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TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): Just Missed & Honorable Mentions
- Gavin Struve
- Sep 3, 2024
- 7 min read
Written by Gavin Struve, edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin
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.
Just Missed (in no particular order)
CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves
Given that they return four of their top-five scorers (including their top-three) from a team that finished 12th at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, CSU-Pueblo was very much in the mix for our TSR #10 spot.
While CSU-Pueblo has been more known for their work on their track and their women's cross country team in recent years, the ThunderWolves have a senior-laden returning core on the men's side that features a balanced lineup structure and a low-stick star.
The latter piece would be Reece Sharman-Newell, a half-mile star who also sits in our preseason individual cross country rankings as a "Just Missed" name.
Kaleb Beloy and Matisse Virey joined him as top-80 finishers at the 2023 cross country national meet while Joseph Harker (the team's fifth scorer) and Kaleb Tipton are also back from the 2023 varsity lineup for their fourth season (yes, there are two seniors named Kaleb on the team).
What gave us some pause was the fact that CSU-Pueblo wasn't as strong throughout last season as they were at the national meet. They placed 6th at the RMAC XC Championships and 8th at the South Central Regional XC Championships (both times finishing behind two teams who they later beat at the national meet).
It's also true that nearly all of this team's expected scorers are more proven on the track than on the grass and that they thrive in events that don't necessarily translate to cross country success. Sharman-Newell and Tipton are half-mile stars, while Virey and Beloy are at their best in the steeplechase.
There are strong odds that the ThunderWolves will match or improve upon their strong finish to the 2023 season, and their upside is certainly that of a top-10 team. Even so, it was just two years ago that this distance power didn't send any men to the cross country national meet.
We'd like to see the ThunderWolves carry their 2023 postseason success over to this fall before we move them into our top-10. What appears to be a more competitive regular season schedule than last year will allow us to see if they're up to the task sooner rather than later.
Lewis Flyers
If you haven't already grasped the theme among these "Just Missed" teams, it's roster retention. That wasn't necessarily the main element we were looking for when crafting these rankings, but it helps to have an already solid group that's running it back.
It helps even more when that team is adding a star-level talent to their returning core. Lewis, a team that arguably underwhelmed with a 21st-place finish at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, returns their top five scorers from that setting and adds an 8:44 steeplechaser in Gavin Jenkins.
Better yet, Jenkins had a semester to transition to Lewis after transferring ahead of the spring. The catch is that Jenkins hasn't run under nine minutes over the barriers and water pits since 2022 and took nearly two years off from racing between his time at VMI and Lewis while dealing with an injury.
Still, the Flyers don't need Jenkins to be a low-stick star so much as a complementary depth piece or a middle-lineup scorer. Given that he was the top non-Furman finisher at the 2021 SoCon XC Championships during the last season that he raced on the grass, that seems like a fair ask.
As for this team's holdovers, Charlie Wirth ran 14:06 (5k) after finishing as their lead scorer at the 2023 cross country national meet (placing 61st). It's Evan Horgan, however, who may be this team's front-runner in 2024 after pacing them at the 2023 GLVC XC Championships and running 14:00 over 5000 meters during his freshman track season this past spring.
Other returnees such as Sean Ryan, Evan Jamrozy and Casey Quintana were also top-155 finishers at the national meet last fall and will be looking to build upon that solid baseline under the direction of Coach James Kearney.
This team really emerged on the national radar last fall after showing out at their home meet, the Lewis XC Crossover, with a 3rd-place finish to beat WWU and a slew of other solid squads. In 2024, we think that the Flyers are in store for a result that hews closer to that effort than how they finished last season.
Alabama-Huntsville Chargers
If you were impressed by Augusta's exploits last fall, then it's worth mentioning that Alabama-Huntsville beat them at their own UAH Chargers XC Invitational. The Chargers finished runner-up in that setting behind Charleston (WV), but Sam Wilhelm stole the show with a win over fellow star George Couttie.
UAH again finished runner-up at their conference meet (behind Lee (Tenn.)) and capped a solid, but unspectacular, season with a 27th-place finish at the national meet for the second year in a row. Even Wilhelm struggled in that setting, nabbing the final All-American spot after entering the meet as a clear favorite to be a top-20 finisher.
Needless to say, we expect UAH to be far more than just a top-30 team this time around. They return their top six men from the 2023 NCAA XC Championships as well as Gabe Henneberger, someone who redshirted last fall after cracking the top-125 at the 2022 cross country national meet.
The Chargers' three final scorers were underclassmen last year, so they should be better with another year of experience. Make no mistake though, this group will again be led by Wilhelm, who should be motivated to produce a result more reflective of his true talent level.
There's a reason why this guy is situated at TSR #8 in our preseason individual rankings -- he was a top-half All-American in both the 5k and the 10k at the 2024 outdoor national meet!
Added experience, a stronger result from Wilhelm, the reintroduction of Henneberger and the added insurance of a star-studded freshman class should be enough to make this a top-half team at the 2024 NCAA XC Championships. Further improvement from there may push them into our top-10.
Augusta Jaguars
Augusta should be an afterthought no more after a top-half finish in the team standings at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. But if they're still being overlooked, this season figures to change that.
The Jaguars return their top four scorers and six of their seven varsity runners from a team that placed 15th at the 2023 cross country national meet. This is a balanced group that improved upon a top-25 team finish from 2022 and looks set to continue its climb.
There aren't necessarily any standout names on this roster, but Avery Jaynes is an All-American candidate after finishing 56th on the national stage last fall and then running solid 5k and 10k PRs on the outdoor oval this past spring.
However, he may not even be this team's top low-stick in the months ahead. Brandon Martin joined Jaynes in the top-90 at last year's national meet and was the 2023 Peach Belt individual champion on the grass. He was also the Jaguars' lead scorer by some margin at the UAH Chargers XC Invitational, which was the most competitive Division Two regular season meet that Augusta contested last fall.
Another pair of rising seniors, Jordan Robertson and Patrick Motes, weren't too far behind those two men at the national meet.
There was a gap beyond that top-four, so it's not necessarily devastating that their fifth scorer is gone. Plus, returner Thomas Rischar was only seven seconds away from scoring for the Jaguars at the national meet. A sixth senior-to-be, Andrew Todd, is back from last year's top-seven as well.
Then there's Thomas Miller and Nasrudin Mohamed, two men who each ran sub-15:00 (5k) marks earlier this year after redshirting in the fall of 2023. They should help capably fill in the backend of this lineup.
The Jaguars appear to have two solid lead scorers in Jaynes and Martin, a stable middle portion of their lineup and strong backend scoring candidates. With clear momentum working in their favor, Coach Jacob Burgamy's team could be poised to break into the top-10 in just his third season at the helm.
If nothing else, another convincing conference title and a finish in the top-half of the 2024 NCAA XC Championships appears far more likely than not for the 'Jags. And after seeing them succeed against Division One competition in the Southern Showcase last fall, we're excited to see how they will stack up at the Louisville XC Classic next month.
Western Washington Vikings
Yet another team that returns six of their seven varsity runners from 2023, Western Washington finished 16th at the cross country national meet last fall.
Given that our "Just Missed" section essentially comprises teams 11-12-13-14-15 in our preseason rankings, it would take just a minor improvement for the Vikings to live up to this placement. In fact, all they need in order to move up a bit may be a more fitting finish from low-stick Kevin McDermott.
McDermott, a "Just Missed" individual, looked like a true star for large portions of the 2023-24 academic year. He ran times ranging from 3:46 (1500) to 7:59 (3k) to 13:50 (5k) and won the GNAC cross country title. Needless to say, he's an All-American favorite entering 2024 despite placing 90th at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.
It hurts that Andrew Oslin has graduated after serving as the Vikings' most reliable scorer the past two seasons. However, he's the only departee and WWU may be able to fill his absence with George Karamitsos, a guy who took a gap year last fall, but was the team's second scorer at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships (placing 83rd).
We've gotten this far without mentioning Ryan Clough. He was the Vikings' lead scorer at the national meet last fall and is coming off of back-to-back top-90 finishes in that setting. If McDermott is operating at his best, then that will leave Clough and Karamitsos to fortify a quietly excellent middle-lineup presence.
Jeret Gillingham feels similar to McDermott in that he has posted his flashiest marks on the track (an 8:45 steeplechase PR to win the 2024 GNAC title in Gillingham's case) and was at less than his best on the national stage a year ago after a solid finish (95th) at the 2022 cross country national meet.
The talent is evident throughout this experienced roster, but we still have some uncertainty about this team given that McDermott has yet to put it all together on the national stage and we haven't seen Karamitsos race on the grass for nearly two years.
With all of that being said, this group certainly has the pieces to make us look silly for not ranking them entering this season.
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)
UC-Colorado Springs Mountain Lions
Catawba Indians
Cal Poly Pomona Broncos
NW Missouri Bearcats
Lee (Tenn.) Flames
Davis & Elkins Senators
Saginaw Valley State Cardinals
