TSR's 2023 D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): Update #2

TSR Collaboration
Oct 23, 2023
6 min read

Written by Conor Daly, Kevin Fischer & Gavin Struve

Additional edits and commentary via Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve

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.

10. Lynchburg Hornets (Unranked)

It was tough to truly gauge the Hornets' early-season performance at the Paul Short Invite, at least when compared to other top-tier Division Three programs. Even so, Lynchburg still held their own against a glut of Division One squads with Frank Csorba and Chasen Hunt providing valuable lead-scoring efforts in the top-35 of the 400-person field.

Luckily, we got our best look yet of just how good this Lynchburg team is at the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational a little under two weeks ago.

On that stage, Csorba and Hunt provided outstanding low-stick results over a formidable, top-heavy field, finishing 1-2. Meanwhile, Sam Llaneza and Tor Hotung-Davidsen held down the middle-lineup spots in 11th place and 12th place, respectively.

Although their fifth scorer was a bit further back in 25th place, that collective effort was still enough for the Lynchburg men to finish runner-up behind Carnegie Mellon, but ahead of Johns Hopkins and SUNY Geneseo. The Hornets were closer to the meet winner, Carnegie Mellon (an 18-point margin), than they were to the Blue Jays (a 36-point margin).

While we'd like to see a bit more completeness from this team, specifically at the backend, their scoring potency, lineup structure and recent history of success emboldened us to move them into our top-10.

9. Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens (-1 / 8)

The Pomona-Pitzer men have raced often this fall, but we haven't learned anything new about them since our last rankings update. Perhaps that strategy will work out well for them, but their proverbial "Big Three" of Colin Kirkpatrick, Derek Fearon and Lucas Florsheim will need to be better moving forward.

We'll likely gain greater insight about this squad at the SCIAC XC Championships this upcoming weekend where the Sagehens are no lock to beat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. But on paper, Pomona-Pitzer should be able to earn team gold if most of their top scorers deliver on their full potential.

8. RPI Engineers (-1 / 7)

RPI's top group have not competed since their solid 3rd place showing at D3 Pre-Nationals earlier this month. Even so, the Engineers remain a solid team with a respectable lineup structure and depth. However, if they have desires of flirting with the top-five of our rankings, then they'll need to narrow the gaps that seemingly grew larger with each passing scoring spot at Pre-Nationals.

Regardless, we've only seen this team at full-strength twice through nearly two months and one of those meets wasn't nationally competitive. Perhaps there is more upside to be revealed with RPI moving forward.

7. Carnegie Mellon Tartans (+2 / 9)

The Pittsburgh-based men put together a masterclass in pack-running at the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational. The Tartans' strong, five-man group was only broken up by Johns Hopkins' individual stars, Emmanuel Leblond and Gavin McElhennon.

Although the Carnegie Mellon men were outdone by Lynchburg's aforementioned top-two, they somewhat comfortably defeated the Hornets to win the meet by taking spots 3-5-7-8-9, with two others in the top-20 for good measure.

The Tartans were already a deep and well-rounded team a year ago, but the most important development this fall, and what seemingly makes them a top-10 squad, is the addition of Army transfer, Matthew Porter.

The former Black Knight, who showed flashes of promise at the Division One level, has delivered on all reasonable expectations to this point, complementing Matthew Coyle and a stable of other solid runners. He's yet another reliable scorer, but also someone with low-stick upside which he showed in New York last week with his 3rd place finish.

Thanks to their seemingly stable lineup structure, it feels like the Tartans are a team with a high floor in practically any setting. And with Porter's recent success, they likely have a higher ceiling as well.

6. Williams Ephs (0 / 6)

Since our last update, Williams competed in the Western New England Invitational and took a comfortable win against lesser competition while resting their top scorers. We expect to see the Ephs' top group race next at the NESCAC XC Championships.

5. Wartburg Knights (-2 / 3)

For a while now, we've been waiting for Wartburg to prove that their preseason TSR #1 ranking was justified. And while they're still one of Division Three's better teams, they just haven't validated our early-season suspicions (yet).

Their performance at the Augustana Interregional wasn't awful, but it didn't inspire us, either.

While in Illinois, the biggest bright spot for this team, relative to expectations, was once again Shane Erb who was quietly great in 20th place. The team's fifth scorer, Sam Schmitz, also had a decent outing as well.

However, there were still a large handful underwhelming performances across the board. With nearly every other runner on this squad fading five to 15 spots back from expectations, the Knights fell just short of our then-TSR #5 team, UW-Whitewater, in the battle for 2nd place.

In fairness to Wartburg, they are undoubtedly better than what they showed us two weeks ago. They could still turn things around and challenge teams like North Central, especially with a fully healthy and available Connor Lancial.

However, that kind of development requires quite generous projections. And as it stands right now, the Knights just aren't on that same level as the Cardinals.

4. UW-La Crosse Eagles (0 / 4)

The Eagles had a fairly uneventful weekend, winning the Drews/Neubauer Invitational against teams who were never really going to challenge them. They did so even as their top men did not appear to be going all-out.

Our assessment of UW-La Crosse hasn't changed all that much since our last rankings update, but the upcoming WIAC XC Championships hold much larger and more grand implications for them and the following team in our rankings...

3. UW-Whitewater Warhawks (+2 / 5)

At the Augustana Interregional, the Warhawks’ front duo lived up to expectations and then some (if that’s even possible).

Christian Patzka took home the individual win and Gunner Schlender secured bronze in a field that was loaded with some of the best individual talent that regular season meets have to offer. That elite 1-2 punch beat five of the top-20 individuals from our upcoming individual rankings update (10/22), helping their team finish runner-up over Wartburg.

Following Schlender was Craig Hundley, the transfer from Carthage who came up big with a 14th place finish. The newest UW-Whitewater talent has turned out to be an incredibly valuable piece for the Warhawks’ upcoming postseason run. He bridges the two halves of their lineup and provides crucial scoring stability that they weren't guaranteed to have at the beginning of this season.

The backend of the Warhawks' lineup was good enough, although they weren't necessarily amazing, either. We were expecting a bit more from Dan Anderson and Justin Krause, especially from the latter, but they still delivered strong results that allowed this team to be competitive.

As long as the latter-half of UW-Whitewater's scoring contingent can hold their own, the Warhawks will be just fine when relying on arguably the best 1-2 punch in the nation.

2. MIT Engineers (0 / 2)

The Engineers have not fielded their top squad since their victory at D3 Pre-Nationals. That performance remains strong enough to keep them at our TSR #2 spot.

1. North Central Cardinals (0 / 1)

The Cardinals solidified their spot atop of our rankings with a rather convincing victory at the Augustana Interregional. In the process, they took down some of our top-ranked squads, Wartburg and UW-Whitewater, and did so pretty easily.

Max Svienty and Connor Riss were fantastic with 4th and 6th place finishes, respectively. We then saw BJ Sorg, one of the more pleasant surprises of this season, place 15th while continuing his stellar freshman campaign. Veterans Andrew Guimond (13th) and Braden Nicholson (22nd) also held their own, although it feels fair to suggest that the latter has significantly more scoring potency within him.

It’s hard to complain about this showing from the Cardinals, but if we had to come up with one critique, it’s that they are highly vulnerable past five runners. Their sixth man was 25 seconds and 25 places behind their final scorer. Simply put, the entirety of North Central's top-five have to deliver in order for this team to be as good as advertised.