TSR's 2024 D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): Update #2

TSR Collaboration
Oct 28, 2024
7 min read

Written by Kevin Fischer, Conor Daly & Gavin Struve

Edits & additional commentary via Gavin Struve and Garrett Zatlin

NOTE: These rankings are based on how an individual 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 athlete has moved in the rankings.

The second number indicates where the athlete was ranked in our last update.

10. St. Olaf Oles (Unranked)

After facing mostly smaller fields up until the Connecticut College Invitational, the Oles took advantage of their biggest test thus far with a highly impressive 2nd-place finish behind our TSR #8 team, NYU.

We knew that Kevin Turlington could be an All-American type of guy this fall, but the progression of Andrew Skemp and Sean Hartney behind him has been a super promising development. Those two were huge at Connecticut College, where Skemp finished 9th and Hartney finished 14th. We figured that it was possible to see them compete at this level, but it was difficult to judge and contextualize what they had done up until that point.

The same can be said about this St. Olaf team as a whole, who, as mentioned above, hadn't faltered but also hadn't been really tested. Now there isn't much doubt that this is a group operating at a very high level.

9. RPI Engineers (+1 / 10)

At SUNY Geneseo's Mike Woods Invitational, RPI got what they had been waiting for all season: for Vince Simonetti to look like Vince Simonetti.

His individual win was a huge boost, as was the performance of Tobin Durham (7th place), but that wasn't quite enough to pull off the upset over SUNY Geneseo. Still, the overall momentum of this team is absolutely trending in the right direction.

The best thing about this team is that on any given day, somebody else can step up.

At the Mike Woods Invitational, the Engineers' top finisher was Simonetti with Durham as their second scorer. At the Paul Short Run, it was Jonathan Craun leading the way, and at the Purple Valley Invite, it was Jack Loughery. If all of those guys can put together the best race of their season on the same day, RPI will be hard to beat.

Granted, that's a pretty big “if."

8. NYU Violets (0 / 8)

Entering the Connecticut College Invitational, it was clear that there was serious potential for a rankings shakeup. The field didn't feature any teams with a ranking higher than TSR #8, but there were six total teams with at least an "Honorable Mention" designation.

So even though NYU was the favorite on paper, the Violets certainly weren't overwhelming favorites, and they were faced with the task of staving off challenges from some highly potent squads. Well, they certainly did that on their way to taking the win, thanks in part to their second through fourth runners finishing within two seconds of each other.

There is some concern with a pretty large gap existing behind NYU's fifth runner, which will cause problems if one of the usual five scorers has a tough day. However, as it stands, this team's top five is one of the most complete in the country.

7. George Fox Bruins (0 / 7)

There's not much to discuss here given that George Fox's varsity contingent has not raced since our last rankings update.

However, it was nice to see senior Adam Petersen, the Bruins' third scorer at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, run closer to his ability in finishing 7th at the L&C Invite on October 19th after a slow start to the season. That's a sign that Petersen may be ready to again be a varsity contributor entering the postseason.

Freshman Caleb Doddington, who was the Bruins' fifth scorer in an early season meet, also gained valuable experience by placing 10th in the same race.

At full strength, this team should cruise to a conference title at the NWC XC Championships this weekend.

6. UW-Whitewater Warhawks (-2 / 4)

Despite what this drop from the podium range of our rankings may indicate, we're not hitting the panic button with the UW-Whitewater men just yet.

They finished 3rd in a deep Augustana Interregional Invitational field, falling behind meet runner-up North Central and thus swapping places with them in our rankings.

In winning that race, Christian Patzka was his usual dominant self. His running mate, Gunner Schlender, didn't look as elite in finishing 4th, but his leaving a point or two on the table had a negligible impact on the Warhawks' team score.

Instead, Dan Anderson placing 102nd (not even finishing as a scorer) was what really hurt. Anderson is a key middle-lineup piece for a team that relies on a relatively top-heavy lineup to power it to strong results.

We saw Anderson thrive against a national-caliber field earlier this month when he placed 4th at D3 Pre-Nationals. As such, we're going to assume this latest result was a one-off. If Anderson had finished in the top-15 as he was expected to, UW-Whitewater would have finished closer to our TSR #2 team (who won the Augustana Interregional Invitational) than to North Central.

We're not panicking about the Warhawks. They could certainly still record a top-four finish at the national meet, but their latest result revealed their limitations if one of their top three runners has an "off" day.

5. North Central Cardinals (0 / 5)

Kudos to North Central for producing a strong result on a day when low-stick star Emerald Svienty didn't run like...well, a low-stick star.

Make no mistake, Svienty still had a decent outing, finishing 16th, but sophomore BJ Sorg (8th) was the Cardinals' lead scorer at the Augustana Interregional Invitational. Jonathan Olenek (21st) probably had the best performance on the team relative to expectations, easing what was a large gap back to the next North Central finisher 31 places later.

Olenek's effort was particularly significant as North Central was without another key middle-lineup scorer: Matthew Jett.

Even at full strength, it doesn't feel like the Cardinals have the kind of depth that we've been accustomed to seeing from them.

In order to move any further up these rankings and find top-end success in an even larger and deeper field, North Central will likely need Svienty to run like the individual bronze medalist who we saw leading this team at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.

At this juncture of the season, you could convince us that the 'Cards will have two top-10 finishers at the 2024 cross country national meet or no top-half All-Americans.

4. SUNY Geneseo Knights (+2 / 6)

The Knights continue their precipitous climb from being the last-place team at the 2023 cross country national meet.

At their home meet, the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational, they raced against a couple of other high-end Division Three teams for the first time this season. They passed the test with flying colors, as each of SUNY Geneseo's five scorers finished ahead of their counterparts in runner-up RPI's top-five.

The Knights also beat nationally competitive Carnegie Mellon and John Carroll squads. This team doesn't appear to have a clear-cut focal star. They won't quite have any men included in our latest individual rankings update, but three SUNY Geneseo men are listed in our "Just Missed" or "Honorable Mentions" sections.

With six men landing in the top-20 of a 500-person field, the Knights continued to impress and now look like a clear podium contender.

It helps to have two key additions: Alex Hillyard, who was a 2022 cross country All-American but sat out last fall, and Ryan Hagan, a redshirt freshman Georgetown transfer who returned to his home state and emerged as his new team's lead scorer at the Mike Woods Invitational.

3. Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens (0 / 3)

The Pomona-Pitzer men have been pretty quiet since we saw them take home the team title at D3 Pre-Nationals. The Sagehens most recently ran at their own Pomona-Pitzer XC Invite, which was essentially a dual meet with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS).

It seems that the Sagehens did not run this race all-out, likely saving their best effort for when they again go head-to-head with CMS this week at the SCIAC XC Championships. Even without standout sophomore Quinn White, the home team took the win by putting five men in the top-10.

Assuming we see White return for the postseason, we still view the Sagehens as podium favorites, perhaps even closer to our TSR #2 team than to our TSR #4 team, SUNY Geneseo. The SCIAC XC Championships and West regional likely won't challenge this group, so we probably won’t get another great read on the defending champions before the national meet.

2. Wartburg Knights (0 / 2)

Wartburg’s win at the Augustana Interregional Invitational solidified their status as the closest challengers to UW-La Crosse. The team collectively and Isaiah Hammerand individually backed up their fantastic performances from the John McNichols Invitational.

Hammerand, who has tended to front-run this season, made an aggressive move just prior to the 3k mark to open up a 10-second lead by the halfway point. He maintained that advantage for a frighteningly long time before ultimately being caught by Christian Patzka and placing runner-up.

Behind Hammerand, we saw a promising development from tantalizing talent Tyler Schermerhorn rounding into form to place 7th. The Knights’ depth was unmatched, as they placed five runners in the top-18 and seven in the top-30.

In fact, Wartburg’s win was so dominant that they had five runners ahead of any other team’s third scorer and seven runners ahead of any other team’s fourth scorer. Yes, North Central and UW-Whitewater didn’t have their best days, but that’s still really impressive.

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

Since our last update, the UW-La Crosse men haven’t produced an all-out effort. They did, however, run conservatively at the Drews/Neubauer Invitational, where they took home a comfortable win against no team who we’d consider to even be in the top-30.

Aidan Matthai was absent from this formality, which does concern us due to his injury history, but we believe he will be back for the postseason.

The Eagles safely maintain our top spot due to their dominant win at the John McNichols Invitational in September. We’re looking forward to seeing them battle UW-Whitewater at the WIAC XC Championships later this week.