TSR's 2024 D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings (Men): Update #4

Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Nov 18, 2024
12 min read

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 2024 NCAA XC Championships. Click here to learn more about our ranking criteria (which was published in 2023).

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.

ANOTHER NOTE: The Stride Report does not typically put much ranking weight on the regional meet results. Oftentimes, certain teams will not place much emphasis on these races and will simply run with the goal of advancing to the national meet. This is not to say that all regional results are negligible (as you'll see below). However, you may notice less movement within our top-25 lists than usual in this week's update.

25. Butler Bulldogs (Unranked)

The Butler men continue to sit on the fringes of our team rankings, this time returning to our top-25 list after dropping out earlier this season. That's because the Bulldogs snagged a 3rd place finish (beating Michigan State on the tie-breaker) at the Great Lakes regional meet, narrowly advancing to this year's national meet.

Will Zegarski's regional title was excellent to see as was Austin Gabay and Florian Le Pallec both cracking the top-10. That was a nice injection of firepower, especially considering that Butler's backend scorers settled for finishes of 36th place and 50th place.

This has admittedly not been the dream season that some of us at The Stride Report thought Butler was capable of having in 2024. Le Pallec hasn't been himself (although he's been better lately) while both Jesse Hamlin and Matthew Forrester have been absent from racing entirely.

Even so, the Bulldogs have done enough to remain competitive. And as long as their top-three holds their own on the national stage, then they should be able to muster up a top-25 finish on Saturday.

24. Colorado Buffaloes (Unranked)

It hasn't exactly been the most exciting fall campaign for a Colorado team that has produced a mixed bag of results this season. Thankfully for them, they upended a very respectable Wyoming team at the Mountain regional meet on Friday to place 5th overall, just five points behind Utah State.

We've been wanting more from the Buffaloes in recent weeks. Not having a runner inside of the top-15 this past Friday while the rest of their scorers were fairly spread out wasn't ideal. And given how talented we know Isaiah Givens, Kole Mathison, Dean Casey and Simon Kelati are, it feels like Colorado should be better.

And yet, the fact that they've remained nationally competitive despite multiple men not reaching expectations is actually fairly impressive. In our eyes, their ceiling is higher than their floor is lower -- and that's a good thing. They need more firepower moving forward, but salvaging a 5th place result despite not reaching their full potential is, in a weird way, slightly encouraging.

23. Eastern Kentucky Colonels (Unranked)

A 3rd place finish at the Southeast regional meet was a nice result for the Eastern Kentucky men, but it also didn't tell us anything new about the Colonels.

The return of Taha Er Raouy has been encouraging and he's a big reason why we opted to put EKU back inside of our top-25. Sure, he wasn't necessarily a low-stick on Friday (placing 20th overall), but he was a great secondary scorer who raises the floor of this team by quite a bit.

The backend depth and supporting cast also looked really solid for the Colonels on Friday as six men in total cracked the top-35. The Vega brothers have been quietly reliable and Mario Priego has been very solid as well. Eastern Kentucky may not have quite the upside that we thought they could have at the beginning of the season, but their floor is just as high as we suspected.

22. Harvard Crimson (0 / 22)

There isn't a whole lot to discuss when it comes to the Harvard men who took 2nd place at the Northeast regional meet, earning an automatic national qualifying spot in the process.

The Crimson's lineup was a bit more spread out than we would have preferred it to be on Friday. However, Shane Brosnan snagging a 10th place finish was a sneaky-good result.

Harvard's runner-up effort was solid, but they finished only nine points ahead of Cornell, a team that they should have beaten more convincingly. Of course, it's also important to note that Harvard is still without Ferenc Kovacs, someone who hasn't raced since Pre-Nationals.

That's both a good and bad thing. It's good in the sense that Harvard can be even stronger and more reliable if he returns for the national meet. However, losing a key piece on a team with already-shaky depth (at times) is certainly not ideal.

21. Princeton Tigers (0 / 21)

The Princeton men escaped a scare at the Mid-Atlantic regional meet this past Friday. While the Villanova men easily cruised to the title, the Tigers nearly fell to Georgetown and, more surprisingly, to Navy.

In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't have mattered whether or not Princeton 2nd, 3rd or 4th -- they still would have qualified for the national meet with any of those finishes.

Truthfully, there wasn't a legitimate flaw in the Tigers' lineup. They had a nice balance of lead scorers and depth. The only catch is that Navy and Georgetown both had more condensed scoring groups which is not something that I expected Princeton to fall behind on.

20. Furman Paladins (0 / 20)

A 6th place finish at the Southeast regional meet isn't totally ideal, but it's hardly a reason to panic if you're the Furman men. Dylan Schubert and Carson Williams continue to be a very underrated 1-2 punch while the backend of their lineup was good enough, although not necessarily amazing.

What we saw from the Furman men on Friday is largely what we expected to see. They'll need one of their backend talents to step up and have a big race if the Paladins want to crack the top-15 at the national meet. But for now, they've done just enough to keep this team nationally competitive -- and that's all that you can really ask for.

19. California Baptist Lancers (-2 / 17)

The California Baptist men settled for 4th place at the West regional meet. The catch, however, is that they only beat Portland by three points.

It truthfully felt like there were a small handful of CBU men who were capable of performing at a higher level this past Friday. But at the same time, the Lancers would have still qualified for the national meet even if the Pilots beat them. And when you look at their overall results, it's hard to really pinpoint a specific area that could have significantly altered CBU's final result.

This team outperformed our expectations for them throughout the regular season. That's why a less exciting performance at a meet where the sole goal was to qualify for the NCAA XC Championships is hardly a major concern.

18. Utah State Aggies (+1 / 19)

The Utah State men took home 4th place at the Mountain regional meet on Friday, a somewhat predictable result for the Aggies.

At first glance, you may be fairly underwhelmed that Utah State only had one runner crack the top-28 (Camren Todd in 14th place). However, their final four scorers all packed together in the top-40, going 29-34-36-39. That backend group was stable enough to fend off other teams with similar lineup structures.

The quartet of Spencer Nelson, Joshua McKee, LJ Floyd and Logan Garnica are going to be the men who truly dictate how the Aggies will fare on the national stage. They don't have a ton of margin for error, but they do have a complete top-five that seemingly doesn't have any true flaws.

17. Oregon Ducks (+1 / 18)

A runner-up finish at the West regional meet was certainly a possibility for the Oregon men, but we didn't necessarily tab them to be favorites for an automatic national qualifying spot.

The ongoing rise of Aiden Smith (5th) and Simeon Birnbaum (8th) has been extremely encouraging, especially since they're getting better as we move to the postseason. Elliott Cook (11th) has also continued to put together sneaky-good results in the postseason while Quincy Norman (16th) also ran well.

There was gap after those four men, but for the most part, the Ducks look really solid. We'll admit, the youth and mile-centric identity of this team still leaves us with some concerns going into the national meet. Even so, few men's teams in the NCAA are faring better than the Oregon men are right now.

16. Washington Huskies (0 / 16)

A narrow two-point win over the Oregon men at the West regional meet should give the Washington men some nice confidence heading into the NCAA XC Championships. Of course, the main goal was simply to qualify for the season finale -- wining the regional title was just an added bonus.

We've been saying for a while now that if the Huskies all run well on the same day, then they'll be incredibly difficult to beat. That was plenty evident on Friday as Nathan Green, Evan Jenkins, Tyrone Gorze and Leo Daschbach went 7-9-14-15, respectively.

With Jamar Distel (22nd) admirably closing out the scoring, this team performance is closer to the best version of Washington's lineup. They'll still need to translate this success to the national stage and keep gaps fairly limited, but the Huskies should be good heading into Saturday.

15. Syracuse Orange (0 / 15)

The Syracuse men took home a fairly uneventful win at the Northeast regional meet, putting five men in the top-30. Assaf Harari (28th) didn't have his best day, but it largely didn't matter, especially with Benne Anderson (9th) stepping up while Sam Lawler (2nd) delivered on expectations.

We didn't learn much about the Orange this past Friday, although it was nice to see younger guys like Anderson and Connor Ackley find success at the 10k distance despite their youth.

14. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (0 / 14)

The Notre Dame men put forth a fairly honest effort at the Great Lakes regional meet this past Friday. There, they secured the regional title over Wisconsin. Of course, as long as they were in the top-four, they were almost certainly going to qualify for the national meet.

I liked that the Fighting Irish didn't just cruise through their regional meet. After a brutal outing at the ACC XC Championships, this team likely needed a confidence booster, especially for guys like Carter Solomon and Daelen Ackley. And sure enough, both of those men had strong days.

The very best version of this team is a borderline podium squad. Of course, that would require each of the Fighting Irish's scorers to run their best on the same day.

13. Villanova Wildcats (0 / 13)

While Princeton, Georgetown and Navy were in an all-out brawl for the second automatic qualifying spot in the Mid-Atlantic region, the Villanova men were able to snag the team title.

Liam Murphy and Marco Langon went 1-2, which is great, but not surprising by any means. However, what really left us encouraged was how much their next few scorers have improved this season.

Bailey Habler (9th) has quietly become one of the better freshmen in the country while CJ Sullivan (13th) has become increasingly more reliable. With Devon Comber (25th) simply being good enough, Villanova's entire scoring contingent looks far more balanced and effective than we were expecting it to be at the beginning of the season.

12. Alabama Crimson Tide (-2 / 10)

To no one's surprise, the Alabama men went 1-2-3 at the South regional meet this past Friday. That was enough to give them the overall win.

However, after struggling a bit at the SEC XC Championships, we didn't see Hillary Cheruiyot race on Friday. And with Alabama's final two scorers dropping to 29th place and 45th place, it felt like Ole Miss snuck closer to the Crimson Tide than they should have.

Now, in fairness to Alabama, they also rested a few key support scorers in addition to Cheruiyot. However, the Crimson Tide being a podium team on Saturday hinges on Cheruiyot being an All-American. And given how this season has played out for him, we're not feeling quite as encouraged as we were at the beginning of the season.

11. Virginia Cavaliers (+1 / 12)

A win at the Southeast regional meet has to feel good for a Virginia squad that has been "good" this season (and maybe even "great"), but not necessarily amazing. Gary Martin and Will Anthony continue to be excellent while Nathan Mountain has remained as a highly reliable middle-lineup piece.

However, a recent 17th place finish from Andrew Jones on Friday was a pleasantly surprising result. He's been a backend contributor for this team over the last few years, but this a clear jump up that he hadn't shown before.

If the Cavaliers want to be a top-10 team on Saturday, then having Jones replicate that kind of performance will be crucial. That's obviously not guaranteed to happen, but for a team that was looking for an additional spark before the national meet, they may have found just that.

10. North Carolina Tar Heels (+1 / 11)

We can only shrug our shoulders when seeing that the North Carolina men placed 2nd at the Southeast regional meet. The Tar Heels were clearly putting forth a conservative effort to preserve themselves for the national meet, although Will Coogan (23rd) did produce another sneaky-good result.

The fifth spot in UNC's lineup still needs to close down on the gap to the team's third and fourth runners. That said, Patrick Anderson (31st) had a fairly solid race. That was arguably the best that the backend of the Tar Heels' lineup has looked this season.

9. Wisconsin Badgers (0 / 9)

Sure, it would have been nice for the Wisconsin men to win the Great Lakes regional title, but there wasn't any need for them to do that. The Badgers snagged a runner-up finish on Friday to easily secure themselves a spot to the national meet. They did that by packing together all five of their scorers anywhere from 14th place to 20th place.

Admittedly, this is the second race where Liam Newhart (35th) hasn't looked as strong as we had hoped he would. The national meet is the meet that holds greater importance, but his recent postseason efforts are sitting in the back of my mind as we approach the season finale.

8. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (0 / 8)

A 3rd place finish for Northern Arizona at the Mountain Regional XC Championships leaves us shrugging our shoulders and saying, "Yeah, that's about right." While they certainly could have secured a runner-up finish, it largely didn't matter if they did or not.

David Mullarkey (5th) was tasked with securing low-stick points, but the rest of his teammates -- Corey Gorgas, Santiago Prosser and Colin Sahlman -- packed together (going 11-12-13, respectively) in what felt like a somewhat conservative effort. Ford Washburn closed out the scoring in 30th place, but we'd imagine that a different runner will be the Lumberjacks' fifth man at the national meet.

7. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (-2 / 5)

The Wake Forest men have a slight "off" day at the Southeast regional meet where they placed 5th overall. However, more importantly, low-stick ace Rocky Hansen was absent from their lineup.

In the grand scheme of things, as long as the Demon Deacons secured a spot to the national meet, there wasn't any need to go all-out on Friday. And frankly, there wasn't any need to field Rocky Hansen in this race after a combination of illness and heat exhaustion pushed him back to 32nd place at the ACC XC Championships.

Even so, Friday wasn't exactly the most encouraging development for a Wake Forest team that, at full strength, is capable of being a podium squad.

6. New Mexico Lobos (+1 / 7)

Despite Habtom Samuel and Lukas Kiprop both falling early-on at the Mountain regional meet, the New Mexico men still emerged with a 2nd place automatic national qualifying spot.

For a team that has had a few question marks surrounding key runners this season, I thought the Lobos ran very well on Friday, especially with the brief setbacks that they had. Everyone isn't firing on all cylinders yet, but it does feel like New Mexico is beginning to (very slowly) peak at the right time.

5. Stanford Cardinal (+1 / 6)

A 3rd place finish for Stanford at the West regional meet is a fine result that doesn't really leave us with much to analyze. The Cardinal were clearly doing just enough to ensure that they advanced to the national meet and they did exactly that.

The Stanford men did not field Lex Young on Friday and Thomas Boyden faded in what was a clear "off" day from him. Thankfully, both Cole Sprout and Leo Young looked very strong while freshman Paul Bergeron (13th) has not-so-quietly continued to make excellent progress.

So sure, the final result may not have been what they wanted, but as they prepare for the national meet, we found more positives than negatives.

4. Iowa State Cyclones (0 / 4)

With the exception of Joash Ruto, I was a bit surprised that the Iowa State men didn't rest any of their other top scorers on Friday. With the amount of depth they have, the Cyclones could have sat one or two others and still secured the second automatic qualifying spot in the Midwest region with room to spare.

Regardless, we'll be watching to see if Iowa State can replicate their postseason magic from last fall in Madison, Wisconsin this Saturday.

3. Arkansas Razorbacks (0 / 3)

The Arkansas men rested both Reuben Reina and Ben Shearer this past Friday at the South Central regional meet. Of course, that didn't really matter in the end as the Razorbacks cruised to an easy win with just 33 points. Despite the rise of Tulane, the South Central region has remained an easy task for the Arkansas men.

2. Oklahoma State Cowboys (0 / 2)

Business as usual for the Oklahoma State men. The Cowboys won the Midwest regional title with relative ease behind Denis Kipngetich and Laban Kipkemboi going 1-2 in the overall results. Brian Musau and Victor Shitsama also earned top-10 results in what was clearly a conservative effort.

Oklahoma State did all of that without Fouad Messaoudi, Ryan Schoppe or Will Muirhead. Of course, they didn't really need those men. Far greater challenges lie ahead as they venture to Madison, Wisconsin.

1. BYU Cougars (0 / 1)

Despite resting James Corrigan, Aidan Troutner and Lucas Bons, the BYU men still easily cruised to the Mountain regional title by putting four men in the top-10. And while that is a nice run, we didn't really learn anything new about this team on Friday.