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TSR's 2024 D3 XC Top 20 Individual Rankings (Men): Update #2
- TSR Collaboration
- Oct 29, 2024
- 10 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.
20. Nicholas Lyndaker, Junior, St. Lawrence (Unranked)
This 2023 cross country All-American seems to be on track to match or better his previous success. After a strong run in the Paul Short Run “White” race, Nicholas Lyndaker took 4th at the Connecticut College Invitational. It was a performance that he should be satisfied with; he beat everyone he was supposed to, only falling to three elite talents.
We don’t really have any complaints about Lyndaker’s progress. He’s checked all of the boxes this fall. In just a few days, he has a big test against Vince Simonetti at the Liberty League XC Championships.
19. Tyler Schermerhorn, Junior, Wartburg (Unranked)
After his breakout success last spring, it was a bit of a letdown to see Tyler Schermerhorn place 34th at the John McNichols Invitational. He didn’t have a chance to really reassert himself at a national level until the Augustana Interregional Invitational, where he largely achieved that, placing 6th among collegians.
While that result isn’t necessarily on par with expectations for the national runner-up over 10,000 meters, it’s a sign that Schermerhorn is starting to figure things out. And if someone with his talent is able to get going, this ranking could end up looking silly in a few weeks.
18. Vince Simonetti, Senior, RPI (Unranked)
In his first two races of this season, Vince Simonetti left us wanting more. In both settings, he was RPI’s fourth runner, a poor and uncharacteristic start for someone as talented as him.
However, the Engineer ace turned things around at the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational. Simonetti convincingly took home gold by upwards of 10 seconds over strong contingents from Carnegie Mellon and SUNY Geneseo.
It was nice to see a performance that was more representative of Simonetti’s talent. If this is an indicator of an upward trend to come, then he could be on track to return to his 2023 top-10 form next month.
17. Will Shuflit, Sophomore, Colorado College (Unranked)
A 16th-place run at the John McNichols Invitational was a quietly impressive result, but it wasn’t until Will Shuflit's 5th-place finish (among collegians) at the Augustana Interregional Invitational that we thought “we need to rank this guy.” That was Shufilt’s best performance of his career and came at just the right time, too.
The sophomore has made a major leap in his fitness over the past year to get where he is now. He seems to be experiencing the same breakthrough success as his female counterparts at Colorado College.
16. BJ Sorg, Sophomore, North Central (-2 / 14)
After a very strong early season run at the John McNichols Invitational, a 7th-place finish (among collegians) at the Augustana Interregional Invitational seemed to be on the lower end of expectations for North Central’s young star. No, we’re not saying that it was a poor outing, but we did expect BJ Sorg to finish ahead of a few more runners.
While he’s only a sophomore, don’t count him out from mixing it up with the nation's best. On the whole, Sorg has been fantastic up front and may become the Cardinals' new focal star.
15. Isaac vanWestrienen, Junior, Cornell College (-7 / 8)
After a rough spring season, we saw Isaac vanWestrienen look to be in dominant form when he placed 3rd at the John McNichols Invitational early this fall (a runner-up performance at the Running of the Cows didn’t hurt, either).
That being said, a recent 10th-place finish (among collegians) at the Augustana Interregional Invitational was far from the best performance that vanWestrienen was capable of.
With a history of ups and downs, that leaves us asking ourselves which version of the Cornell College star we’ll see in the postseason. He’s someone who has a large range of outcomes, for better or worse.
14. Charles Namiot, Senior, Williams (+4 / 18)
In our last update, we wanted to rank Charles Namiot higher since he had won all three of his races this fall. However, we just couldn’t justify it since he hadn’t faced any top-tier competition up to that point.
Now that we’ve seen him place 3rd against a strong field at the Connecticut College Invitational, a boost in his ranking was necessary. Namiot finished behind only Nathan Tassey (who’s been on fire) and Anthony Rodriguez (the 6th-place finisher at D3 Pre-Nationals) while putting a gap on many All-American candidates.
It’s a good sign for the leader of the Ephs that Namiot only finished three seconds from runner-up status. He looks to be well on his way to a top-half All-American finish for a Williams team that graduated one top-half All-American (John Lucey) from last year and has another racing outside of its varsity squad (Nikhil DeNatale).
13. Cullen Capuano, Senior, Washington U. (Unranked)
Welcome back to the top of the sport, Cullen Capuano!
Washington U. and their leading man have flown under the radar thus far this season, slightly underperforming relative to the top-10 preseason expectations that we had for both.
In finishing top-15 at the John McNichols Invite and D3 Pre-Nationals, Capuano still looked like an All-American favorite but not much more than that. A 3rd-place finish at the Augustana Interregional Invitational changes what we think he's capable of, particularly after he beat Gunner Schlender, all of the North Central men and much of Wartburg's star contingent.
This is almost certainly the best result of Capuano's collegiate cross country career and indicates that he's peaking at the right time entering the postseason.
He finished 7th at the Augustana Interregional Invitational last year before finishing in the top-40 at the cross country national meet. What might he be capable of in 2024 now that he's far more experienced and battle-tested?
12. Aidan Matthai, Junior, UW-La Crosse (+1 / 13)
Has not competed since our last rankings update.
11. Mohammed Bati, Junior, Augsburg (+5 / 16)
The weekend before last, Mohammed Bati won his third consecutive race in a 30-day span. All three of those victories came against fairly formidable competition, none more so than his latest.
Bati won the Drews/Neubauer Invite by running away from the UW-La Crosse men, including our TSR #4 runner, Grant Matthai.
It's possible that UW-La Crosse decided to treat that meet like a tempo run, but Bati still deserves commendation for winning a third race against top competition by over 30 seconds.
Of course, we know that Bati's true proving ground comes next month at the NCAA XC Championships, a stage that he struggled on in 2022 and failed to reach altogether in 2023. That history holds him back a bit in our rankings given that he has a top-five resume based on this regular season alone. Maybe the third time's the charm?
10. Anthony Rodriguez, Senior, Babson (+5 / 15)
A runner-up effort at the Connecticut College Invitational was arguably an improvement upon Anthony Rodriguez's impressive 6th-place effort at D3 Pre-Nationals that moved him into our rankings earlier this month.
In his last outing, Rodriguez lost only to our TSR #2 individual and beat two top-20 names. He's a worthy top-10 individual and suggested as much in placing 12th over 10,000 meters at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
However, Rodriguez's resume is not all that different from Bati's in that he has yet to record a top-150 finish at the cross country national meet and didn't even reach that stage last year.
The difference is that Rogriguez is relatively new to this level of fitness, and we can perhaps boil all of our uncertainty about him down to one "off" day in which he placed 15th at the 2023 East Regional XC Championships.
He has a chance to rewrite that history in the weeks ahead.
9. Peter LaRochelle, Senior, Haverford (+1 / 10)
Peter LaRochelle is buoyed a bit here by placing one spot higher than Anthony Rodriguez, who moved up several places in this rankings update, at D3 Pre-Nationals a few weeks ago.
Of course, LaRochelle hasn't hurt his stock since then. He finished 3rd at the Rowan Interregional Border Battle, losing only to top-eight individuals.
He didn't defeat any high-profile names in that setting, but he has put together a more complete regular season portfolio (both in terms of the competitive meets he's contested and how he's fared) than he did last year en route to his first All-American finish. If LaRochelle can continue to lose only to men ranked ahead of him, he'll ace the postseason.
8. Chasen Hunt, Junior, Lynchburg (+1 / 9)
We weren't necessarily concerned about Chasen Hunt after he opened his season by placing "only" 10th at the John McNichols Invitational (a still-stellar result), but it felt like he was capable of slightly more as a top-10 individual in our national rankings.
Whichever way you define "more", we've seen Hunt deliver it in his past two showings. After beating a handful of All-American candidates in winning the "White" race at the Paul Short Run, Hunt finished runner-up at the Rowan Interregional Border Battle, where he lost only to a top-five individual and beat LaRochelle in finishing runner-up.
In a perfect scenario, it would have been nice if Hunt was in closer contention for the win (he lost by just over 13 seconds), but he's still relatively new to cross country stardom and has already delivered in several competitive fields.
7. Cameron Hatler, Senior, Pomona-Pitzer (-2 / 5)
The Pomona-Pitzer Invite was a pretty small affair on a weekend with several big interregional meets. So while Cameron Hatler's loss to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ Adam Sage isn't the most promising sign, to some extent you can take results from a meet like that with a grain of salt.
We moved Hatler down a couple of spots for now, but we'd be quite surprised if he didn't finish this season in our rankings. All told, we don't think we have learned too much new about Hatler since his 3rd-place finish at D3 Pre-Nationals made him a clear top-10 candidate.
6. Isaiah Hammerand, Sophomore, Wartburg (+5 / 11)
The breakout season continues for Isaiah Hammerand, this time with a runner-up finish at the Augustana Interregional Invitational that put him just seven seconds behind our TSR #1 talent, Christian Patzka.
His development this season truly has been something to behold, and despite a small sample size, he has proven himself as one of Division Three’s best harriers. He may well be shaking up the team title race as well, as his scoring potency puts Wartburg in a better position to give UW-La Crosse a challenge this November.
5. Emmanuel Leblond, Junior, Johns Hopkins (+1 / 6)
As somebody who's been in or around the top ranks of Division Three for a while now, Emmanuel Leblond is having his best season yet.
Most recently, he took home the win at the Rowan Interregional Border Battle. While the field at Rowan didn't make it the deepest interregional race that weekend, the talent was there at the top, including our TSR #8 runner, Chasen Hunt, whom Leblond beat by a comfortable 14 seconds.
When you pair that with his status as the top Division Three finisher in the “Gold” race at the Paul Short Run, and his 4th-place John McNichols Invitational finish in September, he is building quite the body of work as we approach the postseason.
4. Grant Matthai, Junior, UW-La Crosse (0 / 4)
We haven't learned all that much about Grant Matthai since our last update. He toed the line on his home course for the Drews/Neubauer Invitational, where he finished a distance second to our TSR #11 runner Mohammed Bati in what appeared to be a controlled, comfortable effort.
The effort level at the upcoming WIAC XC Championships will be anything but comfortable, as Matthai attempts to take down UW-Whitewater’s lethal duo of Christian Patzka and Gunner Schlender.
3. Gunner Schlender, Senior, UW-Whitewater (-1 / 2)
After winning D3 Pre-Nationals, it was a little bit underwhelming to see Schlender finish 4th at the Augustana Interregional Invitational.
That was the type of field that you need to truly be on your “A” game to hold off. Schlender’s performance was probably closer to a “B+”. Even though we know he can be better, we aren't all that concerned, especially considering his track record of All-American honors across all three seasons.
2. Nathan Tassey, Junior, Roger Williams (+1 / 3)
Nathan Tassey is undefeated so far this season, and that certainly isn’t due to a lack of competition.
Between the John McNichols Invitational and the Connecticut College Invitational, Tassey has defeated 13 of the other 19 names in our current rankings.
If he continues on this path by the time the cross country national meet comes around, he will see a lot of familiar faces who he knows he can beat, which will do a lot to dispel nerves. Could he challenge for the national title?
1. Christian Patzka, Senior, UW-Whitewater (0 / 1)
How much more can you say about Christian Patzka at this point? Outside of teammates, the exhaustive list of runners Patzka has lost to on the cross country course since the start of the 2022 season is as follows: NCAA champions Ethan Gregg and Alex Phillip.
His most recent conquest came at the Augustana Interregional Invitational, where he was unfazed by the ranked athletes lined up against him.
With how dominant he's been for as long as he has, it's easy to forget that Patzka has not yet been a cross country national champion, thanks to the two names mentioned above. But now it seems almost inevitable that will change.
ADDED
Cullen Capuano (Washington U.)
Will Shuflit (Colorado College)
Vince Simonetti (RPI)
Tyler Schermerhorn (Wartburg)
Nicholas Lyndaker (St. Lawrence)
KICKED OFF
Emerald Svienty (North Central)
Ivan Appleton (Tufts)
Dan Anderson (UW-Whitewater)
Corey Fairchild (UW-La Crosse)
Joey Sullivan (UW-La Crosse)
JUST MISSED (in no particular order)
Emerald Svienty (North Central)
Dan Anderson (UW-Whitewater)
Corey Fairchild (UW-La Crosse)
Joey Sullivan (UW-La Crosse)
Jacob Green (Wartburg)
Drew Donahue (Middlebury)
Mason Shea (UW-Eau Claire)
Matthew Coyle (Carnegie Mellon)
Alex Hillyard (SUNY Geneseo)
Ryan Tobin (NYU)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)
Ryan Russell (Union (NY))
Kevin Turlington (St. Olaf)
Jayden Zywicki (UW-La Crosse)
Conor Kolka (Wittenberg)
Austin Gappa (George Fox)
Ryan Hagan (SUNY Geneseo)
Colin McLaughlin (Carnegie Mellon)
Will Goddard (Bowdoin)
Lance Sobaski (Wartburg)
Luke Witvliet (Calvin)
Sanju Patel (U. of Chicago)
Charlie Wilson (SUNY Geneseo)
Notes
- Ivan Appleton (previously TSR #12) has yet to race this season and is no longer listed on Tufts' roster. As such, he's been removed from our rankings.
