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TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): #4 East Central Tigers
- Gavin Struve
- Sep 10, 2024
- 6 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.
Ah yes, the East Central Tigers. Division Two's newest powerhouse program is comprised entirely of men from either Oklahoma, states bordering it (Kansas and Texas), or Kenya.
It's the latter group of athletes who made up ECU's star scoring contingent last fall. All of them return, most as seniors, to Coach Steve Sawyer's program in 2024.
Last year, there was a drop-off between the Tigers' scoring contingent and their sixth and seventh men and a far larger gap beyond their top-seven. Fortunately, the addition of a potential high-impact transfer gives them added insurance and perhaps even more firepower.
On paper, all of that should make the men of Ada, Oklahoma a repeat podium squad.
* * *
East Central's men's varsity squad began their 2023 cross country season at the Southern Stampede, hosted by regional foe Missouri Southern.
Aspel Kiprob gave a hint at what was to come, earning a flashy win in his first NCAA cross country race. Another addition, Amos Pkiach (a Cowley College and Alabama transfer), emerged as a low-stick as well by finishing 4th to beat 2023 NCAA 10,000-meter champion Jan Lukas Becker. Yet another transfer addition, Peter Kipkemboi, was close behind in 6th place.
Paul Korir (the lone D2 transfer in the lineup) finished 11th, and Oliver Kiptoo (the only returnee in the scoring lineup but another JUCO transfer himself) rounded out the scoring quickly in 16th place. All of that added up to a dominant team win over very respectable programs like Mississippi College, New Mexico Highlands and Missouri Southern.
The Tigers then moved to a less competitive field at the DBU Old Glory Gallop and were even more overpowering. Kiprob, Pkiach, Kipkemboi and Kiptoo swept the top-four spots in that order, and Korir and Michael Iyali followed in 6th and 7th place, respectively, for a team score of merely 16 points.
East Central one-upped that effort with a perfect score at the Great American XC Championships. Their top-three remained unchanged, and Korir finished as their fourth runner with Kiptoo closing out the scoring. Iyali finished 7th.
It wasn't entirely ideal that East Central's first true test of last season came at the Central Regional XC Championships, but they ran with the poise of a battle-tested team. Moving up in distance to 10,000 meters and racing against solid regional programs like Pittsburg State and NW Missouri, the Tigers were nearly as dominant as they'd been all fall.
This time, it was Kipkemboi who won the meet title, while Pkiach was close by in 3rd place and Kiptoo finished 8th. Kiprob, the Tigers' usual leading man, was a still-respectable 12th. Korir (16th) closed out the scoring before most teams had their second runner across the line.
Iyali wasn't as close to the scoring five as he'd been previously, but teammate Melvin Kipkemboi (21st place) still offered valuable insurance.
East Central wasn't entirely untested after the Central regional meet, but they still hadn't faced a top-10 team leading up to the cross country national meet. That semblance of uncertainty hardly affected them on the national stage.
Despite not having one of his better performances upon moving up to 10,000 meters at the Central regional meet, Kiprob raced fearlessly on the national stage and was rewarded with a 6th-place finish. He didn't have to wait too long for his teammates to finish behind him, either, as three other East Central men finished the season as All-Americans.
Pkiach (21st), Kiptoo (33rd) and Peter Kipkemboi (35th) were all pretty comfortably in the top-40, and Korir (43rd) wasn't far behind as the final scorer. As a result, the East Central men placed 3rd in their first trip to the NCAA XC Championships in recent memory!
Korir didn't need to run so well to reach the podium given that the Tigers were 34 points ahead of 4th-place West Texas A&M. Even so, he was arguably as important as ECU's All-American quartet given that East Central would have fallen back a few spots (off the podium) had he been absent from the lineup. It was he and Kiptoo who were probably most impressive on this team at the national meet relative to expectations.
* * *
Each of the men who we touched on in the section above are back for the 2024 season.
That's four cross country All-Americans, another top-45 NCAA XC Championship finisher and two others who finished in the top-175. Four of those men are ranked in our top-25 preseason individual rankings, and Paul Korir is listed as a "Just Missed" name, which means that he's projected to give this team a fifth All-American.
After all, Korir ran 8:53 in the 3000-meter steeplechase this past spring to win a conference title and reached the finals in that event at the 2024 outdoor national meet.
Aspel Kiprob joined him on that stage, taking one of the final All-American spots after running a gaudy PR of 8:45 over the barriers and water pits. A 14:02 (5k) mark is nothing to scoff at either. Our TSR #5 individual, Kiprob was undefeated last fall leading up to the Central regional meet.
We think that Peter Kipkemboi may be in store for the biggest rise of any returning scorer on this team. He didn't necessarily have his greatest effort on the national stage, at least compared to winning the regional title two weeks prior, but he was still an All-American.
Kipkemboi then went on to flex real speed on the track with marks of 1:52 (800), 3:48 (1500) and 13:54 (5k), winning a triple crown at the Great American Conference Outdoor Championships and contesting the latter event at the outdoor national meet.
Amos Pkiach was a reliable second man for this team in 2023. And while we certainly think that he could finish as a top-half All-American two and a half months from now, we're a bit uncertain about his status given that he hasn't raced since last fall.
We also didn't see much of Oliver Kiptoo in the first half of 2024. He at least raced a few times on the outdoor oval but looked far from his best. We didn't need flashy track times to know that his finish to last fall as the Tigers' third scorer was no fluke, however, as his 2023 marks of 14:16 (5k) and 30:04 (10k) were pretty solid.
* * *
All of those men who we just outlined are well-positioned to retain their seats as scorers for East Central in 2024 given how good they were a year ago. But the addition of Central Missouri transfer Brian Mitei introduces some variability into this varsity lineup (for the better).
In fact, he could be the element that pushes the Tigers to a top-half podium finish.
Mitei doesn't have any major track results or even NCAA Championship appearances, but he was the runner-up finisher at the MIAA XC Championships last year, beating All-American names like Gidieon Kimutai, Matthew Oglesby, Mason Strader, Donald Kibet, Grant Bradley and Drew Atkins.
While the talent is there, Mitei is not a proven star. Although, the thing is, East Central doesn't need him to be. They simply need another insurance plan. On his best day, Mitei theoretically gives East Central a sixth All-American candidate. Transfers completely changed the complexion of this team in 2023, so it's easy to envision Mitei leveling up upon moving to the Sooner State.
At the very least, it will be valuable to have another varsity option if something goes awry among last year's top-seven.
The final two members of East Central's 2023 varsity squad return as well. Those men would be Michael Iyali (172nd at the 2023 cross country national meet and their most frequent sixth runner) and Melvin Kipkemboi (110th at the national meet).
Those two men were also solid throughout last fall and could be capable scorers in a pinch. Although, from what we've seen, the five returning scorers and Mitei probably give East Central the best chance at replicating the high-level success that they tasted last year.
* * *
The presence of Iyali, Mitei and Melvin Kipkemboi is probably enough to keep East Central as a top-10 team even if Pkiach's and Kiptoo's absences from earlier this year bleed into the fall. However, even with their wealth of talent, East Central feels like a team with a wider range of potential outcomes than other podium aspirants.
We don't think last season was a one-off. The Tigers were in consideration for TSR #3 in our preseason team rankings, but we exercised a bit of caution with this squad given that several of these men haven't produced at an elite level outside of last fall. In fact, many of them were new to East Central just a year ago and Kiptoo was the only one on this team who competed at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships.
That being said, the Tigers' upside is as great as that of virtually any team in the country in 2024. We like that they'll enter the postseason more tested this year after trips to the Chile Pepper XC Festival and the Live in Lou XC Classic.
A national title feels a bit far-fetched given all that our TSR #1 team returns. Still, we would have said the same thing about East Central soaring out of obscurity and onto the podium in 2023.
