TSR's 2023 Preseason D3 XC Top 20 Rankings: Just Missed & Honorable Mentions (Men)

Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Jul 26, 2023
5 min read

Here we go. Our 2023 Division Three men's and women's preseason individual cross country rankings. Let's start with our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.

As a reminder, you can find our rankings rubric here. This week will be our D2 and D3 rankings. You can also check out our D1 rankings on our ARTICLES page from last week!

JUST MISSED (in no particular order)

Graham Tuohy-Gaydos, Junior, Williams

Easily one of the more challenging omissions from our preseason rankings (regardless of division) was Graham Tuohy-Gaydos. The Williams runner has been a marquee name for the Ephs over the last few seasons, but has had varying amounts of success between his freshman and sophomore years.

The former high school standout was fantastic as a rookie. In the fall of 2021, Tuohy-Gaydos ripped off top-10 finishes in a handful of nationally competitive meets (for D3) and even secured a pair of top-five results at his conference and regional races. He would later end his freshman season with a 19th place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.

But as a sophomore, Tuohy-Gaydos was far more up and down. He struggled mightily at his season opener, the Siena XC Invitational, before regaining consistency with a handful of results similar to his 2021 campaign. However, on the national stage, he faltered back to 63rd place overall, well off of expectations.

The indoor and outdoor track seasons were largely non-existent for Tuohy-Gaydos who only raced twice and recorded two DNF results. And when pairing those efforts with his 2022 cross country season, it seems fair to say that this Williams ace wasn't at 100% this past year.

Even so, few men in Division Three are more naturally talented than this current junior is. We've seen what Tuohy-Gaydos can do when he's firing on all cylinders. And if we see that version of him this fall, then you're likely looking at a top-10 runner.

Andrew Guimond, Senior, North Central

There's no good answer as to where Andrew Guimond should be ranked. If you look at his 2022 cross country season, one half of it looks underwhelming and the other half looks wildly encouraging.

At the beginning of last fall, Guimond placed 54th at the MSU Spartan Invite, 26th at the D3 National Preview and 25th at the Austuana Interregional Invite. In three larger and notably competitive meets, this North Central veteran simply didn't stand out in any major way.

But then Guimond earned silver at the CCIW XC Championships and later placed 7th at the Midwest Regional XC Championships. All of that would lead to a tremendous 29th place All-American finish at the NCAA XC Championships.

Then, on the track, the Cardinal ace ran times of 14:19 (5k) and 29:36 (10k), the latter mark coming at the outdoor national meet where he placed 12th overall.

If someone wanted to rank Guimond in their D3 top-20, we wouldn't argue with them at all. The North Central runner peaked beautifully for the postseason last fall and carried some of that success to the oval. However, his efforts in larger and more competitive fields simply lacked a spark. And while his national meet performance was excellent, it's hard to ignore the first half of his 2022 cross country season.

Even so, in a few months time, our analysis may end up being too harsh. There's a very good chance that Guimond thrives in the early portion of the fall months and silences any doubts that we have. But until then, he'll reside in our "Just Missed" section.

Connor Riss, Senior, North Central

Yet another brutal North Central runner to be left out of our preseason rankings is Connor Riss, one of the more improved cross country talents from last fall.

Throughout the 2022 cross country season, Riss gave us a variety of results which made it difficult to truly pin down just how good he was.

His 36th place finish at the MSU Spartan Invitational and 18th place finish at the D3 National Preview were fine results, but by no means anything crazy. However, he then finished a surprise runner-up at the Augustana Interregional Invite before winning the CCIW XC Championships.

At the NCAA XC Championships, Riss faded back to 38th place finish, a somewhat disappointing result given the incredible momentum that he had seemingly picked up in his more recent efforts. Luckily, the Cardinal standout would redeem himself with a pair of backend All-American honors at the indoor (3k) and outdoor (5k) national meets.

If we had a TSR #21 spot, we would probably rank Riss at that position. At his best, he is a major problem for many of his competitors. But on larger stages, he wasn't quite as sharp as he had been in other instances.

Is Riss better than 38th in the country? Yes, almost definitely. But putting him in the top-20 of our preseason rankings after a highly variable 2022 fall campaign seems somewhat aggressive. And yet, at the same time, this feels like a rankings decision that we'll almost instantly regret in the coming months.

Vedang Lad, Senior, MIT

On paper, Vedang Lad is essentially the opposite of Connor Riss. He didn't have the same up and down results that his North Central counterpart did, but he was fairly steady throughout last fall.

The MIT veteran never had a truly poor race in 2022, but he didn't produce any significant results, either. During the regular season, for instance, Lad placed 16th at the D3 National Preview and later finished 10th at the Connecticut College Invite.

In the postseason, we saw the same type kind of performances. Lad finished 6th at the NEWMAC XC Championships before capping his season with a 43rd place finish at the NCAA XC Championships.

And if you look back at his 2021 fall campaign, his streak of results were extremely similar. In fact, in many cases, they were almost identical.

Overall, Lad had a strong 2022 cross country season, but he also lacked the necessary firepower to emerge as a top-20 runner in our rankings. Even so, his reliability across two cross country seasons made him arguably more valuable than a handful of other guys who (occasionally) had better finishes.

And because of that, we placed Lad in our "Just Missed" section.

Matthew Porter, Senior, Carnegie Mellon

It's not often that a competitive name transfers into the Division Three realm, but that's what we're seeing this year with Matthew Porter. The former Army distance runner has since joined the Carnegie Mellon men and will aim to give the Tartans a low-stick to rally around as we venture into the fall of 2023.

Porter is someone who emerged as one of the better distance runners within the Patriot League over the last few years. At the Division One level, Porter ran times of 14:23 (5k) and 29:58 (10k). However, it was on the grass where he was at his best.

The soon-to-be Division Three runner is a two-time top-10 finisher at the Patriot League XC Championships, placing as high as 5th last fall. He was also a top-50 finisher at the 2022 Northeast Regional XC Championships.

Admittedly, there's no perfect way to gauge just how good Porter will be with Carnegie Mellon this fall. He'll most likely be a nationally competitive name, but by how much? And just how good is the Patriot League in comparison to the top of Division Three? Truthfully, I don't think anyone has a good answer to either of those questions.

Even so, Porter has done just enough for us to say that he's better than an "Honorable Mention" as he enters the Division Three realm. And for that reason, he'll snag a "Just Missed" spot in our rankings.