TSR's 2023 D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings (Men): Update #5 (FINAL)

Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Nov 21, 2023
18 min read

KEY

(Unranked):

Was not ranked in our last update.

(#/#):

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

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

NOTE: These rankings are based on how a team fared throughout the entirety of a season, not just how they ran at the NCAA XC Championships or at a singular meet. You will notice that these rankings may mirror the national meet results, but not precisely. That is intentional. These rankings are intended to be an aggregate. They are not recency lists.

25. Colorado Buffaloes (-1 / 24)

Did you ever imagine there would be a time where the Colorado men are listed at TSR #25 at the end of the season? It feels weird, doesn't it? Well, after a 25th place team finish at the NCAA XC Championships, our concerns about this team throughout this season were seemingly valid.

A 39th place All-American finish from Austin Vancil is roughly on par with how the Buffalo standout had been performing this season, although it may be on the better end.

However, Colorado's lone low-stick was the only reliable runner that this team had throughout the fall. Sure, Isaiah Givens had promising moments as did Paul Stafford and James Overberg, but this team surprisingly lacked consistency. No one else cracked the top-140 on Saturday.

That's what makes this team so tricky to rank. In terms of true talent, Colorado is likely better than a lot of the teams ranked ahead of them -- that was shown at the Nuttycombe Invitational when they placed 7th. But with no results other than that, and a recent national meet performance validating our rankings, it's hard to give them a spot much better than this.

24. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (-1 / 23)

All things considered, Wake Forest had a successful cross country season. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but the Demon Deacons found a long-term star in Rocky Hansen and a few young scorers stepped up in a major way.

On Saturday, Wake Forest faded to 24th place in the team results, although that was roughly on par with what they had been producing all season. And when you consider that Rocky Hansen didn't race on the national stage and Luke Tewalt wasn't in top form this season, you have to credit Coach John Hayes for salvaging what could have been a brutal season.

Guys like Joseph O'Brien (81st at the national meet) and Charlie Sprott (125th at the national meet) still have a ways to go in terms of their development. But from a long-term perspective, their inaugural collegiate cross country seasons were very promising.

23. Tennessee Volunteers (-6 / 17)

Tennessee is the first team in our rankings whose final position doesn't match their national meet performance. Saturday was just a flat-out tough day for the Volunteer men who finished 26th overall.

Jacob Lewis was the team's top scorer in 90th place. And while Lewis deserves respect for putting together the best race of his cross country career, we also need to recognize that if he was Tennessee's lead scorer, then that meant that the core trio of Yaseen Abdalla (187th), Gabriel Sanchez (126th) and Dean Casey (151st) was likely struggling -- and they did.

Even so, it's impossible to look at what the Vols did this fall and say that they weren't a top-25 team in the country. Tennessee earned a runner-up finish behind Arkansas (a podium team) at Pre-Nationals where they also beat Virginia and Montana State in the process. They settled for a narrow 3rd place finish at the SEC XC Championships, but then they went on to win the South regional title.

The Abdalla-Sanchez-Casey trio proved to be fairly effective and their depth was usually good enough in most scenarios. For that reason, we kept this team in our rankings at TSR #23.

22. NC State Wolfpack (Unranked)

Wow, what an incredible turnaround from the NC State men!

This team looked iffy to start the season and to be honest, they seemingly got worse as the fall months dragged on. A narrow 4th place effort at Joe Piane was underwhelming, a 31st place finish at Nuttycombe was concerning and an 8th place finish at the ACC XC Championships left us saying, "Their season will end a week early."

That, of course, didn't happen. Instead, the Wolfpack had a sudden revival to finish 3rd at the Southeast regional meet and get "pushed" into the NCAA XC Championships. There, they earned a better-than-expected 17th place finish.

I don't know what happened, but the Wolfpack looked like a completely different team once they reached the 10k racing distance.

Once that happened, Brett Gardner began to deliver low-stick-type results (51st at the national meet), Hannes Burger began to show his full value (71st at the national meet), Toby Gualter began producing the scoring impact that he was recruited out of the transfer portal for (102nd at the national meet) and Daniel McGoey continued to be very solid name for this lineup (112th at the national meet).

We do have to recognize that this team struggled (a lot) in their lead up to the postseason and that's ultimately why they aren't ranked higher. But all things considered, this was an incredibly impressive postseason peak from the NC State men.

21. Michigan Wolverines (+1 / 22)

A 19th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was a solid result for the Michigan men, but it didn't necessarily stand out or wow us. Of course, that's probably the best way to describe their season in general.

Tom Brady's All-American finish (27th) was the potent low-stick result that we were waiting to see from him for quite some time. Owen Mackenzie (116th) had a decent-ish day to offer some stability and the three backend scorers stayed with the top-160.

Truthfully, I don't think we learned anything new about the Wolverines on Saturday, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This team was steady and consistent throughout the entire season, something that certain programs with more talent can't also say.

20. Montana State Bobcats (Unranked)

Do...do we owe Montana State an apology?

At the Joe Piane Invite, the Bobcats weren't just bad; they were terrible, at least as far as national-caliber teams are concerned. In South Bend, Montana State finished 9th overall behind a handful of teams that wouldn't even qualify for the national meet.

Now, in fairness, this team did rally with a decent outing at Pre-Nationals. They also ran well at the Mountain regional meet where they got "pushed" into the NCAA XC Championships.

But none of the lead up that we saw from Montana State suggested that they would finish 13th overall on the national stage. Matthew Richtman (26th) continues to be one of the best national meet performers in the NCAA relative to expectations. Ben Perrin (53rd) should also get some major kudos for being a consistent lead scorer for this team. We should also acknowledge that Owen Smith (72nd) was better this season than we expected him to be.

Sure, there was a gap after that scoring trio, but the final two Bobcats scorers had good enough results (138th and 165th) to showcase the value of their front three.

Coach Lyle Weese has done it again. When the odds were against him and his team, they came through. After losing Duncan Hamilton, no one would have blamed Montana State for not making it to the national meet.

No, I don't think that they were the 13th-best team in the nation this season (like their national meet result would inaccurately suggest), but they do seem deserving of a top-20 spot.

19. Virginia Cavaliers (-5 / 14)

We can only shrug our shoulders. A 22nd place finish at the national meet, which was hosted on their home course, was definitely not the performance that the Cavaliers were likely looking for.

Will Anthony (61st) was decent and Yasin Sado (74th) had a nice day, but Virginia's final three scorers on Saturday placed 118th, 172nd and 201st. Gary Martin, unfortunately, had a second-straight race where he struggled. And if this team had him firing at 100%, then the team score looks very different for UVA.

Despite the less-than-ideal season finale result, it would be a minor overreaction to say that Virginia wasn't a top-20 team this fall. Their 7th place finish at the Virginia Invitational was an excellent result when you consider who they beat. Their 3rd place finish at Pre-Nationals was decent and their 3rd place finish at the ACC XC Championships was encouraging.

This team seemingly struggled when they moved up to the 10k racing distance. Even so, there is still a fairly bright future for the Cavs as their younger standouts continue to develop.

18. Butler Bulldogs (-2 / 16)

A 21st place finish at the NCAA XC Championships wasn't a totally awful result, but it certainly wasn't indicative of how good this team was over the last three months.

What's interesting about Butler's performance on Saturday is that their top-three ran incredibly well as a unit. Florian Le Pallec, Matthew Forrester and Jesse Hamlin went 65-80-89, respectively, in the overall results. However, their final two scorers faded to 161st and 193rd.

Just by looking at those national meet results, you can see why Butler was so effective against a team like Villanova who they upset for the BIG East title. Larger fields like the Nuttycombe Invite and the NCAA XC Championships didn't favor the Bulldogs, although they did run fairly relatively well at the Virginia Invite.

17. Villanova Wildcats (-6 / 11)

Despite producing another "meh" team performance at the NCAA XC Championships (20th), I can't say that I'm too surprised with that result for Villanova.

Yes, this team was previously ranked at TSR #11 and they had also finished 5th and 8th at the Virginia Invite and Nuttycombe Invite, respectively. However, with so much of the scoring weight being placed on Liam Murphy, Haftu Strintzos and Marco Langon, this team couldn't afford an "off" day from anyone.

Sure enough, that held true on the national stage. Despite Liam Murphy (14th) and Haftu Strintzos (38th) putting together fantastic performances, no one else on this team cracked the top-140 spots in the overall results.

Of course, Villanova was clearly better than the 20th-best team in the nation this year. In fact, you could probably say that they deserve to be one or two spots better than where we have them now.

16. New Mexico Lobos (-3 / 13)

The New Mexico men faded to 18th place on Saturday, an underwhelming result given the high-octane scoring that they held on their roster this fall. Habtom Samuel Keleta (2nd) was outstanding and Evans Kiplagat (33rd) produced an unsurprisingly great All-American finish.

But with Lukas Kiprop (148th) having an "off" day, and depth continuing to be a challenge for this team, it was actually impressive that New Mexico was able to salvage a top-20 result.

There are really only two major results on the Lobos' resume this season that helps them in these rankings. Their 14th place showing at the Nuttycombe Invite was encouraging and their win over Air Force for the Mountain West title was huge.

However, when pairing those results with an underwhelming 3rd place finish at the Griak Invite and an 18th place finish on the national stage, it feels like a TSR #16 ranking is a fair spot for a Lobo team that proved to be highly volatile this fall.

15. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (+4 / 19)

A 14th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships should be considered a good day for the Notre Dame men. And looking back, we were probably too critical of this team in their lead up to championship racing.

The Fighting Irish won the Joe Piane Invite on their home course and then tied with North Carolina for a 10th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invite (where they lost the tie-breaker and took 11th). In retrospect, that's a really solid regular season resume.

Settling for 4th place at the ACC XC Championships wasn't ideal, but if that was the "worst" race of the Fighting Irish's season, then there were reasons to be encouraged.

Ethan Coleman (49th at the national meet) and CJ Singleton, for the most part, were really strong this fall despite their inexperience. Tyler Berg was excellent in the postseason, Mauri also saw improvements as the fall months unfolded and Josh Methner looked like a fringe All-American at times.

For a team that clearly didn't have Carter Solomon in top form, Notre Dame managed to put together a respectable season.

14. Air Force Falcons (+4 / 18)

Seeing the Air Force men finish 12th at the NCAA XC Championships was definitely on the better end of where we thought they would place. It also leaves us with questions as to how we should rank this team given their volatile performances this fall.

On the national stage, Luke Combs (28th) delivered on his incredible potential with an outstanding low-stick performance. With Sean Maison (64th) and Eli Bennett (67th) offering strong scoring stability, it was easy to see how the Falcons snagged 12th place.

Sure, it would have been nice if their bottom-two scorers, who finished 122nd and 166th, closed the gaps between them. But compared to a few other teams, that backend group was still fairly decent.

The Falcons were excellent at the Virginia Invite, but underwhelming at Nuttycombe. They took a narrow loss to New Mexico (despite running well) at the Mountain West XC Championships, but they rebounded beautifully at the national meet.

A TSR #14 ranking seems like a fair middle-ground given the often head-scratching nature of this lineup and how they executed in certain races.

13. California Baptist Lancers (-4 / 9)

Seeing the California Baptist men finish 16th at the NCAA XC Championships leaves us with mixed feelings. On one hand, they had all five men in the top-145, including three in the top-100. On the other hand, their top scorer was 52nd (Arturs Medveds) and the rest of their scoring group was fairly spread out.

Compared to their performances at the Griak Invitational (which they won) and the Nuttycombe Invite (where they placed 4th), you could have made the argument that the Lancers were a threat for the podium. However, seeing CBU slip to 4th in the West region and now 16th on the national stage makes it challenging to figure out a proper ranking for them.

At the end of the day, we can't discount how good their regular season was. Medveds was so much better than some people realize while both Soca and Valincius were consistently great as well. And although their postseason probably wasn't what they wanted it to be, it certainly wasn't terrible, either.

12. Harvard Crimson (-2 / 10)

I'll admit, it feels like we should be dropping Harvard more than just two spots. A 15th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships was a bit short of expectations and their loss to Princeton at the Ivy League XC Championships wasn't ideal, either.

We don't put much stock into regional results, but if you're someone who does, then a 3rd place finish at the Northeast Regional XC Championships only hurts Harvard's stock in our top-25 rankings.

But the Crimson's 6th place finish at Nuttycombe was excellent. It was the first time in the last few years that they had legitimate depth to back their low-sticks. Losing to Princeton in a smaller field is understandable -- they're a top-10 team in our rankings -- and beating CBU on the national stage makes it difficult to put Harvard behind them in these rankings.

See the conundrum?

Regardless, Graham Blanks was elite this season and Ben Rosa (47th at the national meet) made big improvements this fall. Acer Iverson wasn't at his best this fall, but he still offered good scoring value. Meanwhile, guys like Shane Brosnan, Sam Burgess and Joe Ewing stepped up to provide at least some stability at the backend of this lineup.

All in all, this was a season where the Harvard men looked far more mature from a lineup structure and scoring standpoint.

11. Iowa State Cyclones (+9 / 20)

Buckle up, we've got a lot to chat about.

The Iowa State men were having a "just fine" cross country season. The Cyclones were 13th at both the Virginia Invite and the Nuttycombe Invite. They later placed 4th in a top-heavy BIG 12 XC Championship field. Those were respectable efforts, but they were far from exciting. Said Mechaal emerged as the top low-stick for this team, at one point being dubbed as a top-30 runner in the country.

But on Saturday, none of that mattered.

Sanele Masondo, a JUCO product who had struggled to deliver on the low-stick expectations that we had set for him, finally broke through with a massive 16th place finish. Teammate Rodgers Kiplimo had not shown any signs of being an All-American this fall, but he placed 37th. Veteran Gable Sieperda returned to his former peak fitness and snagged a valuable 43rd place finish.

And Said Mechaal? He was the team's fourth scorer despite placing 55th overall. Iowa State's final scorer crossed the line in 121st place. That, ladies and gentlemen, led to the Cyclones securing a HUGE 5th place team.

To give you some perspective as to how incredible this performance was, we actually dropped the Ames, Iowa-based men from our rankings after the BIG 12 XC Championships. They returned after the regional meets, but to make a long story short, there was nothing on paper to suggest that this team was going to finish 5th on Saturday.

Trying to find an appropriate spot for this team in our rankings is a challenge. But if we're trying to find a compromise between the Cyclones' "just alright" performances and their national meet showing, then we would say that a TSR #11 spot makes the most sense.

10. Princeton Tigers (+2 / 12)

The Princeton men were great at the NCAA XC Championships, placing 11th overall. While their depth and scoring stability remained as a focal point of this lineup, it was the much needed firepower that made the Tigers look so strong.

Nicholas Bendtsen (29th) proved to everyone that he was, in fact, a true low-stick with an incredible All-American result. Connor Nisbet (59th) was yet again a reliable secondary scorer. Meanwhile, Daniel O'Brien (91st) and Anthony Monte (101st) offered highly valuable stability at the middle of this lineup while Matthew Farrell (132nd) closed out the scoring.

On paper, it feels like the Princeton men should have finished higher than 11th place. They had a top low-stick, a very underrated secondary scorer, reliable middle-lineup contributors and a passable fifth man.

In the end, we gave Princeton a TSR #10 ranking which is one spot better than where they finished on the national stage. This is because the Iowa State men finished ahead of them in 5th place and as we discussed earlier, we had to find a middle ground when ranking the Cyclones.

9. Wisconsin Badgers (-5 / 4)

A 9th place team finish at the NCAA XC Championships was, truthfully, a poor showing for the Wisconsin men. They had no men finish as individual All-Americans (although Jackson Sharp placed 41st). The combination of Adam Spencer, Josh Truchon and Bob Liking went 70-75-83, respectively, which avoided a bad day turning into a terrible day. Micah Wilson placed 133rd to round out the scoring.

In the eyes of many, the Wisconsin men are probably better than what they showed on Saturday. However, unlike a few other teams in this range, they never actually showed that.

The Badgers cruised through the Loyola Lakefront Invite against a field that featured zero ranked teams (in this edition). They later hosted the Nuttycombe Invite, but they ended up running a "B" team there which produced a 22nd place finish.

And with Michigan being their toughest competition at the BIG 10 XC Championships, you begin to realize that Wisconsin didn't really have much of a resume to keep them any higher than this in our rankings.

8. Stanford Cardinal (+7 / 15)

I'm not necessarily sure if I would say that this season was a "success" for the Stanford men, but all things considered, they salvaged what could have been a brutal fall campaign with some excellent postseason results.

On the national stage, Ky Robinson (3rd) was awesome, but it was Robert DiDonato (49th) who felt like a major reason why the Cardinal took 8th place. Lex Young (74th) debatably had the best race of his season and Cole Sprout (95th), while clearly not in top form, still produced some respectable scoring value. Evan Burke (129th) closed out Stanford's top-five.

When you contrast an 8th place national meet finish with a 9th place result at the Virginia Invite and a 20th place effort at Nuttycombe, it's hard to say that the Stanford men were a top-10 team in the country this fall.

However, a PAC-12 title and a West regional title suggested that this team was beginning to peak for the postseason -- and Saturday proved exactly that. Their once-volatile scorers suddenly became far more reliable and their best races were seemingly saved for the most important venues.

In our eyes, that's good enough for a TSR #8 ranking at the end of the season.

7. Syracuse Orange (0 / 7)

The Syracuse men finished 9th at the NCAA XC Championships. For a team that looked like a podium threat at one point this season, that may not have been the result that they wanted.

So why is it that the Syracuse men remain at TSR #7? Allow me to explain...

The Orange actually had a fantastic day on Saturday. Perry Mackinnon (19th) proved that his breakout spring campaign was legitimate, Sam Lawler (34th) was rewarded for his tremendous reliability this fall and Assaf Harari (88th) had his best race of the season despite a somewhat tough fall campaign.

With Alex Comerford (107th) and Nathan Lawler (110th) closing out the Orange's scoring somewhat quickly, you couldn't help but respect how this team had performed. However, the biggest reason why Syracuse didn't have the firepower to finish higher than 9th place is because their top veteran star, Paul O'Donnell, recorded a DNF.

If O'Donnell had finished the race next to Mackinnon like he has all season, then we're looking at a team that potentially cracks the top-five. And if we're being honest with ourselves, Syracuse was a team that was most certainly better than TSR #9 despite what their national meet showing would suggest.

So all things considered, I think it's fair to keep the Orange at TSR #7 to end the season.

6. Texas Longhorns (+2 / 8)

Throughout this season, the theme of Texas' lineup structure was, "We have a ton of low-sticks and we're just going to hope no one has a bad day."

And guess what?

It worked.

The addition of Devin Hart this past offseason was massive as the Longhorns had four top-tier men who could each act as low-sticks when they were at their best. At Nuttycombe, we saw how dangerous this group could be when they finished 5th overall despite Haftu Knight having a poor race.

And on Saturday, the Longhorns further validated how lethal their low-sticks could be.

Devin Hart (11th) somehow got even better than he already was and Rodger Rivera (23rd) had a huge breakout race after years of providing great scoring value, but never being viewed as a true low-stick...that is, until now.

Haftu Knight (79th) didn't have his best day, but he still held his own while the same could be said for Isaac Alonzo (93rd). However, you could argue that the hero of this team all season long was Emmanuel Sgouros (107th). He quickly closed out Texas' scoring on Saturday, ensuring that his team's scoring potency wasn't diluted by a poor backend result.

This team was going to need Knight and Alonzo closer to Hart and Rivera in order to contend for the podium. But with a 7th place team, Texas should consider this season a grand success.

5. North Carolina Tar Heels (0 / 5)

The North Carolina men wound up in 6th place on Saturday, a solid result, but not one that delivered on the Tar Heels' (and TSR's) podium hopes.

Truthfully, many of these results just weren't that surprising. Parker Wolfe (9th) and Alex Phillip (17th) were exactly as good as we thought they would be. Ethan Strand (45th) could have been a little bit better, but he still had a reasonably good day.

At the beginning of the season, Jake Gebhardt was a volatile scoring piece. But in the postseason, he was fairly steady. Yes, we would have liked him to be a bit stronger on Saturday, but it's also hard to fault him for what was still a fairly respectable performance.

Gitch Hayes was the fifth man for this team, a spot that had usually been a massive liability for the Tar Heels every time that they toed the line this season. But a 147th place finish is hard to be upset about given how many challenges North Carolina has had with that spot this year.

UNC's latter-three scorers -- Strand, Gebhardt and Hayes -- all had "good" races relative to how their seasons were going. However, if the men of Chapel Hill wanted to make the podium, then they needed those three men to all be "great."

4. Arkansas Razorbacks (+2 / 6)

I tried to tell everyone I could that the Arkansas men had the potential to be a podium team, or at the very least, were contenders for the podium. Sure enough, the Razorbacks came through, snagging 4th place on the national stage to cap an incredible season.

Seeing the duo of Patrick Kiprop and Kirami Yego lead the way for this team on Saturday was unsurprising. However, what was surprising was seeing those two men finish 7th and 13th, respectively. With so much elite scoring potency, and Ben Shearer earning a strong 42nd place finish, the core components for a podium finish were there for the Razorbacks as long as their backend scorers closed out the top-five fast enough.

And while it wasn't the best backend contingent, Myles Richter (87th) and Jacob McLeod (100th) ensured that their team got on the podium.

The Arkansas men had been great all season, winning Pre-Nationals and the SEC title. Those were strong victories, but they didn't come over competition that was exceptionally strong. Luckily, this Razorback squad delivered on their full potential and everything that needed to go right for them on Saturday did.

3. BYU Cougars (0 / 3)

Throughout this season, it has been very clear that the BYU men were the third-best team in the NCAA. They showed it during the regular season, they showed it in their lead up to the national meet and they showed it on Saturday.

However, what surprised many distance running fans is that the Cougars' top-two runners this fall, Creed Thompson and Joey Nokes, didn't finish as All-Americans. And if you had told us that before we saw the actual results, then we would have assumed that BYU fell out of podium contention.

But that wasn't the case!

After an entire season of offering strong, but maybe not amazing, middle-lineup scoring, James Corrigan (32nd) and Kenneth Rooks (35th) led the way for the BYU men. And although Thompson and Nokes faded, they still placed 46th and 56th, respectively.

With Lucas Bons closing out the scoring in 63rd place, the men from Provo snagged bronze by having every scorer in the top-65, but having no one crack the top-30. Even in a post-race interview, Thompson told TSR that he, "didn't think that [BYU] had [their] best race," -- and we would agree. That, of course, just makes their podium finish even more impressive.

2. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (-1 / 1)

1. Oklahoma State Cowboys (+1 / 2)

You can't talk about one without talking about the other.

When both teams we're at their best, Oklahoma State was simply better. Obviously, that showed on Saturday as the Cowboys put five men in the top-15 to score just 49 points. Meanwhile, Northern Arizona had an excellent performance of their own, producing a top-five scoring group that, for the most part, couldn't really be any better than they were.

What ultimately decided this race was the answer to this question: How strong were Oklahoma State's top Kenyans going to be on such a massive stage?

There was no denying that Denis Kigngitch (4th) and Brian Musau (8th) were incredibly gifted athletes, but there have been plenty of moments in the past where young, inexperienced rookies from overseas struggle in their first NCAA XC Championship.

That, of course, was not at all the case for either of those two men.

The other key name in all of this was Victor Shitsama. After a concerning 45th place finish at the BIG 12 XC Championships, we weren't sure if the three-time cross country All-American would be able to produce a fourth All-American honor on the grass.

Update: He did. In fact, he was better than ever before, placing 12th.

With Fouad Messaoudi (10th) and Alex Maier (15th) delivering on expectations, there was simply no chance for a very balanced NAU squad, who had five men in the top-25, to catch the Cowboys. And while I'd like to offer more analysis, I'm not sure that there is a whole more to talk about.