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TSR's 2023 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Rankings (Men): #3 Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens
- Gavin Struve
- Sep 12, 2023
- 7 min read
Written by Gavin Struve, edits and additional commentary by 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.
Pomona-Pitzer comes into this fall with a trump card that none of their competitors hold — they return a heavy portion of their nucleus from a national title winning team.
The caveat is that the Sagehens achieved that feat in 2021 before falling short with the same group in 2022. Nowadays, they are over 20 months removed from that moment. And to add another twist, they also are bringing in a new coach, Amber Williams. That is a significant leadership change to make just a few months before the season begins.
There is no shortage of firepower on this roster with multiple low-stick runners and there’s enough returning talent to construct a strong backend of their lineup. All of that positions Pomona-Pitzer as a national title contender entering 2023, but it would be wise not to get carried away with grand expectations after falling short a year ago and entering this fall under the guidance of a completely new coach.
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The Sagehens began last fall by contesting the "Invitational" race at UC Riverside. They didn’t have any individual who could keep pace with the Division One talent in the field, but their overall team composite was strong.
That led to the Pomona-Pitzer men finishing 4th behind a trio of Division One schools, but ahead of programs like Arizona, Arizona State, California and San Francisco as well as several Division Three powers.
However, it also seemed clear that many of the Sagehens' best runners were (potentially) running a conservative race as many of their top scorers faded to the latter-half of the team's lineup. Instead, this meet seemed to be more of a rust-buster than anything else for the D3 juggernaut.
After that early-season effort, the Sagehens took on a slightly smaller field at the Cougar Challenge where we began to see a more cohesive lineup. With all five scorers in the top-20 — led by Lucas Florsheim (11th), Ian Horsburgh (14th) and Owen Kobett (15th) — Pomona-Pitzer finished 3rd after Division Two programs, Chico State and Azusa Pacific.
While the Sagehens looked strong, it also felt like Ethan Widlansky and Derek Fearon were not yet firing on all cylinders yet.
The next time that this varsity group raced, it was solely against their Division Three peers. At the Augustana Interregional Invitational, the Sagehens secured the win against elite national-caliber competition in what was probably their best result of the 2022 cross country season.
Florsheim produced a dynamic low-stick result in 5th place while a number of his teammates packed the spots close behind him. Colin Kirkpatrick finished 7th in his first varsity race of the season while Horsburgh continued his quietly-great fall campaign with a 9th place finish.
Derek Fearon and Jack Rosencrans closed out the scoring in 13th and 14th, respectively, showing subtle improvements from their performances earlier in the season. Two other Sagehens finished 16th and 17th for good measure.
Despite North Central flexing great firepower, no team in the field could match the low-stick talent and mass depth that the Pomona-Pitzer men had. That win had to build confidence for the Sagehens who followed up that effort with a commanding (but unsurprising) victory at the SCIAC XC Championships.
Fearon emerged as a bit of a surprise winner while Florsheim and Horsburgh helped him sweep the top-three spots. With Rosencrans in 5th place and Kobett in 10th place — plus seven other Sagehens cracking the top-20 — Pomona-Pitzer made another statement on the conference stage.
The west coast powerhouse performed similarly at the West Regional XC Championships, taking the win with a boost from Florsheim who emerged as the individual region champion. The next stop? The NCAA XC Championships.
Entering the cross country national meet, Pomona-Pitzer surely saw themselves as a national title favorite, or a podium team at the very least. After all, they were defending their national title from the fall of 2021.
However, it quickly became apparent that it was not going to be the Sagehens’ day in Lansing, Michigan.
Pomona-Pitzer looked sturdy through two runners. Florsheim finished 16th overall and Fearon earned a 24th place finish. Both of those men were perhaps capable of more, and they needed to be a bit more potent to contend for the team title, but it was hard to be upset with two top-25 All-American finishes.
The gap that formed from there, however, proved to be too much to overcome.
Kirkpatrick was the team's third scorer in 61st place, although the Sagehens did close out their scoring quickly after him with Rosencrans finishing 65th and Horsburgh placing 68th. Of course, that simply was not enough.
With limited front-end firepower, the Pomona-Pitzer men were not only unable to defend their national title, but they also missed the podium altogether. And while it seems wild to view a 5th place finish on the national stage as a disappointment, the Sagehens clearly had higher hopes after finishing atop the podium at that meet the year prior.
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If ever there was a formula for a bounce-back, the Pomona-Pitzer men should have it.
This team returns many of the men who not only reached the pinnacle of D3 success in 2021, but left the 2022 NCAA XC Championships disappointed. They know what it takes to make it to the top and they have dealt with adversity thereafter.
Now, they have no shortage of motivation to return to that level.
The Sagehens’ top-three scorers all return from a near-podium squad last year. Viewed from any even rosier lens, those three runners were also this team’s top-three men during their triumph at the 2021 national meet where each placed in the top-15.
Lucas Florsheim has probably been the most consistent of the bunch on the grass, but he’s also no slouch on the oval, owning personal bests of 14:03 (5k) and 29:50 (10k).
At TSR #7 in our preseason top-20 individual rankings, Florsheim is ranked the highest on this team. And truthfully, we don't have anything more to say about him. He's a reliable true ace who is probably the runner on this roster that we have the fewest questions about.
Colin Kirkpatrick may hold the most upside of any Sagehen on this roster. He was this team's lead scorer at the 2021 cross country national meet, placing 10th, but was not even an All-American last fall.
He’s also a historically talented steeplechaser, having run 8:41 (unattached) in the event and boasting solid middle distance speed with marks of 1:52 (800) and 3:46 (1500).
In our eyes, Kirkpatrick is one of the more important names to monitor as the Sagehens attempt to make another national title run. He rarely has truly poor performances, but the absolute highest end of his fitness is usually shown sporadically. We know that he can be one of the more elite distance stars in all Division Three this fall, but putting together a full season of that will be his biggest task.
Derek Fearon, meanwhile, boasts a pair of All-American finishes on the grass like Florsheim, and he won his conference title in 2022, something that none of the other Sagehens stars have done. He’s slotted at TSR #13 in our preseason top-20 individual rankings, a few spots behind Kirkpatrick who sits at TSR #10.
It's hard to truly gauge just how good Fearon is at times. His results have often fluctuated in his lead up to past national meets which usually don't correlate to how he performs in his season finale. And while that inconsistency isn't ideal, it largely doesn't matter if this Pomona-Pitzer standout continues to peak in the postseason.
On paper, that's a three-headed scoring monster that no other program in Division Three can replicate if they're all at their best. And if the Sagehens can develop a strong backend, then they’ll be on the upswing yet again.
Ian Horsburgh is also back after being a reliable scorer last fall and it's not crazy to think that he could make an All-American turn in his senior season. He was, after all, the 9th place finisher at the Augustana Interregional Invitational and he earned a top-70 finish in his first appearance at the national meet last fall.
We don't totally know what his ceiling is (yet), but this is someone who was fairly consistent throughout last fall. Horsburgh flashed hints of low-stick potential and could very well deliver on that upside later this fall.
Cameron Hatler returns as well and he may be this team’s biggest x-factor with a seemingly wide range of outcomes.
The newly minted upperclassman was good, but not great last fall. However, his steeplechase prowess — as evidenced by an 8:57 PR — may grant him some added upside. Either way, Hatler gives Pomona-Pitzer five proven and reliable scorers, each of whom placed in the top-100 at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships.
The Sagehens lose Ethan Widlansky and Jack Rosencrans, two high-level talents who carried upper-tier All-American upside. Owen Kobett also departs after showing real promise as a backend scorer in 2022.
Those losses won’t necessarily be easy for the Pomona-Pitzer men to overcome, but they pale in comparison to some of the lineup holes that their opponents carry in 2023. And with so many men on this roster being proven All-Americans in 2021, the scoring potency of this lineup shouldn't be dramatically worse if those men return to top form.
Among other returners, Duncan Speirs is an experienced candidate capable of joining the team's varsity lineup. Jack Stein slipped into the top-20 at the SCIAC XC Championships last year as a freshman and flashed upside on the track by running 14:50 (5k) and 32:07 (10k).
Bennett Booth-Genthe is another interesting prospect who was quietly solid on the grass last year. More impressively, he was an All-American across two different events at both the indoor and outdoor national meets in 2023. He’s run marks of 1:48 (800), 3:44 (1500) and 4:01 (mile) which are considered to be elite times at the Division Three level.
If he can translate some semblance of that middle distance firepower to the grass, then the Sagehens will have a very complete lineup.
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Pomona-Pitzer can realistically win a national title in 2023 thanks to the returning firepower and prospective depth that they wield. But it’s important to remember that the same outcome seemed even more inevitable this time last year, even entering November, before the Sagehens fell short. And now, they have a new coach.
We fully acknowledge that the men of Claremont, California are realistically capable of matching their national meet finish from either 2022 or 2021, or producing something in between. We hedged our bets a bit by splitting the difference in our preseason rankings.
We may not know what kind of team this is until well into November, but they enter this fall carrying massive potential, along with perhaps slightly tempered expectations compared to a year ago. And the latter part may actually be a good thing.
