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TSR's 2024 Preseason D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings (Men): #2 BYU Cougars
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- Sep 1, 2024
- 8 min read
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On certain occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
From an outsider's perspective, it felt like the BYU men were using the 2023 cross country season as a primer for the fall of 2024.
Rumors of Davin Thompson being injured left the Cougars without an All-American scorer. Casey Clinger being absent from NCAA competition throughout the entirety of last year didn't help BYU's ambitions, either. A handful of younger runners still needed another year of development and, as shown in last year's national meet results, a few veterans did not seem fully prepared to be low-stick stars.
But now, both Casey Clinger and Davin Thompson are back. James Corrigan has grown leaps and bounds. Creed Thompson and Joey Nokes should, in theory, have their national meet woes behind them.
And when you step back to evaluate the firepower of this squad compared to last year, it seems abundantly clear that the Cougars have improved quite a bit.
That's a scary thought given that this team was on the podium 10 months ago.
* * *
The BYU men ventured to Charlottesville, Virginia last year for their first big test of the 2023 cross country season: the Virginia Invitational.
For the most part, the Cougars were excellent, although unsurprisingly so. Joey Nokes (4th) offered a potent low-stick scoring result which was later complemented by an excellent run from Aidan Troutner (14th).
With Creed Thompson (26th), Jacob Stafford (27th) and Garrett Stafford (30th) quickly closing out BYU's scoring, no team other than Northern Arizona was able to keep pace the Cougars. In the end, the men of Provo settled for a predictable runner-up effort, 30 points behind NAU.
That was a good run, but it was hard not to think about how much closer BYU could have been to the Lumberjacks if they had Davin Thompson and Casey Clinger.
The Nuttycombe Invite was more of the same, although the lineup order varied a good bit and the backend scorers were a bit more spread out.
Creed Thompson's 10th place result was a massive low-stick effort that took us by surprise. And when paired with Joey Nokes' 13th place effort, the BYU men had to be happy about the firepower that they flexed.
Kenneth Rooks came through with a 31st place effort, an admirable performance that stabilized the middle portion of the Cougars' scoring contingent. James Corrigan wasn't too far off in 44th place. Admittedly, there was a gap after Corrigan until Troutner crossed the line 64th place, but in the grand scheme of things, that didn't matter much.
In the end, BYU secured yet another runner-up effort behind Northern Arizona. However, this time, the gap swelled to 86 points. And of course, it was the BIG 12 XC Championships where things would get a bit more interesting.
In their first year as members of the BIG 12 Conference, the Cougars entered their conference meet prepared to fight NCAA title favorite, Oklahoma State. Texas looked like a fringe podium team at times and Iowa State, while not having a great regular season, ended up being a top-five team on the national stage last fall.
Creed Thompson (3rd) and Nokes (5th) continued to offer lethal scoring potency for their team. And for the most part, that allowed BYU to keep pace through two runners. However, by the time James Corrigan had crossed the line 13th place (which was still a great result for him at the time), the Oklahoma State men had already won the conference title.
Thankfully, BYU was still able to close out their lineup by putting six men (overall) in the top-20. That was enough to upend a very good Texas team for silver.
After easily cruising through the Mountain Regional XC Championships, the men of Provo, Utah returned to Charlottesville, Virginia, this time for the NCAA XC Championships.
Admittedly, the Cougars didn't have a great outing in their season finale, but just like the Nuttycombe Invite, that didn't really matter. Oklahoma State and Northern Arizona were already too strong for BYU to match, but the rest of the NCAA simply didn't have enough scoring potency to truly contend with the Cougars.
James Corrigan (32nd) and Kenneth Rooks (35th) picked excellent times to have their best races of the season. However, the rest of the team, specifically Creed Thompson (46th), Joey Nokes (56th) and Aidan Troutner (DNF) needed to be much better. Although, Lucas Bons (63rd) did hold his own.
That, in turn, led to a rather unexciting, but also very predictable, 3rd place podium finish.
And yes, I know, that's a weird way to describe that kind of result.
* * *
The fall of 2024 is not going to be the last year that the BYU men are nationally competitive in cross country. However, with most of the men in their projected top-seven seemingly set to finish their fall eligibility after November, it feels like the Cougars are "all in" as they attempt to upset the unreal juggernaut that is our TSR #1 team.
Let's start with Casey Clinger, one of the focal faces of this program for as long as The Stride Report has been around.
The Utah-based juggernaut is truly among the elites when it comes to NCAA distance running. With personal bests of 3:38 (1500), 7:43 (3k), 13:17 (5k) and 27:57 (10k), as well as four cross country All-American honors (three in the top-15, two in the top-10), BYU can't get a much better low-stick than Clinger.
Yes, the Cougars already had great low-sticks last fall. But truthfully, for as talented as they are, none of them were/are nearly as reliable as Clinger has proven to be. And as we saw at last year's national meet, that matters a ton.
Clinger will be the biggest reason why this group improves in 2024. Of course, that's not to say that guys like Creed Thompson and Joey Nokes won't be outstanding low-sticks yet again over the next few months.
For the most part, Thompson and Nokes were outstanding last fall. They provided top-tier scoring potency and were an incredible 1-2 punch at the Nuttycombe Invite and the BIG 12 XC Championships.
The only true critique that we have for these men is that they simply need to be better on the national stage. That's especially true for Nokes who has likely been a top-20 runner, nationally, in cross country over the last two years, but has yet to emerge as an All-American.
Together, Clinger, Thompson and Nokes could form a scary-good 1-2-3 punch. That trio won't be enough to upend our top-ranked team, but they are arguably better than what the Arkansas men will field this fall (although that may be up for debate).
However, if BYU is going to have any shot at upsetting this year's national title favorite, then it will be because James Corrigan and Davin Thompson delivered on expectations.
Corrigan, as many of you probably know, was excellent at the end of last fall (emerging as an All-American) and then finding success on the indoor oval, running a 13:30 (5k) PR. But when he reached the spring months (well, technically the summer), Corrigan evolved into a different runner. Not only did he run 8:13 in the steeplechase, but he also qualified for the Olympics in that event.
The steeplechase is not an event that perfectly translates to the grass. But given that Corrigan was already an All-American in cross country and has unquestionably improved his overall fitness, we're willing to believe that he can be a top-20 talent on the grass this fall.
That feels like a fair expectation for someone who ran (roughly) two seconds under the Olympic standard. And if Corrigan is as good as we think it is, then the national title discussion does become slightly more interesting.
Davin Thompson, however, is the likely the single-most important runner on this team relative to expectations. Remember, he was a 30th place All-American at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships which was right on par with expectations after he had finished 21st at the Nuttycombe Invite earlier that year.
Admittedly, we didn't see Davin Thompson race at all in 2023. He did, however, run 28:31 for 10,000 meters back in June at the Portland Track Festival. That's an encouraging sign for someone who has until November to reach his prior peak form.
If the Cougars are going to have any shot at taking down our top-ranked team, then they need their top-five to finish in the top-25, at the very least, at the national meet. We feel somewhat confident saying that Clinger, Creed Thompson, Nokes and Corrigan are capable of doing that.
But Davin Thompson? Well, he's simply one massive question mark.
* * *
The depth on this team, as usual, is insanely good.
Guys like Aidan Troutner and Lucas Bons would be crucial, high-impact scorers for most nationally competitive cross country teams. But at the moment, they're projected to be the sixth and seventh runners on this team in 2024.
Troutner, in particular, is someone who we strongly believe in. He ran 7:44 (3k) this past winter, qualified for the outdoor national meet over 5000 meters and was 14th at the Virginia Invitational last fall.
We'll admit, Troutner's consistency has room for improvement. But when he's feeling his best, he is very challenging to take down. He has enough talent to be an All-American, we just haven't seen it yet. Could he end up being the team's "wild card" this fall instead of Davin Thompson?
Garrett Stafford and Jacob Stafford are two great veterans who are fairly underrated. The former has run 8:48 in the steeplechase while the latter has run 28:57 over 10,000 meters. And on the grass, both of those men finished just inside the top-30 at the Virginia Invitational last fall -- that's super impressive for two guys who may not even make their team's top-seven in 2024.
There's also plenty of excitement about the kind of runner that Wyatt Haughton, a current sophomore, can/will be. As a rookie, he ran 8:42 in the steeplechase and qualified for the outdoor national meet. Could he find his way into BYU's varsity group?
Isaac Hedengren is another underclassman who has shown promise. His 13:46 (5k) PR is excellent for someone as inexperienced as himself. He was in BYU's top-seven last fall (placing 16th at the BIG 12 XC Championships) and even has national meet experience as well.
We could go on and on and on about how great the rest of this roster is, but those are the men who we expect to fight for spots at the bottom end of this lineup.
* * *
There's an argument to be had that this year's BYU team is as good as their 2019 national title-winning group. In fact, I would even argue that the talent on their current roster is just as good as their 2017 and 2018 teams!
But just like each of those years, the Cougar men are entering the fall of 2024 as the top challengers to another team deemed as the favorites for NCAA gold.
It could take a historical performance at this year's national meet to upset our TSR #1 squad. Of course, if there is any program capable of doing that, it's the team that upset the (very heavy) national title favorites for gold just five years ago.
