TSR's 2023 D3 Indoor Top 20 Individual Rankings (Men): Update #2

TSR Collaboration
Feb 7, 2023
14 min read

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Written by Kevin Fischer & Brett Haffner

Additional edits and commentary by John Cusick & Garrett Zatlin

Click here to see our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.

Listed eligibility takes redshirts and Covid-related extensions into consideration.

TFRRS is used as a general guide when determining eligibility.

KEY

(Unranked):

Was not ranked in our last update.

(#/#):

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

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

20. Garrett Lenners, Junior, Nebraska Wesleyan (-4 / 16)

Garrett Lenners finished 6th against a loaded field of D2, NAIA and JUCO athletes with an 800 meter mark of 1:51.48 at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational. While this result was about two-tenths of a second shy of his personal best in the event, it showed us that he is still in a good position to hold his own in competitive fields.

That result isn’t surprising in the least given his history of competing at national meets. He did, after all, make the 800 meter finals at both the indoor and outdoor national meets last year.

Lenners is a very dependable runner in that you know what you’re going to get from him. And while he may be a long shot to win a national title, you can more or less bet on him getting to that stage and navigating the preliminaries effectively.

He sees a four-spot drop in this set of our rankings solely because of what others accomplished these last two weeks.

19. Isaac Wegner, Sophomore, UW-La Crosse (-1 / 18)

Isaac Wegner’s 4:18 mile last weekend was only one second off of his PR, but it was still a little bit underwhelming considering that he was coming off of a 3000 meter race where he put down a converted 8:09 mark.

This UW-La Crosse runner had a ton of momentum going into this race, but it can sometimes be tricky to race well week-in and week-out.

That mile effort this past week ultimately doesn’t hold much weight in these rankings as we know that Wegner is a force to be reckoned with in the longer distances. We’d like to see him run the 5000 meters in the next couple of weeks as he will probably smash his personal best of 14:36 from last year.

He could possibly put himself in the conversation of some of the best runners in the country over that distance with a strong result.

18. Ryan Harvey, Sophomore, Loras (-5 / 13)

Ryan Harvey’s most recent race was a 3k effort at the Aurora Grand Prix where he ran 8:27. It’s hard to gauge exactly what that means for him given that this wasn’t his main event, but it still appears that he is a step off from being the runner who we saw throughout last year.

Yes, this still-young Loras talent did run 4:09 in his only mile race so far this season. And when you compare that to his personal best of 4:07, he is clearly knocking on the door of where he needs to be.

Right now, Harvey is sitting at NCAA #12 on the national leaderboard with roughly a month left before the national meet. However, he will likely need to improve upon his mark from earlier this season to get into the national meet. We know that he can improve that time, but the clock is starting to tick.

The Duhawk ace will need a good performance sooner rather than later, but there is no reason to believe that he won’t make that happen.

17. Steven Potter, Senior, UW-Oshkosh (-8 / 9)

Steven Potter ran 1:52-low in both of his 800 meter races since our last update. Those aren’t bad performances, but they're also not what we’ve come to expect from the UW-Oshkosh veteran. He is getting close to putting it all together and we know how dangerous he can be when he is really clicking.

During the indoor track season last year, he ran a couple of “just ok” half-miles during the regular season, but ultimately ended up finishing runner-up at the national meet, just 0.15 seconds behind Ryan Wilson.

Simply put, you can never count out Steven Potter, even when a couple of guys are running better than him. He has shown in the past that he knows how to peak at the right time and we expect the same thing to be true when we head into the 2023 indoor national meet.

16. Spencer Moon, Junior, Simpson (IA) (0 / 16)

Spencer Moon took down TSR #11 runner, Christopher Collet, in the 3000 meters at the Wartburg Select Meet this past weekend with a time of 8:15 which converts to 8:10.

A year ago almost to the day, he ran his personal best, also an 8:15 mark, on an oversized track. And now, he’s doing the same thing on a 200 meter flat track. In short, he’s a step ahead of where he has been in the past.

Moon has impressive range from the mile to the 5k and his combination of speed and strength should serve him well in a championship setting. He has competed in three national meets on the track, but has not finished as an All-American in any of them

However, this year feels a little bit different.

The Simpson ace has three top-10 marks on the national leaderboard which will give him some flexibility over the season's final weeks. Moon will stay put at TSR #16 in this update, but we have a feeling that we could see him rise up our rankings very quickly.

15. Carter Oberfoell, Junior, Loras (-3 / 12)

Carter Oberfoell has not contested the 800 meters in a few weeks, instead opting to try his hand in both shorter and longer races. He ran 50.00 over 400 meters at the Aurora Grand Prix followed by a 4:26 mile at the Wartburg Indoor Select Meet.

That 400 meter time is an indoor best for him and it's less than a second off of his overall PR. And while that mile effort doesn’t look super impressive, we couldn’t have expected much more than that. Oberfoell isn’t somebody who we think of as having a ton of range.

It isn’t necessarily bad to specialize in the 800 meters and Oberfoell did make the finals at the outdoor national meet in 2022. That one-dimensional event approach hasn’t hurt him too much at the championship level.

But until he returns to his best event, we must move this Duhawk athlete back three spots to TSR #15 in our rankings.

14. Tor Hotung-Davidsen, Junior, Lynchburg (Unranked)

Tor Hotung-Davidsen put together a half-mile effort of 1:50.43 the other week, returning to the level that we have seen him at in the past. This was his first time competing in the 800 meters since last spring, but he appears to have not missed a beat or have any rust.

The Lynchburg ace is one of the best middle distance runners in the country when he is at his best. He has now put down a really solid mark and with that, he should have a ton of confidence moving forward.

The Hornet star was 6th at the indoor and outdoor national meets last year in the 800 meters and it looks like he has a great chance to improve upon those finishes by the end of this season. However, the real uncertainty now is trying to figure out how close Hotung-Davidsen can get to the national title favorites such as Jasa and Wilson.

13. Matthew Kearney, Senior, MIT (Unranked)

We saw great things from Matthew Kearney in 2022, including personal bests of 8:12 in the 3000 meters and 14:20 in the 5000 meters, along with an All-American showing by taking 14th place at the NCAA XC Championships.

However, the 2023 indoor track season has already gotten off to an even better start for Kearney. He ran 14:01 in the 5000 meters at the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic the other week which puts him at NCAA #4 all-time in the event -- and NCAA #7 all-time if you include oversized track marks.

And a guy with this kind of resume only gets ranked at TSR #13?!

With that being Kearney’s first race of the season, he’ll certainly jump up the rankings with another great race under his belt, likely in the 3000 meters, where we know he’ll shine. Right now, in terms of ranking value, he has some of the most upside of anyone in our top-20.

12. Ryan Kredell, Senior, Haverford (+5 / 17)

Ryan Kredell’s breakout season is only getting more historic. After all, running 14:02.37 over 5000 meters is an unbelievable accomplishment! His previous PR in the 5000 meters was 14:31.66 from the last spring. But since then, he has completely jumped to the next level of being elite in the event.

Kredell started this academic year with zero All-American honors to his name...but now he has the NCAA #5 all-time mark in the 5000 meters (NCAA #8 all-time if you include oversized track marks).

That level of improvement is simply unheard of.

Kredell’s overall abilities across the distance events are seriously being put on notice. He is listed at NCAA #19 in the mile, NCAA #8 in the 3000 meters and NCAA #3 in the 5000 meters.

The Haverford star is one of the best all-around runners in Division Three and it’s happened all so quickly! It’ll be very exciting to see what Kredell can do in the postseason as he’ll be competing in his first NCAA Indoor Championships in just a few short weeks.

11. Christopher Collet, Junior, Wartburg (-5 / 6)

We're not sure how to feel about Christopher Collet’s 8:20.04 performance in the 3000 meters this past weekend.

On one hand, it was his first race in two months, so we understand that it was a rust-buster. Plus, he only finished four seconds off of his PR. On the other hand, seeing Collet not even try to run with Spencer Moon in the early stages of the race doesn’t sit well with us when it comes to his competitive prowess.

Still, as a bright spot, Collet did close his final 400 meters in 59 seconds, but Moon would end up winning the race by five seconds, which is still a significant margin.

It’s only one race, so we won’t put a ton of stock into this “off” performance. The Wartburg star is certainly capable of blowing our expectations out of the water at any time which is why we still keep him at a relatively high spot of TSR #11.

With roughly a month left until the indoor national meet, we still need to see Collett in either the mile, the 5k or even another 3k race before we can confidently discuss his ability contend with other elite-level talents in March.

10. Matthew Lecky, Junior, RPI (0 / 10)

Since when in Division Three can you run 8:07.26 for 3000 meters and be ranked at NCAA #5 in the event?! Well, when it comes to the RPI junior, that seems to the case.

Matthew Lecky threw down that impressive feat in his season opener at Boston University two weekends ago, running a nine-second PR in the process and securing his qualifying mark for the indoor national meet.

It seems that just a few years ago, we all freaked out when Aidan Ryan ran 8:08 for 3000 meters. But now, running that kind of mark is the current standard of talent in Division Three. And that just feels wrong to type out.

Lecky showed us in 2022 that he can throw down in the mile as well, running 4:05.97 at the Boston University Valentine Invitational. So how fast can he run this year? Only time will tell, but we have every reason to believe it could be faster than 4:05.

He’ll continue to be underrated, but Lecky is sneaky threat in the mile and the 3000 meters who could achieve a whole lot more over the rest of this indoor track season.

9. Cal Yackin, Senior, Otterbein (-1 / 8)

Cal Yackin has had a quiet two weeks since our last update, running 2:32.11 over 1000 meters at the Muskie Meet #3 as his only race in that period.

His impressive mile effort from the Otterbein Invite still holds up strong as the NCAA #3 mark and that time probably won’t drop too much in the next few weeks. Generally speaking, we don't really have a whole lot to discuss when it comes to Yackin, at least not this week.

It’d be great to see Yackin give the 3000 meters another shot as his current personal best of 8:18.37 from January could certainly be taken down even more with a strong field for him to run with.

8. Ethan Gregg, Senior, UW-La Crosse (-1 / 7)

Ethan Gregg is doing a brilliant job at challenging our doubts this indoor track season. He has greatly improved in both the mile and the 3000 meters despite being more of a long distance specialist.

His recent 4:10.77 personal best in the mile, which receives a flat track conversion down to 4:07.61, currently sits at NCAA #4.

Who would have thought that Ethan Gregg would be ranked that highly in the mile at this point in the season? Not us, which makes his streak of performances that much more impressive. That newfound mile prowess also leaves us slightly more encouraged about his potential to effectively battle in a championship 3k setting.

Gregg has won his two races this winter with not a lot of competition, so when the opportunity for him to face off against Christian Patzka and Gunner Schlender goes down…expect some big things from the Eagles’ ace.

7. Sam Acquaviva, Senior, MIT (Unranked)

We haven’t had much to reference for Sam Acquaviva’s track career at MIT. He’s been a star on the grass over the last two years, but he didn’t have many personal bests on the track to back up or validate that national-caliber success.

But Acquaviva miraculously changed that notion of himself at the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic, running an astounding 8:00.41 mark over 3000 meters which now sits at NCAA #2 behind only Alex Phillip.

That’s the kind of performance that we knew Acquaviva was capable of given his superb exploits from the grass over the last two cross country seasons.

Of course, Acquaviva’s incredible weekend in Boston didn’t stop there. He a;sp anchored the Engineer’s DMR team to a time of 9:44, just three seconds off of the D3 collegiate record. In the course of one weekend, the MIT veteran has changed the nation's understanding of who he is as a track athlete.

There’s still some mystery as to how he’ll perform over 5000 meters. If he opts to contest the event, then it wouldn’t be shocking to see him go after a sub-14:00 mark. And honestly, a time like that is very much in the cards for him.

Coming in at TSR #7 may be a huge jump, but it’s hard to turn away from what Acquaviva has accomplished this season. If he continues this string of strong results, then a top-five ranking isn’t out of the question.

6. Jamie Moreland, Senior, Haverford (+14 / 20)

After barely sneaking into our rankings a few weeks ago at TSR #20, it felt like Jamie Moreland’s stock had risen quite a bit with his 4:08.48 mile performance at the Villanova Invitational.

That time felt appropriate for last year’s 6th place finisher in the 1500 meters at the outdoor national meet and it had us intrigued as to what his future held.

However, we didn’t expect Moreland to do what he did at Boston.

The east coast middle distance star returned a week later to run 4:03.66 in the mile, a completely unexpected and mind-blowing effort from the Haverford senior. And after that result, Moreland is now the premier miler in Division Three as he sits at NCAA #1 in the event.

Where on Earth did that come from?

With the way that Haverford teammate Ryan Kredell has improved by leaps and bounds this winter, maybe it shouldn’t be as surprising that Moreland is doing the same thing, too...right?

Moreland has given the 800 meters a few tries this season as well, running 1:52.93 and 1:52.99 in his two attempts at the distance. Of course, he definitely seems to trend really strongly in the mile.

So what about the 3000 meters?

We would love to see Moreland step up and expand his range on the track. He’s always been a decent cross country runner with a PR of 25:04 for the 8k distance. It wouldn't be surprising to see him run a solid mark in a longer event, especially after seeing his incredibly winter campaign so far in 2023.

Moreland has been an extremely underrated talent over the last year who we’ve seemingly overlooked for a while now. After this result, we will keep a very close eye on him over the final weeks of the indoor track season.

5. Christian Patzka, Sophomore, UW-Whitewater (0 / 5)

Following the likes of WIAC rival Ethan Gregg, Christian Patzka threw down on his home track in the 3000 meters, running a stellar time of 8:09.76 which converts down to 8:04.13 from the flat track conversions.

Wow! We probably shouldn't be terribly surprised, but Patzka certainly rose to the challenge that Gregg presented and responded in terrific splendor, edging out Gregg’s time by less than half a second.

Running a time that puts him at NCAA #3 in the 3000 meters seems quite fitting for Patzka who has proven time and time again that he’s one of the main contenders to challenge Alex Phillip for a national crown this year.

Whenever he takes a swing at a quick time in the 5000 meters…it’s going to be something to marvel at.

4. Mike Jasa, Junior, Loras (0 / 4)

It’s pretty uncommon for us to say that somebody “stepped up in distance” to the mile, but that distance is truly out of Mike Jasa’s sweet spot.

Nonetheless, he still came away with a personal best of 4:15.57 in the mile which converts down to 4:12.35 after the flat track conversion is applied. And the most impressive part about Jasa’s race? He closed the final 800 meters in 2:02.

It’s clear that his aerobic ability has massively improved compared to previous years, all while continuing to sharpen his closing speed, too. Through four individual races this indoor track season (and three relays, as well), Jasa is currently undefeated, having won race after race.

With this type of momentum, he may as well be the most dangerous middle distance runner in Division Three as it stands…

3. Elias Lindgren, Senior, Williams (0 / 3)

While we still haven’t seen Elias Lindgren take a huge swing at the longer distance events in 2023, seeing a 4:08 mile from the Williams’ star is a big indicator of his improvement in fitness.

Similar to Ethan Gregg, Lindgren isn’t a guy who we’d normally tab with speed, but he has clearly put in the work this winter to increase his strength to the point where the mile is now a competitive event of his.

With his NCAA #1 mark in the 5000 meters still hanging on strong, it’s about time that we see Lindgren really get after a quick race in the 3000 meters to secure his place at the indoor national meet in the event.

2. Ryan Wilson, Senior, MIT (0 / 2)

What can’t this guy do?

There may not be a more “complete” runner in Division Three than Ryan Wilson who can seemingly excel in every event from the 800 meters all the way up to the 8k on the grass!

His 8:11.65 performance in the 3000 meters at the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic was an excellent showing and it served as a great rust-buster to open up his indoor track season. Coming back the day after to run 2:57 on his 1200 meter leg of the DMR isn’t too shabby, either, especially when you consider that he closed his final 400 meters in 56 seconds!

Interestingly enough, we haven’t yet seen Wilson contest either one of his two best events, the 800 meters or the mile, this season. That will keep us on our toes until he wreaks havoc in either one…or both!

The upside for Wilson is massive and should continue to hold strong through the rest of the season.

1. Alex Phillip, Junior, John Carroll (0 / 1)

There’s a reason Alex Phillip has not left our TSR #1 spot for quite some time now.

Week after week, meet after meet, Phillip has demonstrated such unwavering consistency while producing unreal performances within the Division Three landscape.

His recent exploits at Boston University, where he set the Division Three national record in the 3000 meters by running 7:53.24, was another box checked off for the Blue Streak ace. He also helped contribute on the anchor leg of a stellar 9:50 DMR performance with his John Carroll teammates which currently ranks them at NCAA #2.

There’s just not enough to be said about Phillip -- he keeps running so well that we are continually unsurprised by his dominance. We will anxiously await his attempt at the 5000 meters this winter as the NCAA Division Three record of 13:53.17, set by Dan Mayer in 1994, is most certainly in danger of falling.