.png)
TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): #6 Grand Valley State Lakers
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- Sep 8, 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.
For years, Grand Valley State has stood out as a true long distance powerhouse. If the Adams State men weren't going to win NCAA gold, then the Lakers or Colorado Mines were likely the next teams favored to take home the title.
While some program have boasted incredible firepower, GVSU's depth has often been the focal highlight throughout their roster's history. That was plenty evident in 2023.
The Lakers are plenty capable of being a podium team come November, but greater firepower and adequate scoring replacements will be required if that goal is going to be reached. Of course, given the elite coaching history of Jerry Baltes, we're not willing to bet against that happening.
* * *
Last year, the Grand Valley State men opted to first test themselves at the Auto-Owners Spartan Invitational, a meet hosted by Michigan State. And while the Division One Spartans were undoubtedly the class of the field, the Lakers still held their own.
In what turned out to be one of the most pleasantly surprising developments of the meet, GVSU's Elias Bergman emerged with a tremendous 4th place finish. That, in turn, gave the Lakers a low-stick that TSR previously didn't know they had.
Veteran Andrew Hylen (9th) also produced a strong low-stick effort while the contingent of Koby Fraaza, Caleb Futter and Cal Yackin closed out the scoring by going 15-17-18, respectively. Brock Wooderson (19th) offered solid scoring insurance for good measure.
In the end, GVSU snagged a somewhat predictable runner-up result, although they did so fairly convincingly. And after seeing how well Bergman had run, there was plenty of optimism going into the team's next meet.
The Louisville XC Classic was the next race on tap for the Grand Valley State men. This time, however, the team battle would be far closer and far more dramatic. While respectable Division One programs such as Purdue and Miami (OH) were in the field, it was Division Two rival Adams State that posed as the greatest threat.
For the most part, Hylen (14th) and Bergman (15th) delivered on expectations, emerging as strong and predictable lead scorers. However, arguably the best part of the Lakers' lineup was Futter, Fraaza and Yackin quickly closing out the scoring (just like they had done at Michigan State) with results of 23-25-27, respectively.
Adams State undeniably had better firepower. However, the depth and compact scoring of the GVSU ended up being the difference in the final results...but only barely.
In the end, the Lakers scored 104 points while the Grizzlies scored 105 points.
The GLIAC XC Championships and the Midwest Regional XC Championships were mostly afterthoughts for the Grand Valley State men. The Lakers put their entire top-seven in the top-10 at the former meet and put four men in the top-10 at the latter (with their final scorer placing 18th).
The NCAA XC Championships, of course, was clearly the team's biggest priority.
In Joplin, Missouri, the Grand Valley State men toed the line with the hope that their impressive pack-running and great depth would give them enough stability to emerge as a podium team.
Fraaza (31st) had the best race of his season, emerging as an All-American despite being more of a highly valuable support scorer throughout most of last fall. The same could be argued about Futter (38th), although results in prior seasons suggested that he was plenty capable of being an All-American.
Bergman (47th), Yackin (49th) and Hylen (59th) all had solid outings, although no one in particular was truly great. And while there were essentially zero holes in their lineup, the team's limited firepower forced GVSU to settle for a shrug-inducing 7th place finish in their season finale.
* * *
There is good news and bad news when it comes to the men from Allendale, Michigan.
The good news is that, for the 2024 cross country season, the Lakers bring back both of their All-Americans from last year (Koby Fraaza and Caleb Futter). That's a much bigger deal than some may realize as firepower was an area that GVSU needed to bolster last fall.
The bad news, however, is that Grand Valley State's third, fourth and fifth scorers from the 2023 national meet lineup -- Elias Bergman, Cal Yackin and Andrew Hylen -- are all gone. On paper, those are brutal departures. The former was occasionally a lead scorer for the Lakers last fall and you could argue the same thing about the latter.
So...why is it that the Lakers still hold strong at TSR #6 in our preseason rankings? Well, as we just mentioned, firepower was the area that needed to be better if this squad was going to reach the podium last year. Thankfully, that is the one portion of their lineup that has largely been unaffected.
There are legitimate questions as to who will fill out the latter-half of this lineup. Even so, that should be a non-issue given the extremely impressive history of Coach Jerry Baltes consistently producing some of the best scoring reinforcements in the country.
Still having Fraaza and Futter is huge for GVSU, although neither of those men looked quite like All-Americans during the 2023 regular season. Placing 15th at the Spartans Invitational and 25th at the Louisville XC Classic were both strong results from Fraaza, but they didn't necessarily guarantee him being a top-40 runner at the national meet. The same could be said for Futter who placed 17th and 23rd at those same meets, respectively.
The catch, however, is that Fraaza made tremendous progress on the track, running a 5k PR of 13:56 at the Raleigh Relays. Futter, of course, is well known for his prowess on the oval. He won the indoor mile national title this past winter after running a 3:58 PR earlier in the year. The Laker veteran also emerged as an All-American in the steeplechase during the spring months.
It feels more likely than not that both of those men emerge as All-Americans yet again in 2024. Of course, we're still trying to figure out exactly how deep within that top-40 they'll end up finishing.
* * *
We'll admit, we're not entirely sure what the rest of GVSU's top-seven group is going to look like this fall. While we do like a handful of names as valuable support scorers, it's impossible to know exactly what their ceiling or consistency will/can be.
It's hard to dislike a guy like Brock Wooderson. He was fairly underrated last fall, often finishing fairly close to the team's top-five. In 2023, he placed 19th at the Spartans Invite, 37th at the Louisville XC Classic, top-10 at both his conference and regional meets and 62nd place at the NCAA XC Championships.
However, it may be easy to forget that Wooderson was an All-American during the fall of 2022, placing 39th at the national meet that year. In other words, his floor is that of a highly reliable middle-lineup scorer and his ceiling is that of a low-stick.
And suddenly, when you look at this team from that perspective, it's easy to see how they'll remain as podium threats in the coming months.
After Wooderson, however, things look far less clear.
Conor Somers didn't have a great national meet showing last fall, but he was fairly respectable during the regular season. Not only that, but he also ran a very encouraging 14:08 (5k) PR on the outdoor oval.
After being a redshirt freshman last year, there is a good chance that Somers will make fairly substantial improvements in his overall aerobic prowess. He made very solid progress on the track and should only benefit in 2024 now that he has experience.
Is Patrick Lyell someone who could realistically emerge as a valuable scorer for GVSU? He had a huge breakout year on the track, running a 3:42 PR for 1500 meters and a 4:03 PR in the mile. The issue, however, is that he has never contested a distance longer than the mile on the track. Expecting him to effectively make the jump up to the 8k and the 10k is admittedly a big ask.
Samuel Martens is a fairly strong name as well. He has run times of 14:21 (5k) and 29:32 (10k), although the latter mark came in the spring of 2022.
Last year wasn't quite as kind to Martens as prior seasons were. He was an outdoor national qualifier in the spring of 2022 and gained valuable national meet experience the ensuing cross country season.
The best version of Martens should be a more-than-serviceable scoring option at the backend of this lineup. However, if this team wants to be on the podium, then he'll likely need to have his best season yet in order for that to even be a possibility.
It's a fairly similar story for Scott Spaanstra. You may know him as a middle distance talent, but he was 135th at the 2022 cross country national meet.
Of course, on a cross country roster that has 53 men listed (yes, 53 men) there is bound to be someone who we're not familiar with who will make a jump into this varsity lineup.
Maybe that's a returning veteran who is due for a breakout season. Or maybe that's one of the Lakers' younger distance talents (specifically their incoming recruits) such as Tyler Lenn, Ian Fowler, Owen Patton, Sebastian Ramirez and Connor Reed (among others) who will inevitably beat expectations and emerge as top-seven talents.
The number of lineup options that this team has to choose from are seemingly infinite. And while we're not entirely confident about who will fill out the latter-half of this lineup, it's hard to be worried about that when you give a coach like Jerry Baltes this many choices.
* * *
There aren't many cross country teams who can lose as many veterans as GVSU did and still be just as good as they were a year ago without any major transfers. And if other teams had as many questions about the backend of their projected top-seven as we do for the Lakers, then it's even less likely that they would be ranked in our preseason top-10.
Of course, this is Grand Valley State we're talking about. The concerns that we would have for other teams regarding depth simply don't apply to the Lakers nearly as much.
History suggests that depth will be the least of this team's worries in 2024. And given that they have three returning All-Americans (two from last fall, one from 2022), you begin to realize that this squad could be even better than they were last year.
Sure, the Lakers are hardly perfect. Their scoring reinforcements aren't nearly as proven as they have been in previous years and their low-sticks need to be a bit more consistent at the highest levels of their fitness.
Even so, we haven't been given a reason to doubt this team. And until we do, we'll happily keep the Grand Valley State men as our TSR #6 squad this fall.
