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TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 25 Rankings: #5-1 (Men)
- Gavin Struve
- Aug 4, 2024
- 6 min read
5. Aspel Kiprob, Senior, East Central
Aspel Kiprob led the charge for East Central's breakout podium campaign last fall, emerging as a reliable low-stick throughout his debut NCAA cross country season and thriving in his first real test against national competition with a 6th-place All-American finish.
Such a strong result was hardly a guarantee for Kiprob, who won his first three races of the season but placed 12th at the Central Regional XC Championships (we didn't put too much stock into that latter result). Kiprob hasn't necessarily done anything to raise his stock in the time since the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, but that's mostly because it was already so high after last fall.
The Tigers' top scorer ran 14:02 (5k) on the outdoor oval and then held his own in an ultra-fast NCAA Outdoor Championships 3000-meter steeplechase final for a 7th-place finish and a new 8:45 PR.
Oftentimes, even the most talented NCAA newcomers struggle to adapt to championship-level racing. The stakes are higher, their competitors are more formidable and the race's style can be unpredictable. None of that affected Kiprob.
He may not appear to have the upside of some of the other men in our top-five, but Kiprob is very much on the national radar in 2024 and likely won't be leaving it at any time over the upcoming academic year.
4. Romain Legendre, Senior, Adams State
We're now entering a range in our rankings where any of the top handful of names are veritable national title contenders (perhaps Kiprob belongs in that discussion too given what he achieved in his debut year).
On raw talent alone, Romain Legendre has a strong case to sit atop these rankings.
After all, this Grizzly star holds the NCAA D2 record over 5000 meters on both the indoor (13:24) and outdoor (13:16) ovals. He also ran 3:41 (1500) and 28:28 (10k) earlier this year, earned silver over 5000 meters at the indoor national meet and won gold over that distance at the outdoor national meet.
Legendre had a seismic six months to start 2024, but it would almost feel reductive to call it a hot streak because we knew this Frenchman could become an all-time Division Two talent when he came in with a 13:35 (5k) then-PR last year. At the same time, we weren't sure he'd emerge as one of the nation's top runners so quickly after he struggled relative to his talent level in big postseason meets last fall.
A 6th-place effort at the 2023 RMAC XC Championships was a strong introduction to the postseason, but Legendre could have been in the hunt to win the conference title after placing 3rd at the Louisville XC Classic (behind only the D2 individual cross country champion and a D1 All-American) in his previous race.
A runner-up result at the South Central Regional XC Championships suggested that Legendre was making a seamless transition to the 10,000-meter distance, but he fell short of All-American status altogether in placing 55th at the cross country national meet.
Yes, the 2023 NCAA XC Championships is probably the meet that we weigh most heavily in our preseason rankings. However, that effort was Legendre's only true concerning result during his first year in the NCAA before he stamped himself as a superstar just months later.
Legendre was clearly closer to a top-10 runner last fall than the 55th-best individual in D2. Now that he's armed with those aforementioned new 5k and 10k PRs and far more NCAA Championship experience, we can only imagine what he might be capable of over the second half of the upcoming season.
Legendre could rise as high as NCAA #1 by the end of this fall, but the fact that he's less proven on the grass than some of his top-five peers leaves him at TSR #4 entering September.
3. Matthew Storer, Rs. Junior, Colorado Christian
If you want a safer pick among Colorado-based RMAC superstars, look no further than Matthew Storer. He has displayed a higher floor than Legendre, earning individual bronze at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships as a redshirt sophomore, and we can't quite count him out of the national title mix.
Alongside our TSR #1 name, Storer may be the most likely to retain his spot in our top-five by the season's end. That's in part because he's become an eight-time All-American through two seasons and has compiled three top-five national meet finishes in the distance events over the past academic year alone. He was also a top-half All-American in both the 5k and the 10k at the 2023 outdoor national meet.
While his 3rd-place effort at the 2023 cross country national meet and his silver medal over 5000 meters at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships stand out, one could argue that Strorer's most impressive performance for the purpose of these rankings is his outright win over a slew of All-American stars at the Lewis XC Crossover last fall.
That was a ceiling-raising result which made us consider that he may be in for a sizable improvement upon his 17th-place finish at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships and now makes us think he has an outside shot at his first national title this November. Needless to say, it was quite a way to open his season.
Storer's placements at the 2024 indoor and outdoor national meets weren't quite as sterling, but he still ran PRs over 3000 meters, 5000 meters and 10,000 meters earlier this year. Particularly on the grass, you should probably get used to seeing him in this range of our rankings for the next 16 months.
2. Hamza Chahid, Senior, Wingate
Our TSR #2 man has contested...two cross country races as a collegian.
A lack of cross country experience didn't seem to hamper Hamzah Chahid last fall, however, as he placed 4th at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships after starting his season just two weeks earlier. Of course, by that time, he was already the 2023 national champion in the 3k and the DMR and an All-American over 1500 meters.
All Chahid's done in the time since is continue to diversify and give more definition to his distance portfolio, winning the 5k at the 2024 indoor national meet and running 28:37 (10k) in the spring as he competed in four races on the national stage and came away with three All-American honors.
We'll admit, there's some semblance of risk in placing Chahid at TSR #2 given how little we've actually seen him race on the grass.
The 10,000-meter distance is a different beast as Chahid learned when he slipped to 12th in that event at the 2024 outdoor national meet. Still, he has already posted several elite 10k efforts through a year and a half in the NCAA.
Chahid clearly has more raw talent than even a name like Matthew Storer holds and has already proven that he has what it takes to win an NCAA title on multiple occasions and in different distances. He possesses aerobic strength, 4:01 mile speed, elite 7:47 (3k) and 13:33 (5k) chops and a penchant for delivering when it matters the most.
1. William Amponsah, Senior, West Texas A&M
Like Romain Legendre, William Amponsah is listed as a senior after entering the NCAA just last fall. Unlike Legendre, however, Amponsah found immediate postseason success as he won the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.
With that in mind, there was little argument about who should open the season at TSR #1.
It's Amponsah's title to lose.
This Buffalo stud has yet to lose a collegiate cross country race even as he faced a couple of Division One All-Americans last year. He blasted through a series of pretty competitive meets like the Big Country Festival, Texas Tech Open, Louisville XC Classic, LSC XC Championships and the South Central Regional XC Championships, competing with and leading three All-American teammates the whole way.
Since then, he emerged as a double All-American on the indoor oval and only got better in the spring, running a comfortable NCAA #1 mark of 28:00 (10k) and nabbing NCAA gold over that distance to go with silver in the 5k!
Amponsah ran a full minute slower than his PR during the NCAA 10,000-meter final and still won the title by 24 seconds. That was a massive validating result as it came over the same distance that he'll again race at the NCAA XC Championships, but Amponsah probably didn't need it to remain the favorite this fall.
After one year as a college athlete, he's now two-for-two in winning 10,000-meter races at the NCAA Championships (whether on the grass or the oval) and five-for-five in garnering top-six All-American honors.
Even for as formidable as his top-five peers are, we'd probably take Amponsah over the field (meaning we think he has over a 50% chance of winning the title) if forced to bet on it.
