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TSR's 2024 Preseason D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings (Men): #5 Iowa State Cyclones
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- Aug 29, 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.
Click here to read up on our TSR #6 team, New Mexico Lobos
Let's be blunt: The Iowa State men were not supposed to be as good as they were at last year's NCAA XC Championships.
While the Cyclones had proven to be a fairly respectable distance program in 2023, they often found themselves at the backend of our rankings. In fact, at one point, they even fell out of our rankings, altogether!
But the men of Ames, Iowa came through when it mattered the most. Everything clicked perfectly on the national stage and they delivered on the potential that we suspected they had, but simply had not seen throughout most of last fall.
The year is now 2024 and the expectations are different. We know what this team is capable of doing when they're firing on all cylinders. At their best, they're a podium squad. Of course, ensuring that they consistently compete at that top-tier level is the challenge that we have assigned to this squad going into the next few months of racing.
* * *
The Cyclone men kicked-off last fall by toeing the line at the Virginia Invitational. There, they would field a handful of new names as well as a few key returning veterans.
On that stage, Said Mechaal (23rd) led the team with a respectable lead scoring effort. However, Silas Winders (64th) and Gable Sieperda (72nd) were a bit further behind than we would have hoped. Ezekiel Rop (84th) and Kelvin Bungei (94th) closed out Iowa State's team scoring relatively quickly, giving the team five men in the top-100.
In the end, that collective effort yielded a modest 14th place finish. It wasn't necessarily a poor performance, but it certainly didn't inspire much confidence in Iowa State. In our eyes, nearly everyone on this team was capable of being better.
Thankfully, we did see ISU make improvements at their next meet, the Nuttycombe Invite.
In Madison, Wisconsin, the Cyclones were once again led by Mechaal, this time with a much more potent 15th place low-stick effort. That was an encouraging step in the right direction for a team that needed more firepower. However, yet again, gaps after Mechaal created some challenges for Iowa State.
Sanele Masondo (80th) and Gable Sieperda (87th) had serviceable outings, although we still felt like both men were capable of being better. Ezekiel Rop (114th) did enough to at least offer some scoring stability and Rodgers Kiplimo (134th) made sure the Cyclones' team score didn't get away from them.
In the end, the men of Ames, Iowa settled for a quietly respectable 13th place result. That was a clear improvement on their performance from the Virginia Invitational, but it still felt like the Cyclones were capable of so much more.
The BIG 12 XC Championships, however, was the meet that left us very, very confused.
Despite Oklahoma, BYU and Texas looking like formidable opponents, we still felt like the Iowa State men were at least going to keep things competitive.
That, however, was not the case.
Said Mechaal (7th) was excellent once again, providing a low-stick scoring result, but the rest of the team was flat-out bad. No other Iowa State runner cracked the top-25. And yet, spots 26-27-28-30-31-32-36 were all Cyclones! That was a perplexing series of results which made us wonder if ISU had intentionally done a tempo workout at their conference championship.
After breezing through the Midwest regional meet, the Cyclones toed the line for the NCAA XC Championships. And it was there that the Iowa State men looked like a completely different and dramatically stronger team.
In what turned out to be the race of his life, Sanele Masondo placed a tremendous 16th overall to earn a brilliant top-half All-American honor. That was easily the most stunning result of the entire meet given that Masondo didn't even look like a top-100 name throughout most of last fall.
Rodgers Kiplimo (37th) also had a surprisingly great day as well, earning All-American honors despite his lead up to the national meet suggesting that he wasn't anywhere close to being a top-40 talent.
Gable Sieperda (43rd) was unsurprisingly great as a reliable third scorer and Said Mechaal (55th) was still an excellent support scorer even if he had an "off" day. And with Timothy Sindt (121st) doing enough to keep this team competitive, the Cyclones walked away from Charlottesville, Virginia with a monster 5th place team finish, easily shattering expectations.
* * *
We'll be honest, we have no idea how Iowa State finished 5th at last year's national meet. There was no evidence to suggest that Masondo and Kiplimo would run as well as they did. Sieperda did have a strong history of success at the national meet, but his lead up to the 2023 NCAA XC Championships was not at all his strongest.
Usually, we would look at a team like this and place them further back in our rankings. After all, they clearly weren't the fifth-best team in the NCAA throughout most of last fall.
However, the Cyclones return almost everyone from their 2023 lineup and even add a couple of key names. And when you look at the names that everyone else loses, it's hard to go against an Iowa State lineup that is more proven on the one stage that matters the most.
The lone departure from last year's team seems to be Ezekiel Rop, someone who had been in the NCAA as far back as 2019. He was a fairly solid scorer for this group during the regular season, although he faded a bit at the national meet.
When Rop was at the peak point of his fitness in 2019, he was one of the single-most impressive cross country runners in the entire NCAA. Unfortunately, he never got back to that point on the grass (although he was a great miler).
Rop's departure isn't ideal, but it's hardly devastating. On paper, there should be enough reinforcements for the Iowa State men to remain largely unharmed.
And when talking about returners, we need to start with Sanele Masondo and Rodgers Kiplimo, two of the most perplexing distance runners in the entire NCAA.
Last fall, neither of those men were viewed as high-impact names. Masondo wasn't even a scorer for his team at the Virginia Invitational and was 80th at the Nuttycombe Invite. Kiplimo, meanwhile, also didn't score at the Virginia Invitational and was 134th at the Nuttycombe Invite.
But then, all of the sudden, both men threw down lethal All-American performances completely out of nowhere. In turn, we were left scratching our heads trying to figure out what to expect from the duo moving forward.
Thankfully, Masondo made excellent improvements on the track this past winter and spring. He was able to establish far greater consistency and he clearly began to gain better control of his fitness, especially over 10,000 meters.
It's a slightly similar story for Kiplimo who ran back-to-back personal bests of 28:41 (10k) and 13:46 (5k) on the outdoor oval. His spring campaign wasn't quite as strong as what we saw from Masondo, but it was still a step in the right direction.
Despite our critiques, we actually feel fairly confident in what Masondo could bring to the table as a low-stick scorer this fall. We saw his raw aerobic fitness at the JUCO level, but were surprised when we didn't see it translate to the D1 level. Of course, as it turns out, he just needed some time to adapt.
Admittedly, we're a little less certain about Kiplimo. He did make solid progress on the track, but he has yet to truly validate that out-of-nowhere All-American performance.
Of course, it's very possible that both of those men are at their best over 10,000 meters and that's why we didn't see them thrive until they reached the postseason. That's also a big reason why we struggle to place Iowa State anywhere other than TSR #5.
Thankfully, those aren't the only two men who we think could be All-Americans this fall.
That's because Iowa State still retains Said Mechaal and Gable Sieperda, two key veterans who are both more than capable of being All-Americans this fall.
The former was admittedly the team's only true low-stick throughout all of last fall. While some races were better than others, finishing 23rd at the Virginia Invite, 15th at the Nuttycombe Invite and 7th at the top-heavy BIG 12 XC Championships were all outstanding and highly potent results.
And if Mechaal's "off" day still resulted in him finishing in 55th place at the NCAA XC Championships, then that's a good problem to have.
As for Sieperda, his fall resume wasn't quite as strong as it had been in prior years, but he still walked away from the national meet with a 43rd place finish. That, however, was far from a fluke. After all, the Iowa State veteran has put together plenty of highly respectable cross country performances earlier in his career, placing 41st at the 2021 NCAA XC Championships.
Not only that, but Sieperda had an outstanding outdoor track season, running a head-turning time of 8:25 in the steeplechase. That mark led to him earning bronze in that event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships back in June.
Sieperda doesn't have to be an All-American to be an impactful runner for this team -- and he proved that last fall. But it's also clear that his fitness has elevated to a new level (at least, based on his spring campaign) and that could yield even greater results this fall.
* * *
If everyone is firing on all cylinders, then Iowa State has four legitimate All-American candidates. Sure, a couple things would need to break favorably for the Cyclones in order for that to happen, but producing three All-Americans this fall? Well, that truthfully wouldn't be a surprise at all.
The rest of this lineup is where things get interesting. The departure of Ezekiel Rop does leave a fairly important scoring role open. And as far as depth is concerned, there are a lot of different names on this roster who could have an impact.
Guys like Silas Winders and Tim Sindt are fairly underrated names.
The former ran 7:49 for 3000 meters this past winter and also ran 13:49 for 5000 meters on the outdoor oval. For someone who is simply trying to be the fifth scorer in this lineup, those are excellent credentials to have.
Sindt, meanwhile, is a veteran who did a fairly decent job at closing out Iowa State's scoring at last year's national meet. Sure, a 121st place finish doesn't necessarily jump off the page, but it showed promise. If he can simply replicate that kind of performance on a more consistent basis this fall, then I'm sure Coach Jeremy Sudbury would be plenty happy with that.
Other names such as Seth Clevenger, Ryan Watts, Quinton Orr (an 8:44 steeplechaser), Riley Simpson and Hanibel Haile are all realistic candidates to potentially fill the last one or two spots in Iowa State's top-seven.
If I had to guess as to who that would be, I would look to guys like Orr and Haile who have been really solid on the track as of late.
But the name who interests me the most isn't anyone who I have mentioned yet. Instead, it's a current freshman named Robin Kwemoi Bera. And when you do a Google search for any variation of his name, nothing specific to him shows up other than his empty page on Iowa State's roster.
Make sure to keep Bera on your radar. We have no idea what he's capable of, but we're plenty sure that Coach Jeremy Sudbury does...
* * *
We'll admit, we're still a bit nervous to place this squad at TSR #5 after underwhelming throughout 80% of their 2023 fall campaign.
However, it's impossible to deny that there are four very realistic All-American candidates on this squad. And the two men who we were the most unsure about were the ones who actually delivered top-40 results on the national stage.
In other words, there is no projection with them -- we know what they are truly capable of.
With a couple of proven veterans, a large handful of promising developmental pieces and one massive wild card, it has become increasingly more challenging to deny that this is a fringe podium team.
And if the Cyclones were still able to place 5th at last year's national meet despite all of the challenges that they faced along the way, then what can they do in 2024 now that they are (seemingly) more stable?
I guess we're about to find out...
