TSR's 2024 D3 Outdoor Top 20 Rankings (Men): Update #3

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Written by Conor Daly, Kevin Fischer & Gavin Struve

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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20. Vince Simonetti, Junior, RPI (Unranked)

This RPI stud has become as much of an aerobic weapon as anyone in Division Three. While his personal bests that have come in the last few months speak for themselves, Vince Simonetti's racing abilities are just as valuable. 

At the Liberty League Championships, Simonetti won the 10k before coming back to place 2nd in the 5k the following day, beating some very respectable teammates in the process. While his cumulative 37.5-lap weekend is too much for many runners to continue to have a successful season, Simonetti proved to be an exception to this rule.

The following weekend, the RPI talent went to the Farley Inter Regional Extravaganza to post a very strong 14:05 (5k) result and claim a qualifying mark just behind star teammate, Cory Kennedy. 

To be an absolute workhorse and double as well as Simonetti has makes us feel increasingly good about his chances of earning double All-American honors in the 10k and the 5k at the outdoor national meet. Besides, between the most recent cross country national meet and the indoor national meet, the lowest he has placed on those stages is 8th.

Here’s a guy who has proven he can peak perfectly.

19. Ryan Harvey, Senior, Loras (Unranked)

Ryan Harvey has found a way to be one of the top milers, metric or not, every year of the 2020s. He reasserted himself this season thanks to a 3:44 (1500) effort that some Wisconsin (Madison) athletes helped drag him to earlier this month.

Harvey followed that up with a busy weekend at the American Rivers Conference Championships. There, he placed 3rd in the 1500 meters and 5th in the 800 meters. While we may have hoped for more, those results are understandable since Harvey ran the half-mile prelims and contributed to his team's winning 4x800-meter relays just the previous day.

Besides, the men who he lost to in the metric mile are elite in their own right and he still closed in 57.3 seconds over the last 400 meters. The rest of D3's milers should be scared that Harvey -- who admittedly has been better on the indoor oval -- appears to be in top form with so much racing experience and success behind him.

18. Sam Verkerke, Junior, UW-Eau Claire (-11 / 7)

The indoor 800-meter national meet runner-up delayed the start of his outdoor track season until mid-April, rumored to be because of an injury. And when he did debut, Sam Verkerke did not seem to be near his form from earlier in the year, running 1:55 (800) and then producing a modest 8th place over 800 meters at the WIAC Championships. 

Because of this, we were excited to see Verkerke compete at the St. Francis Fighting Chance Invite where he would line up against Braedon Gilles, the 6th place half-mile finisher at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships. Unfortunately, due to an officiating error in which they used the wrong starting line, the results from this race were void.

That being said, it's worth noting that Verkeke failed to run a national qualifying time in a race that turned out to be less than 800 meters. Is it possible that we’re going to see someone who was the silver medalist this past winter not advance to the outdoor national meet?

Verkeke figures to have one more chance to right his currently modest season.

17. Michael Olson, Senior, Plymouth State (Unranked)

Since our last rankings update, Michael Olson has run four 800-meter races and only lost one of those races. The lone runner to defeat him is a very solid Division One athlete from Boston College. The other three races culminated in big wins against some quality middle distance talents. 

Best of all, Olson has been consistent, running 1:52, 1:50, 1:49 and a PR of 1:48.72. The latter mark suggests that he has the upside to be just as good as anyone in Division Three.

What worries us about Olson isn’t his fitness, but his ability to execute on the national stage. He is yet to make the half-mile finals despite two national meet appearances (in the spring of 2023 and the winter of 2024).

This is the main reason why we can’t push him all that much further up our rankings just yet, but Olson is due to break through with more experience, momentum and seemingly confidence than ever before.

16. Jonathan Zavala, Junior, Brockport State (+4 / 20)

In our last rankings update, Jonathan Zavala took a hit since he had not run faster than 3:56 (1500) this season, a pedestrian time relative to the 4:06 mile mark that earned him bronze at the 2024 indoor national meet.

But just as we were growing concerned about Zavala, he gave us the kind of performance that his winter campaign suggested that he was capable of.

Zavala led a slew of runners to national qualifying times by winning the Farley Inter Regional Extravaganza in a rapid 3:45 (1500) this past weekend, taking down several accomplished athletes in the process. This is the performance that we needed to see to remind ourselves of the top-half All-American upside Zavala holds. We won't be surprised if we look back on this performance as having propelled Zavala to a very successful postseason.

15. Adam Loenser, Junior, UW-La Crosse (-5 / 10)

Early in the season, we were ecstatic to see Adam Loenser drop an 8:44 steeplechase mark in a performance that took him to a totally different level. However, we did not see that national title-contending form replicated at the WIAC Championships where Loenser was a distant runner-up to Christian Patzka in the steeplechase with a modest time of 8:59.

While falling to Patzka is nothing to hang your head about, we would have expected Loenser to keep the race a bit closer. Other than that result, the only other race Loenser finished in recent weeks was a modest 3:53 mark in the metric mile. While we can still envision Loenser as a top-three steeplechaser, that doesn’t look as likely as we once thought.

14. Colin Kirkpatrick, Junior, Pomona-Pitzer (+4 / 18)

Known mostly for his abilities over the barriers and water pits, Colin Kirkpatrick recently ripped a very impressive time of 3:46 (1500). It’s a personal best by the slimmest of margins and it's encouraging to see him rounding into peak form.

Kirkpatrick's two steeplechase efforts this season (as we discussed in our previous update) have been strong, but not quite up to the caliber of performances that we saw from him last year. He’s going to need to reach that level to be considered an outside title contender in the currently loaded Division Three steeplechase scene.

13. Cory Kennedy, Junior, RPI (+4 / 17)

The start of the outdoor track season was a little bit tough for Cory Kennedy, but he has certainly found his groove now. After scoring 15 points at the Liberty League Championships, he won the 5000 meters at the stacked Farley Inter Regional Extravaganza with a 14:04 mark this past weekend.

That recent effort guarantees Kennedy a spot on the line at the outdoor national meet. His streak of All-American finishes in every season since the fall of 2022 gives us every bit of confidence in him to keep his momentum rolling and perform at a high level when it matters most. 

12. Gunner Schlender, Junior, UW-Whitewater (+3 / 15)

Consistency is the name of the game for Gunner Schlender. Once again, he has been everything that we expected during this outdoor track season. His WIAC 10,000-meter title in 29:39 was highly impressive, especially when you look at the margin of his victory and the fact that he had to do a lot of solo work.

We were also impressed, but not at all surprised, by his 14:01 (5k) result at the Gary Wilson Invitational. Regardless of whether Schlender wins his first individual national title this spring, he should be considered a favorite to add at least one, maybe two, All-American honors to his already-packed resume. 

11. Enrique Salazar, Senior, Manchester (+3 / 14)

A quadruple effort at his conference meet saw Enrique Salazar taking three gold medals between the 1500 meters, the 5k and the 10k as well as a silver over 800 meters. That might seem excessive, but his 38 points were instrumental to Manchester winning the team title by a 17-point margin.

Following that effort, Salazar put down a solid 3:50 (1500) mark at the St. Francis Fighting Chance Invite, indicating some solid range. His early season marks of 13:54 (5k) and 29:22 (10k) both remain near the top of the national leaderboards and Salazar should be in the mix in both of those events at the outdoor national meet.

10. Max Svienty, Senior, North Central (+2 / 12)

The 2024 indoor track season was forgettable for Max Svienty, but he came out swinging this spring. The 29:06 (10k) mark that he opened with has yet to be bested by anyone in D3 and he backed it up with a 13:57 PR over 5000 meters at UW-Platteville.

While Svienty hasn't put down any crazy marks since then, he simply hasn't needed to. His double victory at the CCIW Championships indicates that he hasn't lost a step in terms of his competitive edge. Looking ahead, the men's 10,000 meters seems pretty wide-open at the outdoor national meet, but Svienty has to be considered one of the favorites for his first national title. 

9. Spencer Moon, Senior, Simpson (IA) (+2 / 11)

While he hasn't been all that active since our last rankings update, Spencer Moon has yet to put a foot wrong forward in 2024. His 3:50 (1500) mark at Drake Relays was a shade off of his personal best, but it was still a solid mark to go along with his big early season results of 13:51 (5k) and 29:18 (10k).

He followed that with a victory over 10,000 meters at the American Rivers Conference Championship in what was essentially a battle between him and Wartburg's Tyler Schermerhorn. Moon's close in the last couple of laps has hurt him in past postseasons, but he did make some progress this indoor season with his first track All-American honor and he appears to be operating at a higher level this spring.

That said, it doesn't feel too outlandish to say Moon is one of a few guys with a real shot at winning either the 10k or the 5k in two weeks. 

8. Eric Anderson, Junior, UC Santa Cruz (0 / 8)

The surprise mile runner-up finisher from the indoor national meet has translated his success well to the outdoor oval. In the past three weeks, Eric Anderson has earned personal bests of 1:50.14 over 800 meters and 3:45 over 1500 meters, winning a conference title in the former.

Anderson's progression this spring has been more or less on par with expectations, and we have every reason to believe he will prove dangerous once again in the metric mile final at the outdoor national meet. His two 1:50 half-mile marks this year further improve his skillset and put him among several top milers who also have killer 800-meter speed.

7. Noah Jorgenson, Junior, Central College (+6 / 13)

Following a 4th place mile effort at the 2024 indoor national meet that was truthfully a bit underwhelming relative to expectations (which feels like a weird sentence to type out), Noah Jorgenson has re-entered the metric mile national title picture (that is, if you think someone other than Bennett Booth-Genthe can win the event).

While doubling back in the 800 meters at both meets, Jorgenson ran a 3:45 (1500) PR at Drake Relays before taking the American Rivers Conference title in the metric mile over a pair of ranked individuals.

Jorgenson has the high-level experience and pedigree to be a deciding factor in the 1500 meters on the national stage. Perhaps it just took him another track season to adapt after predominantly being a half-mile star entering this year.

6. Cael Schoemann, Sophomore, UW-La Crosse (0 / 6)

With two DNF efforts each at two different home meets separated by a few weeks, we're under the impression that Cael Schoemann has been tasked with pacing duties on multiple occasions. But his efforts between those results have been largely reassuring for one of D3's more unproven defending national champions.

Schoemann produced a 1:49.60 (800) seasonal best (nearing his personal best) in a runaway win in Minneapolis late last month before claiming WIAC gold in the half-mile over some talented adversaries.

Of course, the next two weeks carry even more importance for this Eagle underclassman.

5. Sam Llaneza, Junior, Lynchburg (0 / 5)

What a bounce-back effort for Sam Llaneza from one week to the next.

It's hard to be too critical of the Lynchburg ace for not coming away with a single conference title in late April considering he competed in three individual events and mostly finished behind his teammates. But while valuable from a point-scoring standpoint, Llaneza's ODAC weekend wasn't fully representative of his value and potential.

A week later, he produced a 3:43 PR (an NCAA #1 D3 mark this spring) by finishing toward the front of what was mostly a Division One field and edging out star teammate Chasen Hunt by just under a tenth of a second.

Considering he ran a 1:49.13 (800) personal best a month ago and 1:50 this past weekend, Llaneza may well be primed to contest the 800/1500 double at the outdoor national meet for the second year in a row.

4. Christopher Collet, Senior, Wartburg (0 / 4)

Even if he didn't help his stock to the same extent that some of his TSR top-10 counterparts did, Christopher Collet produced a couple of reassuring efforts over the past couple of weeks.

He challenged Noah Jorgenson for the ARC 1500-meter title (losing by seven-hundredths of a second) and won the conference title in the 3000-meter steeplechase.

But it's a different recent effort in his signature event (the steeplechase) that makes a second national title or a third runner-up finish in that event seem conceivable for Collet. At Drake Relays, he ran 8:48 over the barriers and water pits to beat every other collegian in the field, including defending D2 national champion Reece Smith and fellow D3 stars Will Kelly and Caleb Silver.

3. Chasen Hunt, Sophomore, Lynchburg (+6 / 9)

Few men have seen their resumes improve since the turn of the calendar year quite like Chasen Hunt has. He emerged as an individual star during the 2024 indoor track season and has only gotten better since. Consider this: Every race to date in his 2024 outdoor track season has either resulted in a personal best or a conference title.

Lately, Hunt won triple gold at the ODAC Championships and produced PRs in the 1500 meters (3:43) and the 5k (14:00). In part because his rise has been so sudden, it's hard to decide which of those two events he's better in. Fortunately for Hunt and most D3 fans, a double at the outdoor national meet is entirely within the realm of possibility.

2. Bennett Booth-Genthe, Junior, Pomona-Pitzer (-1 / 1)

Let's make this clear: Bennett Booth-Genthe didn't relent our TSR #1 spot because of any struggles that he had or any questions that we have about him. He won a conference title over 1500 meters and ran 1:49 and 1:50 for 800 meters over the past few weeks.

Sure, we may have had grander expectations for him after he ran a 1:48.08 PR just a month ago, but Booth-Genthe is still favored to win a national title in either the half-mile or the metric mile later this month.

1. Christian Patzka, Junior, UW-Whitewater (+1 / 2)

Christian Patzka's continued brilliance is the reason for Booth-Genthe's "demotion," if you can even call it that. All that Patzka has done in recent weeks is win a 5k race in 13:51 for the NCAA #1 mark this season (D3) before winning two different events at the WIAC Championships.

A 3:45 metric mile effort to topple men like Steven Potter and Michael Madoch was impressive, but even more so was Patzka resetting his 3000-meter steeplechase personal best while running away with a conference crown in 8:38.

With Ethan Gregg potentially out of the national picture this spring (he hasn't raced since late March), Patzka may well now be favored to win gold in two different distance events at the upcoming outdoor national meet.

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ADDED

Michael Olson (Plymouth State)

Ryan Harvey (Loras)

Vince Simonetti (RPI)

KICKED OFF

Ethan Gregg (UW-La Crosse)

James Settles (Colorado College)

Colin McLaughlin (Carnegie Mellon)

JUST MISSED (in no particular order)

Ethan Gregg (UW-La Crosse)

James Settles (Colorado College)

Will Kelly (St. Olaf)

Charles Namiot (Williams)

Ned Farrington (Bates)

Caleb Correia (John Carroll)

Lance Sobaski (Wartburg)

Ethan Domitrovich (John Carroll)

Nate Lentz (Williams)

Simon Heys (Wilmington (OH))

Braden Nicholson (North Central)

John Lucey (Williams)

Trevor Richwine (Dickinson)

Tyler Schermerhorn (Wartburg)

Derek Fearon (Pomona-Pitzer)

Jake Shumaker (Millikin)

Dawit Dean (Emory)

Spencer Watry (Emory)

Lucas Florsheim (Pomona-Pitzer)

Steven Potter (UW-Oshkosh)

Joey Sullivan (UW-La Crosse)

HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)

TJ Carleo (Brandeis)

Joe Franke (Loras)

Reza Eshghi (Haverford)

Henry Hardart (MIT)

Emmanuel Leblond (Johns Hopkins)

Andrew McGovern (Carnegie Mellon)

Elijah Meder (Hope)

Kyle Miller (Buena Vista)

Ziyad Hassan (MIT)

Oscar Roering (Pomona-Pitzer)

Will Houser (Washington U.)

Connor Riss (North Central)

Cameron Hatler (Pomona-Pitzer)

Michael Madoch (UW-La Crosse)

Mason Shea (UW-Eau Claire)

Peter Weiss (George Fox)

Sean Hendricks (Rochester)

Grant Matthai (UW-La Crosse)

Mitchell Dailey (RPI)

Jayden Zywicki (UW-La Crosse)

Sam Acquaviva (MIT)

Braedon Gilles (UW-Stevens Point)

Gordon Doore (Colby)

Simon Opsahl (MIT)

Colin McLaughlin (Carnegie Mellon)

Notes

- Ethan Gregg (previously TSR #3) has not raced since late March and is not currently in national qualifying position. As such, we have opted to remove him from our rankings.