.png)
TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): #10 Fort Lewis Skyhawks
- Gavin Struve
- Sep 4, 2024
- 7 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.
If you're looking for an upstart power in the nation's most dominant distance running conference (relative to its division) in the entire NCAA, look no further than the Fort Lewis Skyhawks in the RMAC.
This team didn't send any men to the 2022 cross country national meet, but then thrust themselves into the top-half of the field a year later at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.
It's not like the Skyhawks' 2023 season-ending effort was a one-off, either. Usually in the bottom-half of the conference, they vaulted up the RMAC standings earlier in the postseason.
With the vast majority of a well-rounded varsity lineup returning, we anticipate the Skyhawks being well-prepared to continue their ascension even as they go through a leadership transition.
* * *
The Fort Lewis men began their 2023 cross country campaign in-state at the Mountaineer Invite hosted by conference rival Western Colorado.
With Colorado Mesa joining the Mountaineers and the Skyhawks, just three teams were present at the meet. Western Colorado predictably put five men in the top-six, but Fort Lewis finished runner-up by placing all five scorers in the top-15.
That race was a mere tune-up, and the Skyhawks were thrust into the heat of battle at one of the most competitive regular season D2 meets: the Lewis XC Crossover. It was there that we got our first real look at their scoring composite.
Elijah Smith surprised us with a borderline low-stick result in 21st place. The rest of the team was quite a bit further back, but there were no colossal gaps between each successive scorer.
Conner Dosmann placed 45th, emerging as a solid middle-lineup piece, while Henry Barth and Bean Minor held their own by placing 60th and 70th, respectively. Caden Resendez closed out the top-five with an 83rd-place effort.
While the best version of Fort Lewis could have finished in the top-five of that meet, a 9th-place effort was a solid true start to the season. It signaled that Fort Lewis was seemingly improving from years past, but it did not fully foreshadow what was to come.
The stakes only grew from there, and the Skyhawks rose to the occasion a the RMAC XC Championships.
Last fall, Fort Lewis ran best in deep and star-studded fields, and that first became clear on the conference stage. Sure, there were more runners competing against them at the Lewis XC Crossover, but the RMAC XC Championships showcased the Skyhawks' depth even better at the advent of the postseason.
Despite not placing any men in the top-15, Fort Lewis vaulted to 4th place at the 2023 RMAC XC Championships after finishing no higher than 8th place in recent years.
This time, Barth led the way in 17th place, and Minor was right behind in 18th after they were the team's third and fourth scorers two weeks prior. Smith wasn't as potent, but finishing 26th offered a very strong middle-lineup presence. Resendez was just behind in 28th place and Dosmann closed out the scoring in 35th place.
All of the sudden, we had to ask ourselves, "Has Fort Lewis truly arrived?"
At the South Central Regional XC Championships, the Skyhawks again finished behind in-state adversaries Colorado Mines, Adams State and Western Colorado and ahead of UC-Colorado Springs and CSU-Pueblo. They put all five scorers between 33rd place and 47th place and did enough to advance to the NCAA XC Championships for the first time in recent memory.
The Skyhawks didn't receive any individual lightning-in-a-bottle performances at the cross country national meet, but they didn't need to.
Smith again ran like a fringe low-stick, placing 53rd to lead his team. Barth added excellent middle-lineup value by finishing 82nd while the team's backend scoring was as strong as that of almost any team in the country. Dosmann, Brady Burrough and Minor went 117-125-126, respectively.
All of that added up to a 13th-place performance at the NCAA XC Championships. One year after they didn't advance any men to the 2022 cross country national meet, this team finished in the top-half of the field.
* * *
Given that Fort Lewis loses just one scorer from their breakout 2023 varsity squad, the most significant departure is probably Coach Shawn Jakubowski. Fortunately, he's not leaving the program entirely. Rather, he has transitioned to Fort Lewis' Associate Athletic Director for External Relations role.
Jakubowski spent just two years in charge of the men's team in Durango, Colorado, but completely changed this group's standing in the RMAC and nationally over the past year.
That move leaves Coach Dalton Graham in charge of Fort Lewis men's cross country after just one year as an assistant. The good news is that the Skyhawks have nearly everyone returning from their 2023 team, which should aid in Graham's assimilation to a new role.
Henry Barth is the only departure from the team's top-seven. That's no small loss given that he was one of their most reliable runners at the front-end of the lineup last fall. And for a team that is relatively new to this level of competition, not having a known constant spearheading their scoring is going to be an interesting aspect to monitor.
However, even without Barth, this program quietly has one of the nation's best returning groups from the 2023 cross country national meet.
The discussion of the 2024 team probably should start with Elijah Smith, someone who was their lead scorer at both the Lewis XC Crossover and the national meet during his sophomore season. It's no guarantee that Smith matches his near-top-50 season-ending effort from last year given that it was clearly his best race of the fall, but we still think that he has a relatively high floor.
Conner Dosmann also returns as a reliable top-five presence. Like Smith, he had his best collegiate effort at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. TFRRS suggests that he has expired his eligibility, but we have confirmed that he'll be back this fall.
Admittedly, Dosmann is a bit more middle distance based-based on the track. Even so, his consistency throughout last fall is admirable. At the very least, you know that he's always going to be a solid and steady scorer for you each time he toes the line.
More than anyone on this team, Brady Burrough peaked for the postseason a year ago. He worked his way into the varsity lineup and placed 125th on the national stage. If Burrough can establish more consistency in his third collegiate season on the grass, then Fort Lewis should more or less be able to collectively make up for the loss of Barth throughout their first three runners (assuming Smith and Dosmann also improve)
Bean Minor was comparable to Dosmann last fall and is primed to be one of the team's lead scorers after serving as their second scorer (behind Barth) at the RMAC XC Championships and running a solid 14:31 (5k) mark in the spring. He's a sneaky-good x-factor who could be due for a breakout fall campaign in 2024.
* * *
Those four men were all scorers for the Skyhawks at the 2023 cross country national meet, but they're not the only varsity returners.
Caden Resendez didn't race at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, but he was this team's fourth scorer at the RMAC XC Championships where he took 28th place. That was a quietly awesome result which provided better-than-expected scoring value for Fort Lewis.
However, we'll need to see greater consistency and reliability from Resendez in 2024. That RMAC performance was excellent, but it was also somewhat of an outlier compared to the rest of his 2023 resume. If this group is going to be a top-10 squad over the next few months, then expect the Skyhawks to lean on this senior's veteran presence.
Cebastian Marquez was inserted into the lineup for the first time last fall at the national meet. He barely snuck into the top-200 at that meet, but given his relative inexperience, it's fair to say that he has a decent amount of room for improvement.
Jonah Denison was Fort Lewis' seventh runner in their season finale after only being added to the varsity group at the RMAC XC Championships, and he was just a freshman. It's far more likely than not that he'll improve this fall, but by how much? If the answer to that question is, "a lot," then the Skyhawks have a good shot of being ranked at a spot better than TSR #10 come October and/or November.
It's probably more likely than not that someone new cracks the team's top-seven. Our best bet may be Caden Resendez's younger brother, Crewe Resendez, who stands out among the incoming freshmen with PRs of 4:20 (1600), 9:18 (3200) and 15:33 (5k XC). Those are very strong credentials that you could likely find in other recruiting classes for nationally competitive Division One distance programs.
The younger Resendez brother clearly has great raw talent, but will he be able to overcome his youth and inexperience to give his new team a boost in their scoring this fall?
We've seen underclassmen have an early impact for the Fort Lewis men in recent years. However, the Skyhawks' level of returning production means that they shouldn't have to bank on that kind of immediate development from Resendez this fall.
* * *
It was impressive how this team was able to flip the switch for the postseason despite having very little national-caliber experience last fall. There may be some concerns about whether that's replicable or a one-off, but the Skyhawks were equally impressive at their conference meet and the national meet.
The fact that seemingly all of Fort Lewis' varsity cross country runners ran track PRs earlier this year is also reassuring even if they didn't make seismic noise on the oval. Although, we have to admit, it's not ideal to lose a veteran scoring constant like Barth or the program leader in Jakubowski.
Even so, we think this team's overwhelming continuity should power them to further progress in 2024. The Skyhawks had three sophomores in their scoring contingent and placed five men in the top-130 at the 2023 cross country national meet. Smith, Minor, Dosmann, Burrough and Caden Resendez made up four of those names and offer a proven quintet to rally around.
With a returning core of men who are now upperclassmen leading the way in 2024, climbing another rung up the ladder (to top-10 status) feels more likely than a drop-off for the Fort Lewis men.
Their 2024 schedule is less ambitious than last year's, as they don't leave the state of Colorado until the RMAC XC Championships in late October. Nonetheless, that's where their true proving ground begins and where they first found grand success last year.
