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TSR's 2023 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Rankings (Men): #6 UW-Whitewater Warhawks
- Gavin Struve
- Sep 9, 2023
- 6 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.
The UW-Whitewater men enter this 2023 fall campaign with unfamiliar expectations, even for a consistently successful program such as theirs.
The Warhawks have a bona fide individual national title contender, another projected top-half All-American behind him and enough depth to have a shot at a team podium appearance. However, for all of the hope that this group carries into this fall, they’ll still be hard-pressed to get past rival UW-La Crosse on the conference and national stage.
A dream season could be ahead for UW-Whitewater, but they will need some things to go their way and to show some internal progression. Fortunately, we think that the Warhawks have the tools to do so.
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UW-Whitewater found plenty of in-state competition early in the fall of 2022, beginning at the Ken Weidt Classic. There, Christian Patzka, Gunner Schlender and Justin Krause swept the top-three spots for the Warhawks. Meanwhile, two others finished in the top-eight as they defeated UW-La Crosse in the small early-season meet.
The Warhawks would then pick up another victory a week later at their home meet, the Tom Hoffman Invitational. On their home course, Patzka, Schlender and Krause again snagged the top-three spots in that order. Meanwhile, Dan Anderson, Nick Hardin and Chris Allen placed 6-7-8 in the overall results to secure an easy win over Wisconsin-Stevens Point and others.
The Division Three National Preview provided the UW-Whitewater men an opportunity to finally test their mettle against a national-caliber field. And sure enough, the competition at this race would prove to be significantly more challenging.
Patzka more than held his own with a runner-up finish while Schlender landed comfortably in the top-10. Krause was strong as well, finishing 17th to give the Warhawks an unsurprisingly great 1-2-3 scoring punch. However, it was the rest of this lineup where we saw some challenges arise.
Nick Hardin came across the line in 55th place while Dan Anderson took 66th place. And while that kind of gap was hardly catastrophic, the Warhawks needed a more compact scoring structure to complement their firepower and compete with the best of the best. In the end, their top-five group landed them at 4th place in the deep field, just one spot behind conference rivals, UW-La Crosse.
After a mildly humbling experience for a team that nearly snagged a podium spot in 2021 (and likely planned to do so in 2022), the UW-Whitewater men returned to Wisconsin for the WIAC XC Championships.
And once more, in a small-field setting, UWW didn’t come all too close to challenging their rival Eagles for the conference title.
Patzka and Schlender were once again strong up front (although Patzka lost to UW-La Crosse’s Ethan Gregg for a second-straight race), placing 2nd and 4th, respectively. The backend of their lineup wasn’t terrible either as all five scorers landed in the top-20.
But Krause wasn’t as close to the Warhawks’ lead scorers as he had been earlier in the season and UW-Whitewater finished as a relatively distant runner-up.
Depending on how much value you place on the regional stage, you could argue that the Warhawks rebounded entering the national meet. Patzka won the North Regional XC Championships and UW-Whitewater won the meet over UW-La Crosse.
But they had no such luck a week later on the national stage.
In his season finale, Patzka produced a stellar runner-up result at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships, proving himself to be one of the nation’s best low-sticks on the grass. We also saw teammate Gunner Schlender join him as a top-30 All-American.
Krause finished a respectable 82nd place overall, but with the team’s fourth scorer falling outside of the top-150 and their fifth man not cracking the top-200, the lack of depth was too much to overcome.
All told, the Warhawks finished 10th at the 2022 cross country national meet.
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Patzka is the foundation of this team which should go without saying for the man who earned our coveted TSR #1 spot in our preseason individual rankings.
The eight-time All-American has already been the national runner-up on the grass and a two-time national champion on the track. The logical next step for him appears to be earning top honors on the grass this fall.
But the individual title is far from a sure-thing for Patzka. In fact, we were close to placing Badger State rival Ethan Gregg ahead of him at that top spot. Patzka got the better of him in their final two races last November and their first contest of the season, but Gregg was better in between at the WIAC XC Championships and the D3 National Preview.
Their duels will make for an interesting subplot between two teams in a very close proximity both geographically and in their status in the NCAA cross country landscape.
But to be honest, whether or not Patzka wins the national title truly won’t have a major impact on the Warhawks’ scoring so long as he’s in contention. Instead, the man who could hold more impact on UW-Whitewater’s trajectory is Gunner Schlender.
The four-time All-American, who is ranked at TSR #14 in our preseason individual rankings, was slightly better on the national stage in 2021 compared to 2022. But we expect that to shift, particularly after he earned the bronze medal over 10,000 meters at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships and ran a new PR of 29:05 in the event.
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Patzka and Schlender offer tremendous firepower for this squad, but the Warhawks have more than just those two back. The aforementioned Justin Krause was this team's third scorer throughout the entirety of last season and the trusty senior has submitted consecutive top-100 performances on the national stage.
However, as you could probably tell when we were recapping last fall, Krause arguably was capable of a bit more than how he ended his 2022 cross country season.
Regardless of whether he fulfills the upper limits of his potential as a top-60 runner nationally, Krause should be a dependable anchor for the middle of the lineup. We should also mention that he made great strides on the track earlier this year with new personal bests of 4:07 (mile) and 3:46 (1500), earning an All-American honor in the former event.
Even so, UW-Whitewater needs to shore up their backend scoring behind him. If you’re a strong believer in year-over-year improvement, then you may be especially partial to this group. That’s because the Warhawks return each of the seven men who they fielded on the national stage last November.
There are few teams across the NCAA, particularly towards the very top, that can say the same thing entering this fall.
And while UW-Whitewater needs the second-half of their lineup to close a significant gap toward their lead scorers, the fact that each of the Warhawks’ fourth through seventh scorers were underclassmen last year points toward significant room for growth and improvement -- and that should instill some optimism.
The men that figure to reprise their roles as this team’s back-half varsity runners are Dan Anderson, Nick Hardin, Chris Allen and Will MacCudden.
With that group and top scoring trio, the Warhawks could simply run back their scoring lineup from last fall and bank on internal improvement pushing them above a few contemporaries who have suffered scoring departures and depth losses.
Of course, it’s not a guarantee that this team’s lineup will look exactly like it did a year ago. That's because, in addition to a solid freshman class, the Warhawks are bringing in a transfer.
Craig Hundley gained valuable national meet experience last year while competing for Carthage. He would have been UW-Whitewater’s seventh runner at the cross country national meet as well as their fourth scorer at the D3 National Preview.
Hundley is not a lock to be racing with UUW's top group throughout this season, but the fact that Coach Jeff Miller has him as an option provides some reassurance.
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UW-Whitewater couldn’t ask for a more proven two-man duo than Patzka and Schlender, and Krause is an ideal complementary middle lineup piece.
While there was a significant drop-off between those three and the rest of the team last fall, that younger group has another year of experience under their collective belt, and Hundley provides another realistic varsity piece.
The Warhawks have an enviable blend of firepower, experience and continuity which should almost inevitably lead to further improvement from an already-solid starting point.
While last year’s team barely snuck into the top-10 on the national stage, UW-Whitewater’s previous group in 2021 was nearly on the podium. We expect this year’s iteration of the Warhawks to be closer to that breakout 2021 squad.
