TSR's 2024 D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): Update #1

TSR Collaboration
Oct 14, 2024
9 min read

Written by Conor Daly, Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve

Edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin & Gavin Struve

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.

10. RPI Engineers (0 / 10)

Just about the entire RPI lineup has looked very strong in the early going this fall. At the Purple Valley XC Invite, the Engineers easily defeated Williams, putting their first four runners across the line ahead of Williams’ second runner. It was encouraging to see RPI deliver a complete team performance given that was projected to be one of their strengths entering this season.

In the Paul Short Run “Gold” race, the RPI men showed the same completeness once again. Jonathan Craun, Jack Loughery and Tobin Durham led the way with some of the quicker Division Three performances of the day, while the rest of the team was strong through six runners.

The major concern for this squad is Vince Simonetti’s slow start. He has finished as the Engineers' fourth runner in both races. At his best, he’s a top-10 name in the country. If he can find his form again by the end of the season, the RPI men could be in for a major bump in our team rankings, considering that they have maintained their current spot even with him performing far from his best.

9. Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (Unranked)

Coming into the season, Johns Hopkins had star low-stick Emmanuel Leblond as well as numerous men with great success on the track, but who had not shown that same upside on the grass up to that point. We figured that at least some of these track-oriented talents would be able to translate their success to the grass.

Two competitive races in, and that upside has largely become a reality. The Blue Jays have been delivering as a team.

At the John McNichols Invitational, Leblond had arguably the best race of his already highly successful cross country career to finish 4th in a loaded field. Missouri S&T transfer and middle distance standout Lucas Rackers (33rd) delivered over a longer distance, while Rowan Cassidy (41st) continues to be a stable middle-lineup name.

Closing out the scoring fairly quickly with Olaf Dietz (55th) and Connor Oiler (59th), Johns Hopkins placed 5th among Division Three schools.

The team looked just as good, if not better, at the Paul Short “Gold” race. Leblond was clear of Division Three performers by upwards of 20 seconds while the team went home with a faster average time across their first five finishers than every team in the D3 "White" race.

With Rackers and freshman Brady Ott contributing to the top-five in both races, Coach Bobby Van Allen has reloaded very well and given his team strong odds of staying within our top-10 for the rest of the season.

8. NYU Violets (Unranked)

Much of NYU’s success this fall can be attributed to adding a pair of high-impact D1 transfers: graduate student Evan Sherman from Brown and sophomore Liam Hagerty from Davidson. Thanks to this duo, the NYU men have outperformed expectations in the early going, resulting in a leap into our rankings.

For their first test, these New York City men traveled to the Midwest to face some of the nation's best at the John McNichols Invitational. There, returners Ryan Tobin and Jeffrey Chen joined the two transfers with strong runs, as all of them placed in the top-40. With a serviceable run from Andy Taylor in 65th place, the Violets surprised with a 4th-place finish among Division Three teams.

Overall, the Violets couldn’t have asked for all that much more. Yes, Ryan Tobin’s 14:08 (5k) talent suggested that he could have been a little further up than 23rd place, but other than that, the team performed just as well as they could have hoped.

Next seen at the Paul Short Run, the NYU men looked just as strong. Tobin (3rd place) had a big-time run, and everyone else finished about where they were expected to. When it was all said and done, NYU validated their early season performance with a runner-up finish behind SUNY Geneseo.

Moving forward, this team has very little room for error. In their first two meets, the gap between their fifth and sixth runner was over 40 and 60 seconds, respectively. This means that their top five needs to be healthy and performing well each meet for NYU to be competitive as a team. Amazingly enough, that has been the case so far, but it's not a guarantee in the future.

7. George Fox Bruins (+1 / 8)

The first indication that the men of George Fox were who we thought they were entering this season was a victory over a decent Division Two team, Central Washington, at the PLU Invitational. CWU had the top two finishers, but the Bruins packed all five scorers into the top-21 places of a 12-team field to win the meet.

Of course, we got a far better look at George Fox at D3 Pre-Nationals earlier this month, where their underrated blend of front-end scoring potency and backend support helped them to a 3rd-place finish in a national field.

Seniors Austin Gappa (8th) and Aidan Arthur (17th) led the way, and the rest of the all-senior scoring five landed in the top-51 places.

While it was great to see Gappa emerge as a low-stick after George Fox lost its lone 2023 All-American (Peter Weiss) to graduation, Arthur was even more impressive relative to expectations. He placed 121st at the same meet last season and was viewed as more of a middle distance runner after dropping a 3:47 (1500) mark earlier this year. It turns out, that result may have just been a sign of an improvement in all-around fitness.

It was reassuring to see how cohesive this lineup was in its first major test, and their senior status indicates that we can expect consistency from this group. It's even more impressive that the Bruins looked so strong with their third scorer from last year's national meet (Adam Petersen) finishing all the way back in 144th at Pre-Nationals.

6. SUNY Geneseo Knights (Unranked)

SUNY Geneseo was a team that we thought could challenge for a top-half finish at the 2024 NCAA XC Championships even after finishing dead last at the national meet last fall and losing low-stick star Nick Andrews to graduation.

However, even we didn't expect the Knights to present themselves as a dark horse podium contender and the biggest riser in our first rankings update. All it took was winning the Paul Short Run "White" race over three other teams who are either ranked or listed in the "Just Missed" section of our rankings update (meaning we view them as a top-15 squad).

SUNY Geneseo won somewhat convincingly thanks in part to a breakout race from senior Charlie Wilson, who was the individual runner-up. It was also reassuring to see 2022 All-American Alex Hillyard return to form to place 4th after sitting out last fall.

Pierce Young (12th) was a valuable middle-lineup scorer, and three more Knights landing in the top-35 of the 373-person field was enough to secure the win.

The Knights will look to carry that form over to this coming weekend to defend their turf at their home meet, the Mike Woods Invitational, which is another one of the most competitive regular season meets.

5. North Central Cardinals (0 / 5)

Although this ranking may indicate stagnation at surface level, the Cardinals of North Central have tested themselves early in two meets featuring Division One competition.

They finished 3rd at the John McNichols Invitational behind the top two D3 teams in the country. It was exciting to see sophomore BJ Sorg finish within two seconds of the team's focal star, Emerald Svienty, but just as promising to see the rest of the scorers finish in the top-50 (including two in the top-30).

We saw Svienty and Sorg comprise the Cardinals' top two again earlier this month as they headed further east for the Louisville Classic, and the same three backend scorers gave them a well-rounded enough lineup to finish 5th in a field filled with D1 teams.

Their upcoming meet (this Saturday's Augustana Interregional Invitational) will be the most educational of all for North Central heading into the postseason next month.

4. UW-Whitewater Warhawks (0 / 4)

We didn't take much away from UW-Whitewater's season-opening effort at their home meet last month, as Gunner Schlender, Christian Patzka and Dan Anderson swept the top three spots.

Perhaps we should have though, given that Anderson surprised many by finishing close to his two superstar teammates (who are ranked TSR #1 and TSR #2) in 4th place at D3 Pre-Nationals. Anderson's head-turning run helped his Warhawks to a runner-up team effort behind defending national champion Pomona-Pitzer.

Sure, we may have expected UW-Whitewater to win the meet, but another podium contender's struggles keep them at TSR #4. UW-Whitewater now appears to have a top-three that's right up there with what their TSR #1 in-state rival UW-La Crosse has to offer.

The difference is UW-Whitewater had a 50-second gap between its third and fourth scorers at Pre-Nationals. Until that gets cut considerably, this ranking is the Warhawks' ceiling. of course, that's not a bad place to be at all.

3. Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens (+4 / 7)

Yet again, the Pomona-Pitzer men have made us look silly.

Last year, when everyone doubted the Sagehens (including TSR), they went ahead and won the D3 national team title. But after losing many of their top low-stick stars, we struggled to see a scenario where Pomona-Pitzer would return to the podium conversation, much less the national title conversation.

But at D3 Pre-Nationals, the Sagehens showed us that their program prestige matters more than the resumes of their returners.

Cameron Hatler (3rd) was fantastic in that race, thriving as a focal low-stick star that his team very much needed. However, the more important results came from Quinn White (9th), Jack Stein (13th) and Owen Kobett (18th) who each had better-than-expected races. And with Jefferson Wright (25th) closing out the scoring relatively quickly, we were surprised to see Pomona-Pitzer flex a complete lineup with few flaws.

While the Sagehens' team win wasn't necessarily dominant, it did showcase greater firepower than we had projected them to have and they clearly held competent depth. There is still work to do, but the overall development and maturation of this team was shockingly great yet again.

2. Wartburg Knights (0 / 2)

The John McNichols Invite was the last larger, nationally competitive meet that the Wartburg men toed the line for. There, they settled for a very respectable runner-up result behind a UW-La Crosse team that was looked excellent.

In that race, Isaiah Hammerand (5th) was shockingly good, emerging as a true low-stick talent. Meanwhile, the veteran three-man contingent of Jacob Green (14th), Shane Erb (17th) and Ander Julian (20th) added great stability and value to their lineup. Their fifth man, Lance Sobaski (27th), was a bit further back while 10k national meet runner-up Tyler Schermerhorn (34th) didn't have his best outing.

Despite a few "off" days, we were actually very encouraged by what we saw from the Wartburg men. Both Sobaski and Schermerhorn are capable of being low-sticks on their best days. The Knights still have some upside that they could tap into and for that reason, we kept them at TSR #2.

1. UW-La Crosse Eagles (0 / 1)

Despite not returning any individual All-Americans from last fall, we were still extremely encouraged by the talent that the Eagles flexed on the oval this past winter and spring. Sure enough, that raw firepower was showcased at the John McNichols Invite where UW-La Crosse took down a strong Wartburg group.

On that stage, Grant Matthai (2nd) looked like a true national-caliber star while teammates Aidan Matthai (8th), Joey Sullivan (11th) and Corey Fairchild (12th) offered highly potent scoring efforts of their own. With Adam Loenser (19th) closing out the scoring and Jayden Zywicki (21st) providing nice insurance, it was hard to see a single flaw in the Eagles' lineup.

Yes, UW-La Crosse did compete at the Joe Piane Invite as well, specifically the "Gold" section, but with five men in the top-14, there wasn't much to analyze as they cruised to the win.

For the most part, nothing has changed with the Eagles. They're still the same national title favorites that we thought they'd be and we don't see too many holes in their lineup. As long as they continue to race like they have, they'll win NCAA gold in November.