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TSR's 2024 Preseason D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings (Men): #8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- Aug 26, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Aug 26, 2024
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.
I was very much looking forward to writing about the Notre Dame men. They're a team that is absolutely loaded with depth as well as many high-upside underclassmen (by eligibility, not necessarily age).
Of course, with depth comes questions of who will fill in certain parts of a team's lineup. And with youth-based upside comes cautionary aspects about athlete's consistency, reliability and trajectory.
This year's group of Fighting Irish men are collectively unique. They don't have a single individual who cracked the top-50 portion of our individual preseason rankings. However, they do have three men who were found in our "Just Missed" section as well as a fourth name who was found in our "Honorable Mentions" section.
We don't entirely know what Notre Dame is going to look like this fall from a lineup structure perspective. And yet, it seems like they have a variety of different ways that they can find success. In fact, there might even be a world where the Fighting Irish put themselves on the podium in November.
* * *
The 2023 cross country season was a bit of an up-and-down fall campaign for the Notre Dame men. There were plenty of positives and encouraging developments, but there were other instances which left us wanting more.
The Joe Piane Invitational, a home meet hosted by Notre Dame, was the team's first true challenge of the season. Josh Methner (6th) posted a solid fringe low-stick result for his squad while redshirt freshmen CJ Singleton (13th) and Ethan Coleman (16th) offered very strong and stable middle-lineup scoring.
Unfortunately, Carter Solomon (24th) didn't have a great outing while Columbia graduate transfer Tyler Berg (28th) closed out the scoring. And yet, despite the (admittedly minor) backend gaps, Notre Dame still walked away with an eight-point win over Florida State. They also took down the likes of Alabama, NC State, Michigan State and more.
The Nuttycombe Invitational, however, was a far more different and a far greater challenge than what Notre Dame's home meet was able to offer.
In Madison, Wisconsin, the Fighting Irish were once again led by Josh Methner who placed 39th overall. It was a respectable, but slightly underwhelming, result for someone who, at his best, was capable of cracking the top-30. Thankfully, Coleman (59th) and Solomon (66th) held their own, keeping lineup gaps at a minimum. CJ Singleton, however, had a tough outing with his 111th place finish. And after Jake Renfree (126th) closed out the scoring, Notre Dame found themselves tied for 10th place with North Carolina.
However, it would be the Tar Heels who won the tie-breaker, forcing the men of South Bend to settle for 11th place overall.
The ACC XC Championships were on tap next for the Fighting Irish. There, they would have a rematch with Syracuse and North Carolina to battle for the conference title. Virginia, Florida State and Wake Forest also posed as legitimate threats for a top finish (although maybe not for the title).
Tyler Berg (11th) came through with a big performance which beat expectations after not even being a scorer at the Nuttycombe Invite. Coleman (15th) ran fairly well and did enough to bridge the rest of the scoring group which featured Singleton (19th), Vincent Mauri (20th) and Methner (21st).
Five men in the top-21 of the ACC XC Championships was fairly impressive. However, without a true low-stick performance, the Irish simply didn't have enough firepower to compete for the conference title. Instead, they settled for 4th place behind, UNC, Syracuse and Virginia.
Fast forward past the Great Lakes regional meet and we then come to the NCAA XC Championships. There, Notre Dame was likely looking for a top-10 result. The only catch? Josh Methner wasn't available.
This time around, Coleman (48th) led the way with a result that nearly gave him All-American honors. That lead scoring effort was complemented by Mauri (68th) who had a fantastic race relative to our expectations. Tyler Berg (92nd) would give Notre Dame a third man in the top-100 and decent scoring stability.
Robert Cozean (119th) had a respectable race despite his limited role throughout the season. Quinn Gallagher (155th) closed out the scoring.
In turn, Notre Dame secured a 14th place finish. It was a fine result, but it was also not what the Fighting Irish were truly capable of. While their depth was decent, firepower remained a necessary need.
* * *
In recent seasons, Notre Dame hasn't exactly been the luckiest team. Between injuries, setbacks and random "off" days, it always felt like the Irish were leaving points on the table throughout last fall. Although, in their defense, they did have fantastic depth -- and in a lot of instances, that saved them from truly crumbling.
But throughout last fall, there was seemingly a lack of identity. The men of South Bend needed a consistent low-stick and their collective scoring group simply needed to finish higher up if they were going to be a top-10 team.
When Josh Methner and Carter Solomon are at their best, they're both All-Americans.
That's especially true for Solomon who had a monster breakout season in the fall of 2022. After upsetting Parker Wolfe for gold at the ACC XC Championships, he went on to place 18th at the NCAA XC Championships.
Methner, meanwhile, was a 36th place All-American at the 2021 NCAA Winter XC Championships during the pandemic-altered season. He was only a freshman at the time of doing so.
Unfortunately, both men have been hit with injuries (although Solomon's injury history is a little less clear to us than Methner's is) and both men have struggled to rally back to their peak levels of fitness. Methner's on and off availability throughout his career has also made it challenging to predict just how good Notre Dame can be as a team each and every season.
If both of these men are healthy and firing on all cylinders, then the Irish have two true low-sticks and enough reinforcements to potentially earn a spot on the podium. Thankfully, Solomon has been racing consistently and Methner had a very solid spring campaign. We still don't know what we're going to get from them this fall, but there is at least some hope that one of them can return to their All-American form.
But what if 2024 ends up being the start of a new era for Notre Dame's distance squad?
Ethan Coleman and CJ Singleton will be redshirt sophomores this fall and both men were terrific (in different ways) over the last year. Coleman was nearly a low-stick on a small handful of occasions last fall and found great success in the 10k this past spring. Singleton had a respectable cross country season, but truly broke out on the track where he was an All-American in the steeplechase this past spring.
It feels like both Coleman and Singleton are destined to have breakout fall campaigns over the next few months. They each showed promise during the fall and then elevated their fitness to a new tier on the track -- Singleton more so than Coleman, although the latter was already better on the grass.
Of course, Coleman and Singleton aren't the only younger guys who could make a massive impact on this team in 2024. That's because Drew Griffith, who may have an argument of being the best recruit in the Class of 2024, has joined Notre Dame.
Griffith was the definition of "elite" this past acamdeic year. After winning the Foot Locker XC National Championships, the Pennsylvania native dropped monster times of 3:57 (mile) and 8:31 (two-miles) on the track. That is an absurd level of raw fitness for a high schooler to have.
We never want to get too excited about freshmen in their very first season in the NCAA -- even some of the best recruits of the past two decades have had hiccups in their very first season of competition. But Griffith's resume is historically phenomenal. And while he may be viewed as a miler, it's also very clear that he is a strength-based miler who is more than capable of thriving on the grass.
This year's Notre Dame team is crazy deep. And if the coaching staff in South Bend feels confident about what Methner and Solomon can do this fall, then maybe Griffith is redshirted. But it's also plenty possible that Griffith erupts into a dynamic freshman superstar and even battles for an All-American honor.
Yes, I know that's a best case scenario, but it is very hard to not be crazy high on Griffith despite his youth and inexperience.
* * *
Izaiah Steury is a really tricky name to figure out. He started out his NCAA career at Notre Dame, but then transferred to Oregon where he raced sparingly and made minimal progress. Now, he's transferring back to rejoin the Fighting Irish.
As a freshman, Steury was an excellent talent, producing results that made him a fringe low-stick. During the 2022 cross country season, the long distance runner posted finishes of 14th at the Joe Piane Invitational, 28th at the Nuttycombe Invite, 9th at the ACC XC Championships and 63rd at the NCAA XC Championships.
Last fall, in theory, was supposed to be his breakout year as a true NCAA star. That, of course, didn't happen. But...what if it happened this year?
If Steury can simply replicate what he did two years ago, then that will be more than enough for what Notre Dame is trying to accomplish this fall. Much like we explained with the above-mentioned men, that's not guaranteed to happen, but it certainly could.
Admittedly, the rest of this roster doesn't have quite the proven talent that the above-mentioned six men seemingly do. That, however, doesn't mean that they can't/won't be meaningful contributors to this team over the next few months.
Guys like Cole Nash (grad transfer via Alaska Anchorage), Sean Kay (grad transfer from Yale) and Zach Hughes (grad transfer via NC State) could provide respectable depth, especially the former. Nash was a cross country standout at the D2 level. His last year of racing was a bit rocky, but with a 13:49 (5k) PR, it wouldn't surprise us if he found his way into Notre Dame's top-seven (or even their top-five).
The Fighting Irish also have a ridiculously talented recruiting class outside of Drew Griffith. Someone like Ryan Pajak may be redshirted this fall, but his long distance and cross country prowess would make him a legitimate scoring candidate for a number of teams in our rankings. He was, after all, the runner-up finisher to Griffith at the Foot Locker XC National Championships. It's a similar story for Cameron Todd who took 8th place in that same race before emerging as the runner-up finisher at NXN a week later.
Robert Cozean still has eligibility and ran a new 10k PR of 28:52 earlier this year. After picking up a number of PRs on the indoor and outdoor ovals earlier this year, the Notre Dame veteran may have a shot at cracking this team's top-seven.
* * *
If everything -- and I mean everything -- goes perfectly for the Notre Dame men this fall, then they will 100% be on the podium.
However, in order for that to happen, Methner needs to be in top form, Solomon needs to be in top form, Coleman and Singleton need to at least replicate their best performances from last fall and Griffith needs to translate his elite pedigree to the grass.
And if one of those things doesn't happen, then having Izaiah Steury replicate his 2022 cross country season will more than suffice.
In theory, there are numerous ways that Notre Dame can beat you this fall. They can do it with raw firepower, they can do it with overwhelming depth or they can do it with one of the more balanced lineups in the NCAA.
Of course, it feels fairly unlikely that every. single. one. of the above-listed scenarios will actually play out favorably for the Fighting Irish this fall. That's mostly why we kept them here at TSR #8. Even so, you can't deny that this roster is chock-full of talent. Their floor, in theory, is crazy high.
So who knows? Maybe "Touchdown Jesus" will be celebrating a cross country podium finish in November rather than a football game.
