships, settling behind rival UW-La Crosse by only four points. Just like we had seen all season long, the Warhawks were great through three runners (putting three in the top-four). However, with no one else in the top-10, the Eagles got the win.

Luckily for the Warhawks, their luck changed at the North Regional XC Championships, defeating the Eagles by a singular point with the same exact lineup structure that had carried this team throughout the season.

Of course, the national meet was the bigger priority.

Fassbender’s exploits throughout the 2021 season were no surprise, only suffering two losses before the national meet to Alex Phillip and Jeff Joseph at the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble. He steamrolled through the WIAC and North region before finishing up with a monster 6th place finish at the national meet -- a true low-stick doing his job incredibly well.

Of course, the key shift in this team was the development of Christian Patzka and Gunner Schlender, two freshmen who ultimately ended up as All-Americans. Patzka finished 23rd while Schlender placed 26th, giving the Warhawks a lethal top-three as well as a great outlook for the future.

Justin Krause and Kyle Neuroth served as somewhat reliable fourth and fifth scorers throughout the season, but posted their best finishes of 94th and 104th place at the national meet, respectively. On paper, one could argue that those men, relative to expectations, peaked better than their low-stick superstar teammates.

A 5th place team finish would be a magical breakthrough season for a team that is expected to continue their streak of excellence in 2022.

* * *

Lets rip off the bandaid and get the bad news out of the way first: The Warhawks have lost Fassbender and Neuroth to graduation, two highly valuable names, the former being the focal point of this group throughout last fall.

Neuroth, despite falling behind his team's top-four in certain meets last year, was still very reliable. He never relinquished his fifth scoring role and he showed a lot of great signs of promise, peaking in the postseason incredibly well.

While Fassbender's loss will certainly carry the most weight, and his lost scoring probably doesn't need any explanation, it's not exactly going to be easy to replace Neuroth, either.

Luckily for UW-Whitewater, Christina Patzka and Gunner Schlender are going to be a very challenging duo to take down this fall. With a pair of extremely impressive freshman campaigns under their belts, these guys could be even better than they were last fall.

In fact, their improvements may actually be able to make up for at least some of Fassbender's lost scoring potency at this year's national meet.

In a nail-biting steeplechase final at the outdoor national meet, Patzka narrowly was defeated by Christopher Collet, running an unreal personal bests of 8:50 in the process. He also finished 4th in the 5000 meters at the indoor national meet, running 14:17.

He has clearly stepped up his fitness on the national stage and we would expect that to be reflected in his races, specifically at the NCAA XC Championships, this fall.

Schlender and Krause were also major forces to be reckoned with on the national stage during the track season. Schlender placed 5th at the indoor national meet in the 5000 meters and he also placed 10th in the 10,000 meters at the outdoor national meet.

Krause, meanwhile, built on his 2021 cross country momentum and somehow got even better on the track. He qualified for the indoor national meet in the mile where he made the finals (and was tripped) before going to the spring season to place 4th in the 1500 meter finals at the outdoor national meet.

Having two low-sticks in Patzka and Schlender, plus a potential third low-stick in Justin Krause, makes UW-Whitewater extremely dangerous yet again. While they may not have the same scoring potency that they had with Fassbender, the Warhawks shouldn't necessarily have to worry about firepower.

However, one potential challenge for this team is their depth, something that occasionally limited the UW-Whitewater during the 2021 season.

Christian Seagren is the next-best returner on this team, having been their sixth man at the NCAA XC Championships. His 134th place finish at the cross country national meet was a great performance on his end, but he’ll need to be at least in the top-100 as a scoring member of this team if the Warhawks want to replicate last year's success.

His track performances weren’t outstanding, but Seagren's upward trend of improvement over the course of the entire 2021 cross country season was very promising. We expect him to play a key role on this team in 2022.

* * *

We'll admit, trying to figure out what the rest of this UW-Whitewater lineup is going to look like in 2022 is something that we have yet to accomplish. Chris Allen showed promise as a freshman, but he is far from a finished product and still has some work to do.

However, youth may actually be the saving grace of this roster.

This team, as a whole, was VERY young last year and they'll still be fairly young in 2022. There is a ton of room for many of these lesser-known names to improve their fitness and provide valuable scoring.

And truthfully, the Warhawks only need one more legitimate name to fill out the backend of their lineup. We feel pretty good about their four men, and they'll be vulnerable even if they do find a capable fifth scorer, so as long as one more runner closes out their scoring quick enough, then Warhawks should be a top-10 team yet again...we think.

Ultimately, UW-Whitewater will once again be bolstered quite strongly by their top-talent, but their season will be heavily influenced by the development of their incoming freshmen and unheralded upperclassmen to truly round out their lineup.