TSR's 2024 D2 Outdoor Top 25 Rankings (Men): Update #3

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Written by Ian Dickenson & Garrett Zatlin

Additional edits & commentary by Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve

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Click here to see our Just Missed and Honorable Mention names.

Listed eligibility takes redshirts and Covid-related extensions into consideration.

TFRRS is used as a general, but not strict, guide when determining eligibility.

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25. George Couttie, Freshman, Charleston (WV) (-4 / 21)

There's not a whole lot to report when it comes to George Couttie. The Charleston freshman underwhelmed with a 3:52 effort over 1500 meters at the Virginia Challenge, but admirably rebounded with a metric mile Mountain East title early last week.

Couttie's prior success from the winter months and his 3:43 (1500) mark from late March are ultimately the reasons why this Golden Eagle remains in our top-25. However, with others showcasing far greater momentum, Couttie had to drop in our rankings.

24. Dayton Brown, Senior, Adams State (0 / 24)

While a 14:00 (5k) mark may not look like anything crazy on paper, it's still nice to see Dayton Brown establishing consistency and building momentum. So far this spring, the Adams State talent has gone from 14:19 to 14:08 to 14:00 over the 5000-meter distance while snagging a huge 28:35 (10k) PR as well.

Admittedly, that latter effort (which sits at NCAA #3 this season) is the main reason why Brown remains on the fringes of our rankings. Even so, he hasn't necessarily given us any glaring reason to drop this Adams State ace from our top-25.

23. Felix Perrier, Junior, Azusa Pacific (+2 / 25)

A pair of PacWest titles between the steeplechase and the 5000 meters wasn't too surprising for someone like Felix Perrier. He was, after all, the clear-cut best name in both of those fields. Even so, the production was admirable, he looks as strong as ever and we liked that he ran another fast steeplechase mark of 8:51, further cementing his reliability as we dive deeper into the postseason.

22. Logan Bocovich, Junior, Colorado Mines (Unranked)

There have been plenty of us at The Stride Report who have really liked Logan Bocovich and have wanted to find room for him in our rankings. And after producing top-10 times over 5000 meters (13:49) and 10,000 meters (28:56.68 converted), he certainly had an argument.

Of course, what really pushed Bocovich over the top was a recent 5k win at the RMAC Championships, the best conference meet in all of Division Two. Defeating Tyler Nord and teammate Duncan Fuehne proves that this former St. Olaf runner can not only run fast, but execute and secure big wins.

Admittedly, it would have been nice if Bocovich placed higher in the 10k, a race where he finished 6th place overall. However, a deeper review of the results shows the Orediggers taking a sweep of the top-seven spots and fellow teammates running with each other. In other words, it's best not to take that result too seriously.

21. Drew Dailey, Senior, Shippensburg (+2 / 23)

When I first saw Drew Dailey race in person, I was extremely impressed. At a Bucknell meet in the spring of 2022, the Shippensburg middle distance ace ran 1:48 (800) for the win, flexing his talent against a field that simply wasn't as good as him.

Since then, Dailey hasn't been quite as strong. Or at the very least, he hasn't matched the potential that he had showcased numerous times in the earlier days of his collegiate career. However, I would argue that Dailey has never looked better than he has this spring. The Shippensburg ace had run under 1:50 (800) three different times, the most recent being a 1:49 effort at the PSAC Championships to secure gold.

With experience, momentum and consistency on his side, we're choosing to buy more and more Drew Dailey stock as the outdoor national meet approaches.

20. Roberto Fajardo, Senior, Lee (Tenn.) (Unranked)

Wow, Robert Fajardo was flat-out awesome at the Georgia Tech Invitational!

Lee's newest middle distance star had a monster breakout weekend back in mid-April, dropping a huge 1:49/3:40 (800/1500) weekend double in Atlanta. That pair of results came after a 1:50/4:05 (800/mile) weekend double at the Fast Break Invite and proceeded a Gulf South victory over 1500 meters.

Fajardo is on absolute fire right now and seems to only be getting better. His consistent display of successfully doubling has been a very pleasant surprise. However, his lack of national meet experience keeps us cautious as we approach the tail-end of the season.

19. Prince Mcabelo, Junior, West Texas A&M (+3 / 22)

We're a bit conflicted about Prince Mcabelo and his last two races since our last rankings update. This is someone who has run 1:50 over 800 meters twice in late April, both times coming at altitude. However, the catch is that Mcabelo won one of those races, but lost the other to Aziz Mohamed and JUCO standout Hamdani Benahmed.

The ability to consistently run fast times and be competitive with top names is encouraging, but falling to both Mohamed and Benahmed wasn't ideal, either. Even so, the consistency is there and his raw 800-meter times are still among the fastest that he has run this spring. On paper, he is once again primed to peak for the national meet like he did back in March.

18. Sam Wilhelm, Junior, Alabama-Huntsville (0 / 18)

No surprises here. Sam Wilhelm was the best runner in both the 5000 meters and the 10,000 meters at the Gulf South Conference Championships this past weekend. There, he secured double gold in those two events and also placed 9th over 1500 meters.

None of that really changes our opinion of Wilhelm who has been excellent this year. He'll be a legitimate All-American threat in both the 10k and the 5k. In fact, you could potentially call him a lock to earn at least one All-American honor come late May.

17. Aziz Mohamed, Sophomore, West Texas A&M (Unranked)

Sure, Aziz Mohamed was a fine D2 middle distance runner coming into this spring, but he hadn't really wowed us with a performance which suggested that he was a top-25 name. Of course, that has since changed after he ran 3:44 (1500) and 1:49 (800) in his last two races, settling for runner-up finishes both times.

Not only that, but those times were run at altitude and he took down fellow teammate Prince Mcabelo in the process! With converted marks of 1:49 and 3:41 now putting Mohamed in the top-seven on the D2 national leaderboard in both events, we have no choice but to admit that this West Texas A&M sophomore is peaking beautifully.

16. Tyler Nord, Sophomore, Western Colorado (-2 / 14)

Gosh, it's so hard to get a proper gauge on Tyler Nord this spring.

The Western Colorado star may not have had the indoor track season that he wanted, but he was still plenty competitive. And after running a 13:46 (5k) PR at the Bryan Clay Invitational, we have good reason to believe that he's near peak form.

The RMAC Championships didn't make analyzing Nord any easier. A runner-up finish to Logan Bocovich is not at all a poor result and the same thing can be said about his bronze medal effort in the 1500-meter finals behind teammate Simon Kelati and UCCS runner, Jagger Zlotoff. However, if Nord wants a top-half All-American honor on the national stage, then he'll need to be able to defeat guys just like them.

15. Titouan Le Grix, Junior, Wingate (+4 / 19)

If you're a consistent reader of The Stride Report, then you know that we are very big fans of Titouan Le Grix. His range is fantastic, his improvements have been borderline dramatic and he has proven to be plenty competitive with top-tier men in Division Two.

Well, after running a 13:49 (5k) PR at the Raleigh Relays back in late March and producing a "just ok" 3:47 mark for 1500 meters, this Wingate star ventured to the Charlotte Invite. There, he dropped a monster steeplechase PR of 8:40! For perspective, his prior PR in that event was 9:05, meaning that he dropped 25 seconds in a single race.

On paper, you would think that the SAC Championships weren't too kind to Le Grix. The Wingate ace did win the 1500-meter title by matching his 3:47 PR, but he also settled for an underwhelming 5th place finish in the steeplechase with a time of 9:25.

However, the top-six men in that race were all Wingate runners and that no one ran faster than 9:21. In other words, we're not looking into that series of results all that seriously.

14. Jagger Zlotoff, Rs. Sophomore, UC-Colorado Springs (+1 / 15)

Sure, Jagger Zlotoff didn't win the the RMAC 1500-meter title the other weekend, but he still had a great race. This UC-Colorado Springs miler narrowly lost to Simon Kelati in 1500-meter finals of their conference meet, 3:48.15 to 3:48.23. Those marks converted 3:43 efforts and it should also be noted that Zlotoff defeated a talented name in Tyler Nord as well.

This redshirt sophomore has quietly become one of the most complete milers in all of Division Two. He is tactically really solid, his times continue to improve, he has defeated top-tier names and he barely lost to a guy who may win another national title later this month.

This may sound like an aggressive take, but it feels like Jagger Zlotoff could realistically compete for the 1500-meter national title in a few weeks' time.

13. Matthew Storer, Rs. Sophomore, Colorado Christian (0 / 13)

Has not competed since our last rankings update.

12. Ricardo Barbosa, Junior, Wingate (0 / 12)

Ricardo Barbosa has been solid following the steeplechase fireworks he produced at the Bryan Clay Invite, but we haven't learned much from his recent performances, whether that's for better or for worse.

A 5k personal best at Charlotte Relays (13:59) was a solid development. But then Barbosa ventured to the South Atlantic Conference Championships and produced modest finishes of 4th (3k steeplechase) and 5th (1500).

Given the way that we’ve seen Wingate's stars race at conference meets this year, it seems they don't put much emphasis on these performances or their order of finishes in races in which they have little competition outside of their teammates. We know what Barbosa is capable of, and at this point, it’s just a matter of how he’ll stack up with the nation's other fantastic steeplechase talents when they go head-to-head in the near future. 

11. Soheil Boufrizi, Junior, Wingate (0 / 11)

Here we have another great Wingate steeplechaser in Soheil Boufrizi. Pretty much all that we said about Ricardo Barbosa applies to Boufrizi who produced a 13:53 (5k) PR at the Charlotte Relays and finished a couple of places behind Barbosa (who he beat at the Bryan Clay Invite) in the 1500 meters and the steeplechase at their conference meet. That's to say our understanding of Boufrizi hasn't changed much in recent weeks.

10. Jan Lukas Becker, Senior, Mississippi College (0 / 10)

In an encouraging display of fitness at the Georgia Tech Invitational two weeks ago, Jan Lukas Becker took a victory by a considerable margin in the 5k. The time (14:09) was nothing to write home about, but we’ve already seen this Mississippi College senior run 13:50 (5k) and 28:40 (10k) this season, so we didn’t need to see monster time from him.

With the abundance of names ahead of him on the national leaderboard, Becker may be flying under the radar right now, but let’s not forget that he is the reigning 10k national champion. He knows how to dismantle elite talent on the national stage and will undoubtedly remain a threat.

9. Juan Diego Castro, Junior, Azusa Pacific (0 / 9)

Juan Diego Castro was a bit of an enigmatic athlete for a while this year. But now that he has established more of a consistent seasonal resume, we feel safe keeping him in our top-10. Talent-wise, we may even be underselling his standing in the Division Two distance ranks.

An honest 3:46 effort for a 1500-meter title at the PacWest conference meet shows us that he’s ready to reach top form over the coming month and, along with a 3:40 mark in March, suggests that he should be in the winning mix in one of the most wide-open D2 distance events.

8. Reece Smith, Senior, NW Missouri (-2 / 6)

While Reece Smith hasn’t quite shown the national title-winning, 8:33-PR type of steeplechase form that he has displayed in the past, the last month and a half have displayed some decent momentum on his side following nearly a year off from NCAA racing. 

The D2 men's steeplechase field is full of dynamic athletes who will put up a demanding fight for the defending champion. Of course, Smith still has arguably the highest ceiling of anyone. Regardless, the event is shaping up to be especially hard to predict now that Smith is looking closer to his old self with three efforts of 8:52 or better in the past month. 

7. Harry Ross-Hughes, Sophomore, Lake Erie (+1 / 8)

We’ve said in the past that Harry Ross-Hughes could position himself as D2's next focal star in the 800 meters once Wes Ferguson graduates this spring. However, this Lake Erie sophomore has gone above and beyond to prove that potential.  

In a huge win at the G-MAC Outdoor Championships, Ross-Hughes cracked the 1:47 (800) barrier for the first time to win by just over two seconds. Frankly, the current half-mile picture is rather fragmented with Ferguson so far ahead of his competition and Ross-Hughes seemingly another few echelons above the rest. Regardless, this standout Brit is one of the best young D2 talents we have seen in a while. 

6. William Amponsah, Junior, West Texas A&M (+1 / 7)

It's been a mostly quiet few weeks for William Amponsah. But in what appears to be characteristic fashion for the first-year collegiate talent, he still managed to throw down a very impressive 14:00 (5k) solo effort at altitude in a race with only four other athletes, none of whom broke 16:00.

Depending on who runs which events at the outdoor national meet, Amponsah could have a relatively straightforward path to a national title as he appears head and shoulders above anyone else in the 10k...well, depending on how you feel about Romain Legendre. It feels short-sighted to rule the reigning D2 cross country champion out of the 5k mix as well.

5. Hamza Chahid, Sophomore, Wingate (-1 / 4)

To begin this star-studded top-five, we have Hamza Chahid. However, some of his contemporaries may have displayed slightly better form in the last couple of weeks. Chahid recorded a pair of "DNF" results at the Charlotte Relays and, like his teammates, didn't appear to put much emphasis on his conference meet performance.

Nonetheless, we know that has hardly taken him out of his national title-contending position after winning 5k gold this past winter. Expect things to ramp back up for Chahid as we enter the postseason. 

4. Caleb Futter, Senior, Grand Valley State (+1 / 5)

There may not be a D2 distance athlete with a more unique skillset than Caleb Futter. Coming off of victories in both the steeplechase and the 1500 meters at the GLIAC Championships, the Grand Valley State senior continues to show rather singular range. 

Now boasting a new PR of 3:43 in the 1500 meters, Futter can really have his pick at what events to contest moving forward, if he didn’t already. With the extraordinary success he’s experienced between the steeplechase and the metric mile, we hope he sticks with both rather than focusing his talent in only one of them. 

3. Simon Kelati, Rs. Junior, Western Colorado (0 / 3)

Our main question for Simon Kelati all season long has been whether he will be more of a force over 1500 meters at the national meet like he was last season, or if he will shine more in the distance events like his fall and winter performances indicated. 

To be honest, we still don’t know.

It’s likely that he will run both the 1500 meters and the 5k at the outdoor national meet. However, with the way the next man in our rankings has been running, the latter event will be exceedingly difficult to win. But against a more unpredictable 1500-meter field, Kelati's racing acumen could lead to his second national title in as many seasons.

2. Romain Legendre, Junior, Adams State (0 / 2)

Romain Legendre is a man on fire. After experiencing a more tumultuous indoor track season, the first-year Adams State runner has left few questions about his ability this spring. All that's left is to succeed in the postseason.

With a recent 28:28 run in the 10k, Legendre is now NCAA #1 in two events (5k and 1500) this season and NCAA #2 in another (10k). Despite the brimming talent pool in Division Two right now, it’s hard to imagine Legendre not earning his first NCAA title if he races the way he has as of late. 

1. Wes Ferguson, Rs. Senior, Nebraska-Kearney (0 / 1)

Once again, there’s not much new to be said about our perennial TSR #1 runner, Wes Ferguson. With almost the exact same outdoor track schedule as he had last season, he has continued to show out and prove that he is one of the best middle distance runners (and perhaps the best half-miler) in the NCAA regardless of division.

Recently, that materialized into a 1:46.08 (800) win over an elite field of Division One talents and pros at Drake Relays and a 1:47 effort for an MIAA conference title. Having already run as fast as 1:45.85 this season, the question remains: Will Ferguson claim the Division Two 800-meter record? 

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ADDED

Aziz Mohamed (West Texas A&M)

Roberto Fajardo (Lee (Tenn.))

Logan Bocovich (Colorado Mines)

KICKED OFF

James Dunne (Adams State)

Albert Hesse (Western Colorado)

Maxime Touron (NW Missouri)

JUST MISSED (in no particular order)

Kaleb Tipton (CSU-Pueblo)

Josphat Meli (Harding)

Daylen Madison (Ashland)

Ryan Hartman (Augustana (SD))

Harry Louradour (West Texas A&M)

Josh Pierantoni (Colorado Christian)

Duncan Fuehne (Colorado Mines)

Dominic Suliman (Saginaw Valley State)

Mason Strader (Pittsburg State)

Dillan Haviland (Northwood)

Braxton Bruer (MSU-Moorhead)

Benjamin Sumner (Azusa Pacific)

Hudson Majeski (Colorado Christian)

Nicolas Melendres (Azusa Pacific)

Dawson Gunn (Colorado Mines)

Maxime Touron (NW Missouri)

Dylan Sprecker (Pittsburg State)

HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)

Jacob Hatcher (Lee (Tenn.))

Koby Fraaza (Grand Valley State)

Cas Kopmels (Wingate)

Ramen Felumlee (Cedarville)

Warren Thiel (Charleston (WV))

Brock Drengenberg (Colorado Mines)

John O'Malley (Colorado Mines)

Lewis Cotterill (Tiffin)

Noah Bernarding (California (PA))

Patrick Lyell (Grand Valley State)

Enrico Oddone (West Texas A&M)

Aris Houston (Cal Poly Humboldt)

Trever Medina (Fort Hays State)

Titus Lagat (Lee (Tenn.))

Drew Weber (Western Washington)

Trent Cochran (Colorado Christian)

Elliot Dotson (Anderson (SC))

Noah Fisher (Findlay)

JP Rutledge (Colorado Mines)

Ero Doce (Stanislaus State)

Evan Horgan (Lewis)

Kidus Begashaw (Adams State)

Emil Bezecny (Adams State)

Lars Laros (Wingate)

Grant Bradley (Fort Hays State)

Nixon Korir (Azusa Pacific)

Peter Kipkemboi (East Central)

Aspel Kiprob (East Central)

Ben Surratt (Wingate)

Will Aitken (Wingate)

Jared Gregoire (MSU-Moorhead)

Awet Beraki (Adams State)

Scott Spaanstra (Grand Valley State)

Paul Knight (Colorado Mines)

Kevin McDermott (Western Washington)

Alberto Campa (Colorado Mines)

Tanner Chada (Grand Valley State)

Johan Correa (Central Washington)

Samuel Idiens (Charleston (WV))

Ethan Anthony (Oklahoma Christian)

Isaiah Rodriguez (Western Oregon)

Paul Korir (East Central)

Jeret Gillingham (Western Washington)

Notes

- James Dunne is no longer listed on Adams State's roster and has yet to race this spring, so we have opted to remove him from our rankings.

- Albert Hesse has yet to race this spring despite being listed on Western Colorado's roster. As such, we have removed him from our rankings as well.