.png)
TSR's 2023 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Rankings (Men): #5 Western Colorado Mountaineers
- Marissa Kuik
- Sep 10, 2023
- 6 min read
Written by Marissa Kuik, edits and additional commentary by Gavin Struve and Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On rare occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
After a couple of rebuilding seasons (by Western Colorado’s standards), it seems like the Mountaineer men are primed to reemerge as a top-10 team and an RMAC contender yet again as we enter the fall of 2023.
With a combination of returning veterans, names due for a breakout season and a long history of success, Western Colorado may even be set to outrun this high preseason placement, provided that they can build on the momentum that they developed during the track season.
* * *
The Mountaineers opened up their 2022 cross country season with two dual meets against Colorado Mesa: the Mountaineer/Cowboy Invite and the Gig Leadbetter Maverick Stampede. Western Colorado easily won both of those races with Simon Kelati taking a pair of individual titles. A slew of Mountaineers followed Kelati as their top-five scorers finished among the top-10 in both races.
After using those dual meets to bust some rust, the Mountaineers ventured to Seattle to race at D2 Pre-Nationals where they finished a respectable 3rd place behind Colorado Mines and Chico State.
Kelati led the team with an outstanding 6th place finish. He was followed by Michael Grabowski (13th) and Jacob Hernandez (15th), a middle-lineup duo who offered great scoring stability and value. And after a little bit of a gap formed, Albert Hesse finished 31st while Juan Diaz finished right behind him in 32nd place.
Western Colorado had a true low-stick to give them a spark and there wasn’t a major drop-off in their top-seven. But neither the firepower nor the scoring structure of this lineup were potent enough for the Mountaineers to contend for the team title.
It was a fairly solid performance for their first big race of the season, although it was going to be interesting to see how impactful some of their scorers could be on bigger stages.
The next big race for Western Colorado was the RMAC XC Championships where the team placed very well in the competitive conference, taking bronze. Kelati led the team, finishing 6th again. Not too far behind was Hernandez in 11th place. After a small gap, the backend stepped up with Diaz in 21st, Sean McCauley finishing 27th and William Johnson placing 28th.
Overall, Western Colorado did a great job of keeping their third through fifth runners close together. That, paired with strong finishes from their top-two men, helped the Mountaineers remain competitive Division Two’s strongest conference.
At the South Central Regional XC Championships, the Mountaineers performed very similarly, finishing 3rd once again, even with the inclusion of Colorado Christian’s top athletes racing.
Understandably, the Mountaineers were unable to produce a fourth-straight 3rd place finish on the national stage. And ultimately, their 11th place finish at 2022 NCAA XC Championships left us wanting more.
Kelati put forth an impressive 12th place finish while Hernandez definitely pulled his weight, coming in 44th place and just barely missing an All-American honor. But the rest of the scoring group ended up too far back for the Mountaineers to place any higher.
Johnson, Grabowski and Hesse finished close together in 105th, 116th and 129th, but they were likely capable of being 10 to 15 spots better (each) which would have put the Mountaineers (comfortably) among the top-10 teams.
* * *
All things considered, for being more of a rebuilding year, the Mountaineers showed a lot of promise last fall. And the best part? A collective improvement from this squad seems almost guaranteed with just one senior departing.
However, that departure is a significant one as Jacob Hernandez played a pivotal role for Western Colorado, often as a strong complement to Kelati. He was the guy who bridged the two ends of this team's scoring group and was highly reliable as someone who just missed All-American honors.
Nonetheless, the talent that this team retains, and the improvements that they made on the track, should more than replace their losses and make them a competitive team in 2023 -- more so than they were in 2022.
Kelati raced sparingly during the indoor track season (he had just one race in December) before he came away with an 8th place finish in the 5k at the indoor national meet. And once the outdoor track season picked up, Kelati really hit his stride.
The Western Colorado ace ran a new PRs over 1500 meters (3:46) and 5000 meters (13:51), qualifying for the outdoor national meet in both events. Even more impressively, he finished as an All-American in both disciplines -- and the 1500/5k double is very tough to contest at the outdoor national meet.
Kelati will continue to serve as an elite low-stick for Western Colorado and he should be able to replicate, and perhaps build upon, his success from 2022. We have him slotted at TSR #7 in our preseason top-25 individual rankings.
The next two returnees who made massive improvements during the track season were Albert Hesse and Michael Grabowski. Both men contested the 3000 meter steeplechase and finished with All-American honors in the event. At the outdoor national meet, Hesse finished an astounding 2nd place overall while Grabowski took the final All-American spot in 8th place.
These two men carry a lot of momentum and experience into this fall. They should be impactful and dependable scorers for the Mountaineers, each with legitimate All-American potential. Their presence will certainly help fill the gap left behind by the loss of Hernandez, and then some.
* * *
The Mountaineers had a number of different men finishing in their top-seven throughout the 2022 season, but with the lack of track results from McCauley and Diaz, it seems as if William Johnson is the next man up in the scoring lineup.
He did have an admittedly quiet track season, but he enjoyed one of his best seasons in cross country last fall, finishing as the team’s third scorer at the national meet in 105th place.
While seeing some improvements on the oval would be helpful in evaluating Johnson’s current fitness, he demonstrated enough of a jump last fall that we expect that to carry over and continue in the coming months.
Even so, McCauley and Diaz are still nice backend options to have. At the very least, they offer solid depth and limit excessive scoring in the latter-half of their team's top-five. Let's not forget that Diaz placed 21st at the RMAC XC Championships and 31st at D2 Pre-Nationals. McCauley, meanwhile, wasn't more than 10 spots back from him in either of those races.
The final piece in Western Colorado’s path towards further improvement is a redshirt freshman — Tyler Nord. While he didn’t race for the Mountaineers on the grass last fall, we think he may actually emerge as the team's second scorer. In fact, we have this redshirt rookie slated at TSR #19 in our preseason top-25 individual rankings!
Nord displayed some of the best racing of any freshman in D2 during the 2023 indoor and outdoor track seasons. He took Division Two by storm when he finished 3rd over 3000 meters at the indoor national meet. He also ran times of 8:02 (3k), an unconverted 3:49 (1500) and 14:02 (5k). He also competed in the metric mile and the 5k at the outdoor national meet, coming away with an 8th place finish in the 1500 meters and ending up in 11th place in the 5k.
It seems almost certain that Nord will be a major factor on the grass this year. He may even close the gap between Kelati and the rest of the scoring five, effectively improving the chances of the Mountaineers of doing something special at the cross country national meet.
* * *
Losing Hernandez, who was consistently their second scorer last fall, will be a tough loss for the Western Colorado men to confront. However, with the track improvements from the rest of the guys in their top-seven, including Graboski, Hesse and Nord, there is no reason why the Mountaineers can’t be even better than they were last year.
The Mountaineers boast a high-octane leading man, what looks to be another rising All-American in Nord and a few veteran complementary scorers beyond them. Juan Diaz, Ryan Outler and Sean McCauley also provide solid depth.
The Mountaineers return five of their top-six runners from last fall and introduce someone with NCAA experience who could be the future face of their program, although that may be an unfair expectation to place on a redshirt freshman.
With the kind of continuity and firepower that they possess, this team seems like an obvious candidate for a measurable improvement in 2023. Each key scorer has more experience than they held a year ago and almost everyone saw a jump in fitness. All of that solidifies Western Colorado as a major breakout candidate towards the top of the NCAA this fall.
