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TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 25 Rankings: #15-11 (Men)
- Marissa Kuik
- Aug 2, 2024
- 5 min read
Written by Marissa Kuik, additional edits and commentary via Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
15. Paul Knight, Rs. Junior, Colorado Mines
Only competing in the championship races this past cross country season, Paul Knight proved that he can show up when it matters.
He posted top-six finishes at both the RMAC XC Championships and the South Central Regional XC Championships. With those efforts in mind, his 23rd-place finish at the cross country national meet felt right in line with what Knight had achieved earlier in the postseason.
Knight continued to shine throughout the track seasons, running some impressive times, including an unconverted 29:55 (10k) at altitude! He may not have performed as well at the indoor and outdoor national meets, but he strikes us as a cross country star first and foremost and it says something that he was able to compete in three distance events between those two national meets.
Knight’s record on the grass (including a 24th-place finish at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships) is too phenomenal to leave him out of our rankings. Plus, the Orediggers seemingly always show improvement with each new season, so we expect Knight to make another small amount of progression this fall.
14. Harry Louradour, Senior, West Texas A&M
Harry Louradour was one of the major contributors to West Texas A&M’s podium finish last year, finishing as their second scorer and one of four Buffalo All-Americans by snagging the final top-half All-American result at the 2023 cross country national meet.
Louradour has always been a consistent name for the 'Buffs, but that 20th-place finish was a major result in terms of validating his breakout 18th-place result at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships -- and last year's effort held more team significance.
Louradour has shown a proclivity for raising his level of performance for the postseason, but he was more ambitious than usual early-on in 2024 in running PRs of 13:57 (5k) and 28:37 (10k) over the final week of March and the first-half of April. He then placed 10th over 10,000 meters in his first national meet appearance on the track.
Those spring efforts indicate that this Lone Star Conference veteran improved through the first half of this year. While the cross country national meet course will be fast again this season, Louradour proved that his endurance can carry him through on a flat course last year.
He's yet to be a dominant presence for the entirety of a cross country campaign, but it's hard to bet against Louradour on the heels of back-to-back top-half All-American efforts on the grass.
13. Johan Correa, Senior, Central Washington
It is always impressive when we can include a middle distance specialist in our cross country rankings. That's not to say middle distance stars can't compete well on the grass, but they oftentimes struggle when moving up to the 10k distance in the postseason.
For Johan Correa, that was no issue at all.
Correa finished 17th at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships to cap off his first fall campaign as a collegian. That result isn't necessarily an outlier compared to the rest of his season. He won five of his six races leading up to the national meet and the only exception was a runner-up result behind Kevin McDermott at the GNAC XC Championships. Still, that was no guarantee that he would emerge as a top-half All-American in his first time racing an elite national field.
He carried that momentum into the track season where he ran a personal best time of 1:49 over 800 meters to finish 4th overall at the outdoor national meet.
Not only did that result show his improvement, but it also hinted at an ability to bring his best when it matters most. He ran his half-mile PR twice at the national meet, in the preliminary round and then again in the final to secure another top-half All-American accolade.
Correa has one of the most singular skillsets of any NCAA distance runner, and another fast national meet course (like the one waiting in Sacramento) should allow him to showcase his incredible turnover.
12. Titouan Le Grix, Senior, Wingate
The second-ranked member of a trio of Bulldog steeplechase superstars who swept the medal spots last spring, Titouan Le Grix is coming off an NCAA title over the barriers and water pits.
One month after running a then-PR of 8:40 to beat Division One competition at the Charlotte Invitational, it was Le Grix who pulled away and prevailed in an all-time NCAA steeplechase final with a blistering 8:38 mark.
On top of that, Le Grix qualified for the 5000 meters at the 2024 outdoor national meet with his 13:49 PR, finishing a respectable 11th place. All of that emboldens us to predict Le Grix will see another jump on the grass, where he already placed 29th at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships to finish as the final scorer on Wingate's national title squad.
He raced just twice in the lead-up to that meet, but the result that really put him on the national radar was his win at the Southeast Regional XC Championships. Despite his lack of results on the grass, it's hard to envision Le Grix not improving upon his finish from last year's cross country national meet.
Other new PRs of 3:47 (1500), 8:04 (3k) and a 2024 All-American result in the mile furthered his rise leading into the outdoor track season. The Bulldogs return all of their scorers this fall, but with this ranking, we envision Le Grix moving from a backend scorer to an elite middle-lineup piece.
11. Noah Fisher, Senior, Findlay
Noah Fisher resides among a select group of individual national meet qualifiers who made our top-25 rankings. Even without team support to rely on, Fisher placed 12th at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.
He put together quite the fall campaign altogether, finishing within the top-five of every race he toed the line for before the national meet. That included the Lewis XC Crossover, where he placed 5th, and his wins at the All-Ohio Intercollegiate XC Challenge and the G-MAC XC Championships. A runner-up result at the Midwest Regional XC Championships was a smooth transition to the 10k distance and a precursor to his final race of the season.
That's the kind of consistency we like to see when considering runners for our rankings.
While the indoor track season and the outdoor track season ended with no national meet appearances for Fisher, he still ran personal bests throughout the winter and won a couple of conference titles in the spring, furthering his winning pedigree.
Fisher placed 10th over 10,000 meters at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships and then 12th over the same distance at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. This ranking unintentionally reflects the middle ground of those results. It also suggests where we expect him to end up as long as he holds his form and focus through some smaller regular season meets.
