TSR's 2023 D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings (Men): Update #2

Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Oct 16, 2023
13 min read

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. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (-1 / 24)

We didn't learn anything new about the Wake Forest men at the Nuttycombe Invitational, where they placed 16th, which isn't necessarily a good or bad thing.

The emergence of Rocky Hansen (6th) as a true star has been huge, but we're still waiting for Luke Tewalt to get back to top form. If that happens, then this team is much better than what they showed on Friday.

Meanwhile, the other underclassmen standouts seem to have enough raw talent to keep this team competitive -- just look at how well Joseph O'Brien (62nd) ran. However, it's also clear that the inexperience of this lineup caught up to some of the Demon Deacons' support scorers in Madison.

24. Michigan Wolverines (Unranked)

Over the last few years, the Michigan men haven't been a flashy team with tons of high-octane firepower. Instead, their identity has been centered around strong depth, multiple scoring options and stability.

So far this fall, all of that remains true, especially after a 15th place finish at Nuttycombe.

Tom Brady (37th) and Nick Foster (73rd) ran exactly how we thought they would while their teammates crowded spots 100th to 113th. Owen Mackenzie, a transfer from Duke, has been a really nice addition to this squad who raises the Wolverines' ceiling a good bit.

We still haven't seen Oli Raimond this fall, and he could help if he does return, but for the most part, I think we have a fairly strong idea of what this team can and can't do.

23. New Mexico Lobos (Unranked)

The "Big Three" scoring trio, structurally, ran about as we expected them at Nuttycombe.

Habtom Samuel Keleta was outstanding in 3rd place while Lukas Kiprop's 18th place finish gave this team more scoring potency. You could argue that Evans Kiplagat's 45th place had the potential to be better, but in terms of a lethal top-three, the Lobos sported just that.

The New Mexico men ended up finishing a commendable 14th place at Nuttycombe despite their final two scorers placing 156th and 215th. Jonathan Carmin is still trying to rebound and have his best day, but the Lobos' ceiling this year probably won't go much higher unless Carmin (or someone else) can cut-down on those chasm-like scoring gaps.

22. Iowa State Cyclones (Unranked)

Iowa State's 13th place finish at Nuttycombe left us conflicted. The Cyclones certainly ran better than they did at the Virginia Invitational, but it still felt like they left points on the board.

The rise of Said Mechaal (15th) as a true low-stick is huge for a team that would've been in some scoring trouble if he hadn't transferred in. Of course, it's not like Sanele Masondo (80th), Gable Sieperda (87th) and Ezekiel Rop (114th) ran poorly, but each of those men have proven that they can be much better in the future.

But regardless of what I think about their untapped scoring potency, you have to commend the Cyclones for fielding a fairly complete lineup. As long as Mechaal runs well, I don't see too many scenarios where this team is flat-out bad in any of their future races.

21. Stanford Cardinal (-13 / 8)

A 20th place finish at Nuttycombe was bad, at least for Stanford it was.

They know it, we know it and our readers know it.

Ky Robinson is great, but the rest of this lineup just hasn't been nearly as cohesive as it should have been. Cole Sprout is clearly not in top form, and that's a significant issue, but there are a large handful of other lineup challenges that the Cardinal had to deal with on Friday.

Not having Leo Young or Thomas Boyden does soften the severity of this result a little bit, but the latter hasn't raced since late January, leaving us to wonder if he'll even race this fall.

At the end of the day, Stanford stays in our rankings at TSR #21. They still had a decent-ish 9th place finish at the Virginia Invitational and that counterbalances their performance from Friday, at least in these rankings they do.

I struggle to believe that this team won't be better in the future, but Friday was hard to defend.

20. Furman Paladins (Unranked)

I have no idea where to rank this team. Truthfully, none of us do.

The Furman men weren't a top-25 team in our preseason rankings. After their very poor showing at the Joe Piane Invitational where they placed 8th, I struggled to see how this team was ever going to crack our rankings.

Of course, I don't think anyone could've predicted that the Paladins would later venture to Nuttycombe and record a monster 9th place team finish! Dylan Schubert (26th) is recovering remarkably well from mono, Cameron Ponder (58th) is slowly returning to a competitive level of fitness and Carson Williams (71st) continues to be a highly impactful name for this lineup.

And while their depth could be a bit better, you have to commend David Ahlmeyer (103rd) and Nick Goldstein (139th) who debatably had the best races of their careers, specifically the latter.

Naturally, one may think that the Furman men should be ranked higher after their outstanding performance in Madison, Wisconsin -- and we see where you're coming from.

But if you're looking at their season as a whole (like we are), then this seems like a fair middle ground for now. We do want to see if they can replicate a performance like what we just later this season, although that will likely have to be at the NCAA XC Championships.

19. Alabama Crimson Tide (+2 / 21)

Not too much to report here. The Alabama men cruised to an easy win at their home meet. Eliud Kipsang (6th) was maybe a bit better than what he showed at Nuttycombe and it was nice to see Kai Connor (16th) emerge as a scorer for this team.

Otherwise, the Crimson Tide aren't structurally any different than they were a few weeks ago.

18. Princeton Tigers (Unranked)

Depth ultimately ruled the day for a Princeton team that beat expectations by a significant margin after placing 12th at the Nuttycombe Invitational.

Nick Bendtsen's 42nd place finish was the perfect complement to a supporting cast that minimized gaps in their lineup. And with three men in the top-100 (none of which cracked the top-80), as well as their final scorer placing 117th, there just wasn't any flaw on this team.

That, in turn, allowed Princeton to surpass a handful of other squads who, on paper, may be better, but fell victim to fundamental issues within their lineup.

We still want to see a bit more from this Princeton team. By comparison, their 15th place showing at the Virginia Invitational was far less impressive. Even so, it feels like our preseason evaluation of the Tigers was spot-on.

17. Air Force Falcons (-2 / 15)

Let's not make this complicated. The Air Force men were excellent at the Virginia Invitational (where they placed 6th), but were underwhelming at the Nuttycombe Invitational (where they placed 19th).

The only one who truly ran well on Friday was Max Sannes who snagged a 53rd place finish. Sean Maison (49th) was respectable and the same thing could be said about Eli Bennett (83rd), but you could argue that they were both capable of more.

On paper, that's actually a very solid scoring trio. But with no on else in the top-130 and their fifth man fading to 174th overall, you can see how the Falcons' team score ballooned to the point where they nearly fell outside of the top-20.

Regardless, we don't feel the need to drop this team too much. Depth is still something to monitor, but their top scoring trio remained very respectable. And if Luke Combs performs like he did at the Virginia Invitational, then the complexion of this Air Force squad looks much more different than it did on Friday.

16. Virginia Cavaliers (-5 / 11)

To be clear, the Virginia men have not been racing poorly this season, but our preseason expectations were seemingly too aggressive for a team that is still try to find some cohesion.

A 3rd place finish on their home course at Pre-Nationals is hardly shocking and they were were within reasonable-ish distance of a good Tennessee team. It's also been great to see Gary Martin emerge as a low-stick while Will Anthony has slowly evolved into being a lead scorer as well. Nathan Mountain hasn't been as potent of a scorer as his steeplechase results might have suggested, but he still holds great value behind Martin and Anthony.

And truthfully, the rest of this lineup hasn't been all that bad. A handful of men have stepped up to ensure that the Cavaliers' team score doesn't get out of hand. Even so, UVA needs to close the gap between the two halves of their lineup and strengthen their scoring presence.

Martin and Anthony are great lead scorers, but they're not wildly potent or All-American locks. In order to return to the top-10 of our rankings, Virginia will need to see a stronger pack form around Mountain moving into the postseason.

15. Oregon Ducks (-6 / 9)

Have not raced since our last update.

14. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (-8 / 6)

An 11th place finish at Nuttycombe is hardly a poor result, especially when you realize that the Notre Dame men actually tied for 10th place, but lost the tie-breaker to North Carolina. Even so, the Fighting Irish had less firepower than expected and dealt with noticeable lineup gaps in Wisconsin.

Josh Methner (39th) held his own on Friday and Ethan Coleman (59th) continues to emerge as a highly valuable name for a team that needs some scoring stability. However, Carter Solomon (66th) is clearly not in top form right now. He still helped the Irish in the scoring, but his low-stick prowess has largely been absent this fall.

With no other runner in the top-110, you can see how Notre Dame faded a bit in this race. Their firepower was less potent than we thought it would and many of the transfers who they brought in have yet to make a significant impact. Nonetheless, this team is still loaded with talent and scoring options. TSR #14 seems like a fair spot to place them at for now.

13. Tennessee Volunteers (-3 / 10)

Yes, the Tennessee men are dropping in our rankings, but that's not necessarily because of anything that they've done. In fact, I was actually pleasantly surprised to see how their top-three ran at Pre-Nationals.

With Yaseen Abdalla (2nd), Dean Casey (8th) and Gabriel Sanchez (11th) each delivering on the higher end of expectations, the Volunteers should've been very happy about those results. Although truthfully, the backend of this lineup is largely no different than it was last year and I did think that Tennessee would have more options to strengthen that area.

Of course, this was Tennessee's first real challenge of the season. Plenty of things could still change for them. We'll likely get a better idea of what this team is capable of once we see them compete at the SEC XC Championships.

12. Colorado Buffaloes (+4 / 16)

After a highly underwhelming performance at the Virginia Invitational, I struggled to see how the Colorado men were going to improve other than everyone just being flat-out better than last time.

Welp, sure enough, that's exactly what happened.

The rise of redshirt freshman Isaiah Givens (24th) as a potential low-stick is huge when paired with Austin Vancil (35th) who always gives the Buffaloes a reliable lead scorer. And with their final three scorers going 78-88-89 in the overall results, Colorado ended up securing a very strong 7th place finish.

We're only moving Colorado back up to TSR #12 because, a) their Virginia Invitational performance is still hard to ignore, and b) we want to see if Isaiah Given can replicate his most recent result at the PAC-12 XC Championships.

Regardless, Colorado put together a complete team performance on Friday which featured greater firepower and the ability to quickly close out their top-five scoring efforts. Kudos to them on an encouraging rebound race.

11. North Carolina Tar Heels (-5 / 6)

We don't really need to spend much time on the North Carolina who placed 10th at Nuttycombe after beating Notre Dame on a tie-breaker.

Unsurprisingly, Parker Wolfe, Alex Phillip and Phillip Strand were fantastic on Friday, emerging as one of the most lethal scoring trios in the entire race. But Jake Gebhardt didn't have his best day and the Tar Heels were already struggling with depth behind him to begin with.

Make no mistake, UNC certainly needs to find stronger reinforcements if they want to contend for the podium, but regardless, Gebhardt is going to need to run much closer to what we saw at the Virginia Invitational rather than what he produced last week.

10. Villanova Wildcats (-3 / 7)

The Villanova men secured an 8th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invitational which was good, but not exactly on par with the high expectations that they established at the Virginia Invitational.

Liam Murphy (21st) was great and Haftu Strintzos (52nd) was good enough based on prior expectations. Ryan Kredell (77th) was an encouraging development and Xian Shively (116th) was just ok. However, Marco Langon (110th) was supposed to be the team's third low-stick in this race, but he didn't have his best effort.

If Langon had finished 50th overall, then after displacement, the Villanova men would have leaped past Colorado, but would still have been behind Harvard. That's why a TSR #10 spot feels fairly appropriate when trying to balance their last two team results.

9. Harvard Crimson (+9 / 18)

Graham Blanks (1st) is elite and Acer Iverson (36th) offered strong lead scoring as well despite being capable of a result that is likely better than that. Of course, those two men aren't necessarily the main reasons why Harvard earned a huge 6th place finish at Nuttycombe.

Ben Rosa (60th) had a massive breakout race while Joe Ewing (94th) and Shane Brosnan (98th) closed out the scoring! Where on Earth did that depth come from? We had been saying for the last seasons that the Harvard men needed to develop better depth if they wanted to be a truly competitive team and sure enough, look at this result!

I'm sure that the Crimson and their fans may be a little frustrated that they aren't ranked higher given that they beat teams like Texas and Wisconsin on Friday. However, there are good reasons for that and we still want to see Harvard produce a result like this again.

Regardless, the Nuttycombe Invitational felt like a monumental day for the Crimson.

8. Arkansas Razorbacks (+5 / 13)

Ben Shearer, who took home the individual win at Pre-Nationals, completely changes the dynamic of this team. Behind him were Kirami Yego (3rd), Patrick Kiprop (5th) and Jacob McLeod (6th). Together, that top-four left Arkansas with just 15 points! Myles Richter (20th) was the team's final scorer and Lexington Hilton (26th) added some insurance.

Pre-Nationals wasn't nearly as competitive at the Nuttycombe Invitational was. Even so, this squad easily took down strong Tennessee and Virginia squads, ultimately scoring just 32 points in the final results.

What's even more wild is that Lexington Hilton is likely so much better than what he showed us on Saturday. A 7:48 (3k) runner should've been closer to the top-10 of this field. And if that happens, then you're looking at an overwhelmingly lethal lineup.

We still want to see how this team fares in a far larger and more competitive field, but wow, that was next-level stuff from the Arkansas men this past weekend.

7. Texas Longhorns (+7 / 14)

The upfront scoring presence of Texas made all of the difference for the Longhorns at the Nuttycombe Invitational. A monster 5th place team finish was led by an incredible 17th place effort from Devin Hart while Isaac Alonzo (46th) and Rodger Rivera (50th) delivered on the potential that we knew they had.

Emmanuel Sgouros (67th) was easily the best runner on this team relative to expectations. He offered incredibly valuable scoring while Nathanael Berhane (107th) closed out the lineup relatively quickly. For a team that we thought was thin on depth, the Longhorns seemed to have great scoring support.

However, what's even more interesting is the fact that Haftu Knight (199th) just flat-out struggled despite being a top-tier All-American. If he returns to this lineup in/near top form, then I would be very, very careful about what Texas could do at the national meet.

6. Wisconsin Badgers (-2 / 4)

The Wisconsin men finished 22nd at the Nuttycombe Invitational on Friday. Click here and scroll down to the Badgers' section to reread our explanation as to why we decided to keep them at TSR #6.

5. California Baptist Lancers (+12 / 17)

An easy victory at the Griak Invitational was impressive, but the California Baptist men didn't necessarily beat anyone of note. In a race like the Nuttycombe Invitational, we wanted to see how they would handle a much larger and more competitive field.

Well, the Lancers answered the call, brilliantly.

Arturs Medveds (23rd) validated himself as a true low-stick while Giedrius Valincius, Matias Reynaga, Rikus Van Niekerk and Valentin Soca were somewhat evenly spaced out between 48th place and 76th place.

CBU just looks awesome. I don't know how else I can say it. They admittedly don't have much depth after their top-five, but they boast so much impactful scoring at each top-five spot in and they have yet to give us any reason to doubt them. It feels aggressive to rank a team that wasn't in our preseason top-25 at TSR #5, but I don't know how you could argue against them right now.

4. Syracuse Orange (+8 / 12)

When the Syracuse men finished 4th overall and ahead of Villanova at the Virginia Invitational, we were impressed. The return of Paul O'Donnell was huge as was the transfer addition of Perry Mackinnon. And with so many returners improving, it was hard not to like the Orange.

Even so, what we saw on Friday from this team was beyond exceptional.

Syracuse were led by Mackinnon (19th) and O'Donnell (20th) who give this team way more firepower than we were expecting them to have at the beginning of the year. And with Sam Lawler (34th) having the best race of his life, the Orange looked like they had numerous lead scorers who they could lean on.

Alex Comerford (74th) was very solid and Matthew Scrape (106th) did enough for Syracuse to reap the benefits of their impressive top-half upfront scoring trio. Not only that, but Assaf Harari has the chance to be better and Nathan Lawler is still not in top form yet.

If either of those men return to top form, which would admittedly be surprising, then Syracuse will further strengthen their positions as podium favorites in November.

3. BYU Cougars (0 / 3)

The ongoing absence of both Davin Thompson and Casey Clinger is fairly concerning for a team that was going to rely heavily on those men. Even so, Creed Thompson (10th) and Joey Nokes (13th) were unsurprisingly great at the Nuttycombe Invitational and they allowed BYU to maintain some firepower

Kenneth Rooks (31st) is very clearly better on the grass than he was last year. And while I wouldn't predict him to be an All-American, his recent progression will end up being crucial to the Cougars staying on the podium. Meanwhile, James Corrigan (44th) and Aidan Troutner (64th) closed out the scoring.

This team didn't even run to their full potential (with the guys who they did field) on Friday and they still emerged with a comfortable runner-up finish. There are still a few areas where BYU can improve their scoring in the postseason, but without Clinger and Davin Thompson, catching the top-two teams in our rankings seems like a near-impossible task.

2. Oklahoma State Cowboys (0 / 2)

Have not raced since our last update.

1. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (0 / 1)

There isn't much to discuss here despite NAU dominating the men's race at Nuttycombe. Nico Young (2nd) was predictably excellent, Drew Bosley (8th) was still a top low-stick despite fading a bit at the end, Aaron Las Heras (12th) was as good as advertised and Theo Quax (25th) validated his performance from the Virginia Invitational.

At the backend, Santiago Prosser (29th) seemed to match expectations while Corey Gorgas (33rd) had a breakout race after many seasons of patiently waiting for his moment to shine. Brodey Hasty (43rd) was right where his resume said he would be.

Some people may have Oklahoma State as the favorites, and we understand that. But until we see anything that definitively says that the Cowboys are better, we'll keep the Lumberjacks at TSR #1 in our team rankings.