TSR's 2023 D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings (Men): Update #1

NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at a singular meet or (eventually) at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. Click here to learn more about our ranking criteria.

---

KEY

(Unranked):

Was not ranked in our last update.

(#/#):

First number indicates how much the team has moved in the rankings.

The second number indicates where the team was ranked in our last update.

---

25. NC State Wolfpack (-5 / 20)

It's hard to get an idea of where we should rank the NC State men.

The Wolfpack placed 4th at the Joe Piane Invitational, losing to Notre Dame, Florida State and Alabama -- three teams that are all listed in our top-25. And while there is certainly no issue losing to squads as strong as that, this Raleigh-based program was only three points ahead of a Michigan State team that was without Riley Hough and CarLee Stimpfel.

The good news is that I think this team can be significantly better moving forward. Ian Harrison is so much stronger than what he showed on Friday and Hannes Burger has proven to be at his best in the postseason.

Yes, this was a step back from where we expected them to be, but let's not overreact too much before we even get into the month of October.

24. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (Unranked)

The Wake Forest men earned a solid 11th place finish at Virginia Invitational, although that wasn't the Demon Deacons' biggest surprise. That's because having true freshman Rocky Hansen produce a monster 5th place finish was huge.

The rest of this scoring group was fairly solid despite their youth and Luke Tewalt is someone who can be so much better in future races despite finishing 67th the other week.

It's not surprising that this team has a bunch of upside; most talented youngsters usually have a limitless ceiling as far as their potential goes. But with that upside comes greater variability, which can be both good and bad -- and Hansen just showed us a whole lotta good.

Joseph O'Brien and Charlie Sprott proved to be very solid middle lineup-contributors and could continue to improve. However, developing the backend of this scoring group will need to hold greater emphasis moving forward.

23. Eastern Kentucky Colonels (Unranked)

Well, it wasn't the flashiest race, but the Eastern Kentucky men held their own at the Virginia Invitational with a strong 10th place finish. The combination of Taha Er Raouy, Mohammed Jouhari, Ahmed Kadri, Abdelhakim Abouzouhir and Keeton Thornsberry put together a balanced scoring group with finishes of 21-48-51-69-96, respectively.

The rise of Er Raouy was a great development and the introduction of Jouhari from Boise State has established some valuable scoring stability for this team. I also think that Abouzouhir has more in him. He is, after all, an 8:32 steeplechaser.

There's still a lot that we're learning about this team -- a handful of their men are new to this scoring contingent. Ongoing consistency will also help their case in these rankings. But for now, you have to be encouraged about the Colonels' potential for later this fall.

22. Portland Pilots (-6 / 16)

The Griak Invitational was far from great for the Portland men.

In fact, it was flat-out bad.

Even so, the Pilots are a team that very rarely put an emphasis on the regular season. And despite what happened last year, Coach Rob Conner usually has his men peaking by the West Regional XC Championships.

The Pilots took 4th place while in Minnesota behind three teams that, at the time, weren't even ranked by TSR. However, Portland was without numerous scorers, potentially fielding a lineup that wouldn't even yield Kolas points for whichever teams that beat them.

Not only that, but Matt Strangio (who struggled at the meet) posted a photo on his Instagram story showing a positive test for what we can only assume was an illness (although that's only speculation).

Trying to judge this group in the third week of September without more than half of their lineup and their top scorer being sick would be silly. But with everyone else racing so well, we had to move the Portland men back...for now.

21. Alabama Crimson Tide (-3 / 18)

A 3rd place finish at the Joe Piane Invitational was a respectable result, but it wasn't necessarily surprising. There also weren't many teams behind the Crimson Tide that made things competitive with them.

However, the reason why Alabama takes a step back in these rankings is mainly because Eliud Kipsang, one of the three focal stars on this squad, had a tough outing and finished 25th overall. Last fall, he finished 3rd at the same meet.

The Crimson Tide's backend runners, Jacob Harris (39th) and Carson Burian (45th), gave this team some of the best depth that they've had in a while. But with so much scoring weight being placed on Alabama's elite trio of low-sticks, we have to push this squad back just a bit until Kipsang gets closer to Cheruiyot and Kiprop.

20. Butler Bulldogs (+2 / 22)

I sincerely wanted to rank the Butler men higher, but I couldn't figure out what the argument would be for them to be listed higher than California Baptist or Florida State. And truthfully, I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted them to be ahead of Alabama.

But an 8th place finish at the Virginia Invitational was very encouraging. Florian Le Pallec was just as good as Barry Keane was last fall, the middle portion of this lineup was very solid and Jack McMahon can certainly be better as the team's fifth scorer.

Not only that, but 3k All-American Jesse Hamlin didn't even run! If he comes back to this lineup, then the Bulldogs look like a scary-good team that *might* have been able to upset the Virginia men on their home course.

There is seemingly only upside with the Bulldogs this fall, but other teams simply had better arguments. That being said, I don't think I would have agreed to a ranking where Butler was anything worse than TSR #20.

19. Florida State Seminoles (+6 / 25)

The biggest question for Florida State going into this past weekend was, "How good will the backend of their lineup be?" And luckily, the Seminoles answered that question with one of the most complete top-five scoring groups at the Joe Piane Invitational. David Mullarkey (5th) and Abdirizak Ibrahim (9th) were as good as we had hoped, offering great low-stick scoring potency. However, more importantly, the backend combination of Cooper Schroeder (21st), Joe Farley (29th) and Ahmed Ibrahim (31st) provided depth that was leaps and bound better than what the 'Noles had last year.

Schroeder, in particular, was highly impressive.

That said, this team still seems a bit limited after their top-five. They have very little margin of error and they will face much stronger competition in the future. But for now, you have to commend Coach Bob Braman for instantly revamping this roster during the offseason.

18. Harvard Crimson (-1 / 17)

Nothing too much to report here. The Harvard men easily won the Battle in Beantown this past weekend by placing five men in the top-17 spots -- and they did that without Acer Iverson or standout rookie, Ferenc Kovacs.

Their competition in Boston was admittedly pretty light. None of those teams were going to give the Crimson a legitimate challenge. Luckily, we'll get to see this team back in action at Nuttycombe in a little less than two weeks from now.

17. California Baptist Lancers (Unranked)

The Lancers were flat-out fantastic on the track this past spring. Valentin Soca ran 13:30 for 5000 meters, Matias Reynaga and Giedrius Valincius both ran in the mid-13:40s for the same distance and Arturs Medveds posted a 28:45 (10k) PR!

Of course, after losing a handful of highly important scorers from a team that didn't even make it to the national meet last fall, it was hard to initially place the Lancers inside of our top-25 back in August.

Luckily, most of these men delivered on their full potential at the Griak Invitational. Medveds, Soca, Rikus Van Niekerk and Reynaga all finished inside the top-10 of this field while Valincius settled for 19th place. But truthfully, Valincius is just as talented as his teammates and was more than capable of being a top-10 guy in that race.

The California Baptist men somewhat easily trounced the field at the Griak Invitational and that's why they've been placed at TSR #17. But some people are seemingly MUCH higher on this team than we are...which is a little surprising. While the Lancers were fantastic in Minnesota, they didn't beat any fully-loaded lineup that was listed in our rankings.

We still want to see how the CBU men fare in a more competitive field, but you can't dismiss a scoring contingent that looked WAY better than we expected them to look back in August.

16. Colorado Buffaloes (-6 / 10)

This feels weird, doesn't it? Dropping the Colorado men to TSR #16 in our rankings? It feels like we're committing a crime by doing this (and history may suggest that we are). But a 12th place finish at the Virginia Invitational was...not great, at least not for the Buffaloes.

Colorado had Austin Vancil leading the way in 24th place and Paul Stafford ran decently well with a 39th place effort of his own. However, no other Buffalo scorer cracked the top-70 and their fifth runner placed 106th overall.

Will the Boulder-based men be better in the future? Probably, but Kole Mathison is just come back from a nagging injury (per Strava) and there is no obvious avenue in this lineup for improved scoring. I'm struggling to feel super confident about Colorado right now.

15. Air Force Falcons (Unranked)

Well...I feel a bit silly.

In retrospect, I was probably the one who led the charge among our TSR writers in saying that the Air Force men were not a top-25 team in the NCAA this fall. And obviously, I was laughably wrong.

But...can you blame me?

The Falcons lost their top-three scorers and their fifth man from the 2022 national meet as well as a veteran backend runner. It also didn't help that Luke Combs, the team's fourth scorer back in November, hadn't raced since last year's NCAA XC Championships!

But at the Virginia Invitational, everything came together for the Air Force men.

Sean Maison (15th) was great as expected, Luke Combs (18th) had a fantastic comeback race, Max Sannes (36th) was a promising breakout talent, Eli Bennett (43rd) could've been even better and Ryan Child (77th) produced a very respectable result.

All of that resulted in a fantastic 6th place finish, just 20 points behind Villanova.

That was an excellent team performance. However, the rest of this roster needs to continue to develop and produce performances like they just did over the next two months. If they do, then Air Force will likely crack the top-10 of our rankings.

Through five runners, this is a very balanced lineup. The Falcons have two lead talents, a reliable middle group and Ryan Child was ultimately better than a handful of fifth scorers on other top teams.

What's not to like?

14. Texas Longhorns (-1 / 13)

The Texas men ventured to the Cowboy Jamboree which was essentially a duel meet between them and the hosts, Oklahoma State. And despite putting four men in the top-seven, the Longhorns still fell to the Cowboys despite their conference rivals fielding what is likely only three out of their top-seven runners.

Yes, Oklahoma State has a stacked roster and no, we had no idea who Denis Kipngetich or Brian Musau were prior to this season. Still, for a Texas team ranked at TSR #13 in August, I thought they had a decent chance at taking the win, or at least staying within three points rather than six.

Of course, this is just me being picky, Texas still ran well. Their top-four looks as good as expected and there seems to be some promising development from Nathanael Berhane and Emmanuel Sgouros. We won't truly know how good this squad is until we see them in a more competitive field, so TSR #14 seems like a good spot to place them at for now.

13. Arkansas Razorbacks (+1 / 14)

No surprises here. The Arkansas men easily dominated the Chile Pepper XC Festival this past weekend with 18 points. They easily took down a top-tier D2 team in Western Colorado and they did so without Patrick Kiprop and with Lexington Hilton recording a DNF result.

It would've been nice to see Kiprop and Hilton in these results, but everyone else looked great. Both Kirmai Yego and Ben Shearer seem to be in fantastic shape and the depth may have a chance of being pretty solid as well.

Of course, only time will tell if that's the case.

12. Syracuse Orange (+7 / 19)

Yes, we did rank Syracuse a good bit lower than we should have in our preseason rankings. However, the Orange's TSR #19 ranking was based on the understanding that Paul O'Donnell was not returning to this lineup.

But he did!

And had we known that, then the Syracuse men likely would have been ranked slightly closer to this spot back in August.

In Charlottesville, Virginia, we saw O'Donnell (19th) emerge as a lead scorer while the rest of his team assembled a scoring structure that was very similar to what we saw from the Orange last year. With Perry Mackinnon, Sam Lawler, Assaf Harari and Alex Comerford crowding spots between 31st place and 44th place, Syracuse didn't have a single flaw in their top-five. And as a result, this ACC juggernaut finished 4th at the Virginia Invitational.

Syracuse doesn't seem to have the same overall roster depth that they had last year. But as far their main five scorers are concerned, the Orange may end up being just as dangerous as they were last fall.

11. Virginia Cavaliers (-3 / 8)

A 7th place team finish at the Virginia Invitational is fine, but the Cavaliers were expected to be a bit better. They were on their home course, their depth was expected to help them in a larger field and a handful of teams lost much more than they did last fall.

The good news is that Gary Martin (13th) looks like a low-stick and Will Anthony (29th) seems to be a very strong secondary option. Nathan Mountain (41st) was respectable, Jacob Hunter (53rd) was a nice development and Wes Porter (78th) did enough to get by.

On paper, there weren't many runners who had truly poor races, but after Martin and Anthony, the rest of this Virginia roster simply needed to be better. The gaps could have been a little tighter and a handful of veterans at the backend were capable of being in the top-three portion of this lineup.

We're moving Virginia out of our top-10, but let's not send them tumbling out of the top-15 of these rankings. One "meh" race from the Cavaliers in September shouldn't result in too harsh of a penalty, at least not right now.

10. Tennessee Volunteers (+1 / 11)

Nothing too much to talk about when it comes to Tennessee. The Volunteers toed the line for a few early-to-mid September rust-busters, but they have yet to test themselves against a high-level field.

9. Oregon Ducks (0 / 9)

We could go super in-depth about the Bill Dellinger Invite results, but that doesn't seem necessary. Five of the top-20 finishers in that field were Oregon men who were racing unattached. And of those five men, two of them were Simeon Birnbaum (3rd) and Josh Edwards (4th) while another was Izaiah Steury (18th).

And given how talented that we know Steury is, it would be a mistake to look at his result and put much stock into his performance.

If the Ducks had run everyone in an Oregon singlet, then this soon-to-be BIG 10 program would have easily defeated a Cal Poly team that was also without a few key names. We'll wait until their next major test to truly evaluate the talent on this program.

8. Stanford Cardinal (-4 / 4)

Let's not harp on this more than we need to.

The Stanford men, by their standards and our standards, were flat-out not good at the Virginia Invitational, ultimately falling to 9th place. Sure, Ky Robinson was great, but Cole Sprout struggled and the Young brothers weren't much more than "just ok."

For a team that was considered to be a podium threat, we expected so much more from the Cardinal, especially since they were fielding one of the more stacked lineups in that field. Even so, Sprout will likely be better in the future, the Young brothers still have plenty of upside and Thomas Boyden could return to this lineup with a potent scoring presence.

We don't want to completely dismiss Stanford from the podium conversation (yet), but they'll need a big rebound to renew our optimism in them.

7. Villanova Wildcats (+5 / 12)

There are few cross country teams that we more accurately analyzed coming into this season than the Villanova men. The catch, however, is that their lineup structure was far more effective at the Virginia Invitational than we thought it would be.

A 5th place finish in Charlottesville was led by an incredible 1-2-3 punch from Liam Murphy (7th), Haftu Strintzos (11th) and Marco Langon (12th). On paper, that was about as good of a scoring trio as we could have asked for from the Wildcats.

When it came to this team's backend scorers, all we needed from them was to be "good enough," which is exactly what they were -- and maybe even more than that. With Xian Shively placing 59th and Ryan Kredell finishing in 80th, Villanova had a complete top-five.

Admittedly, the fringe Philly school did fall behind Syracuse, a team that is ranked at TSR #12, by a mere two points. But when you look at all of the teams ranked behind the Wildcats, it's hard to justify better spots for a lot of these programs.

Yes, this does feel high, but it also feels like the "correct" spot for Villanova...at least for now.

6. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (+1 / 7)

Despite winning the Joe Piane Invitational (which was hosted on their home course), I can't help but feel like this is too high of a ranking for Notre Dame. They did, after all, only beat Florida State by eight points.

Of course, just like we explained with Villanova, I don't know how any other team would have an argument to be ranked as high as the Fighting Irish are. Not only that, but the South Bend-based men opted to enter key names such as Vinny Mauri, Tom Seitzer and Rishabh Prakash in the "Gold" section at Joe Piane (which Mauri won).

I find it hard to believe that Mauri, Seitzer and/or Prakash weren't one of the nine most-talented men that Notre Dame could have fielded on Friday. And when they enter this lineup, I would expect the Irish to have an even more potent scoring group.

Methner was great, Singleton and Coleman look very promising and the rest of this lineup seemed to be fairly solid as well. They'll need a bit more firepower, but there's not a ton to dislike about this team.

5. North Carolina Tar Heels (+1 / 6)

Generally speaking, the North Carolina men ran exactly how we expected them to at the Virginia Invitational where they placed 3rd overall.

Parker Wolfe (2nd) was unsurprisingly elite, Alex Phillip (8th) was about seven to 10 spots better than expected, Ethan Strand (20th) delivered on his potential and Jake Gebhardt (37th) proved that he could transfer his track success to the grass.

However, with the Tar Heels' fifth man dropping to 91st place, the UNC men clearly need to address their seemingly limited depth -- and fast. Luckily, the possible reintroduction of Patrick Anderson, Will Coogan and/or rookie Noah Breker may be able to remedy that concern.

4. Wisconsin Badgers (+1 / 5)

I won't repeat everything that I said in our "First Thoughts" article from the Loyola Lakefront Invitational. But in essence, the Wisconsin men easily cruised through their competition.

Almost everyone ran as well as we thought they would, although the Badgers did see a slight drop-off after their top-five (which was surprising for a team known for their depth). Of course, it should also be noted that Wisconsin didn't field Matan Ivri or Adam Spencer, two men who could certainly offer much more insurance to this squad later in the season.

3. BYU Cougars (-1 / 2)

The BYU men aren't faltering in our rankings because of anything they did -- it's mainly due to a new development outside of their control. However, the recent rumor of All-American Davin Thompson being injured isn't great, even for a team as loaded as BYU.

The BYU men unsurprisingly finished runner-up at the Virginia Invitational despite missing Casey Clinger, Kenneth Rooks and the aforementioned Davin Thompson. For the most part, the Cougars delivered on expectations and it was nice to see Jacob and Garrett Stanford each sneak into the top-30.

There really aren't any new developments happening with the Cougars that dramatically alter our perception of this team. But with Davin Thompson's status up in the air for this fall, the hope that Kenneth Rooks can be a low-stick this fall has becoming increasingly more important.

2. Oklahoma State Cowboys (+1 / 3)

Let's make a very long-winded explanation simple.

Two weekends ago, Oklahoma State ran at their home meet, the Cowboy Jamboree.

There, they fielded two men who we had never heard of (or seen) before. Those two men were Denis Kipngetich and Brian Musau. They were both listed as freshmen in the results, but aren't even listed on the 'Pokes roster.

That duo went 1-2 in this race to take down the entire Texas team as well as All-American teammate, Victor Shitsama. The winner, Kipngetich, beat Musau by 20 seconds while Musau beat Texas's Devin Hart (currently TSR #31) by two seconds.

Oklahoma State, a program that has a history of producing top-tier African athletes, now has two completely unknown men who just took down a small handful of All-American standouts, in some instances fairly easily.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Kigngetich and Musau are (probably) going to be pretty darn good. Maybe even elite. We never want to overreact to early-season results in smaller fields such as this, but...I would understand if someone now viewed the Cowboys as the new national titles favorites.

1. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (0 / 1)

No Nico Young, no Aaron Las Heras, no Brodey Hasty...no problem.

The Lumberjacks made the Virginia Invitational look like child's play. Drew Bosley (1st) was truly dominant, Theo Quax (6th) finally translated his track success to the grass, Santiago Prosser (17th) was right on par with our expectations and the depth of this team was significantly better than I expected it to be.

Between Kang Nyoak (22nd), Corey Gorgas (25th) and Colin Sahlman (33rd), there were zero flaws for a Northern Arizona squad that was essentially missing three of their top-five scorers. The Lumberjacks won the race 30 points and may only be scratching the surface of their full potential as we enter the month of October.

---

ADDED

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Eastern Kentucky Colonels

California Baptist Lancers

Air Force Falcons

KICKED OFF

Princeton Tigers

Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

Michigan Wolverines

Washington Huskies

JUST MISSED (in no particular order)

Princeton Tigers

Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

Michigan Wolverines

Washington Huskies

Iowa State Cyclones

Cal Poly Mustangs

Gonzaga Bulldogs

Michigan State Spartans

Utah State Aggies

Akron Zips

Charlotte 49ers

New Mexico Lobos

Duke Blue Devils

HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)

Ole Miss Rebels

Montana State Bobcats

Furman Paladins

Providence Friars

Navy Midshipmen

Georgetown Hoyas

Tulane Green Wave

Iona Gaels

La Salle Explorers

Drake Bulldogs

Loyola (Ill.) Ramblers

Boise State Broncos

Notes

- N/A