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TSR's 2024 Preseason D2 XC Top 25 Rankings: Just Missed & Honorable Mentions (Men)
- Gavin Struve
- Jul 31, 2024
- 8 min read
Over the next handful of days, we will be releasing our preseason rankings for Division Two and Division Three athletes.
Ranking a smaller amount of athletes (25 athletes for D2 and 20 athletes for D3 compared to 50 athletes for D1) arguably makes it even more difficult to decide which names should earn the final few spots in our rankings and what dreaded cuts we need to make.
Detailed in this article are our "Just Missed" and "Honorable Mention" names who merited mention and discussion when crafting our D2 top-25 lists.
Tomorrow, you can find our "Just Missed" and "Honorable Mention" names on the Division Three side and the first batch of rankings for D2 (athletes ranked 25-21). As a reminder, you can find our rankings rubric here.
JUST MISSED (in no particular order)
Scott Nutter, Senior, Wingate
How often is someone who was nearly a top-half All-American (and is still largely viewed as that level of talent) not expected to be a guaranteed scorer for his team two years later?
That's the situation that Scott Nutter finds himself in entering the fall of 2024. Perhaps it will allow him to race without much pressure in his final NCAA cross country campaign.
Nutter was the sixth scorer on Wingate's national title team in 2023 as he finished a slightly underwhelming 50th place at the cross country national meet (only underwhelming because he was a 22nd-place All-American in the fall of 2022).
Truthfully, there was no grand bounce back in the winter or spring months of 2024 for Nutter. But at this point, we largely know what to expect from this senior who has placed among the top-60 at the past three cross country national meets.
We think Nutter's 2022 national meet performance is more reflective of his true talent than what he posited in 2023. Still, he finished just one race before the national meet last year after competing more often in 2021 and 2022.
Considering how infrequently Wingate seems to race their stars in the fall, we may not get a good idea of whether Nutter is fit to be a comfortable All-American or not until the "Big Dance." That uncertainty was just enough for us to keep him outside of our top-25 rankings.
Drew Atkins, Junior, Northwest Missouri
Given his status as the top finisher from the 2023 NCAA XC Championships who missed our top-25 rankings, our "Just Missed" positioning may feel like a disservice to Drew Atkins. This Bearcat distance ace placed 34th on the national stage as an underclassman nearly a year ago.
Since then, Atkins has impressed with a 29:30 (10k) PR and a MIAA title over 5000 meters.
The Northwest Missouri product had a strong case to be in our rankings. However, a relatively small sample size of performing at a top-tier level is what keeps him outside of it only until the season gets underway.
While he was good throughout last fall -- particularly in the early stages of the postseason when he placed 10th at the MIAA XC Championships and 11th at the Central Regional XC Championships -- nothing really suggested that Atkins would end the season as an All-American. Yet, that's what he became when the lights shone brightest.
There's something to be said for being able to put it all together when it matters most as Atkins did last November. Still, we're looking forward to seeing how he competes with more expectations and likely more confidence this time around.
Reece Sharman-Newell, Senior, CSU-Pueblo
Reece Sharman-Newell has largely made his name as a high-end middle distance star, given that he holds a 1:45-low half-mile PR and is a multi-time All-American in that event. But believe it or not, he's also in line to once again be the All-American low-stick for one of the RMAC's more respected distance programs.
Sharman-Newell left last fall looking like a completely new athlete after entering it as someone who appeared to be a serviceable runner on the grass, but had never raced at a cross country national meet.
After a few tune-up races, he emerged as the ThunderWolves' top runner on the grass with a solid 15th-place result at the 2023 RMAC XC Championships. An 18th-place finish at the South Central Regional XC Championships portended a smooth transition to the 10k distance.
Even so, Sharman-Newell had not left the Rocky Mountain region at that point in the season and was set to race on a relatively flat course in Joplin, Missouri. We were curious if his recent success would carry over to the national meet setting.
When he finally did race at sea level, Sharman-Newell produced arguably the best result of his cross country career: a 36th-place finish at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.
Given that we haven't seen him race collegiately since that triumph, it's difficult to know what we can expect from Sharman-Newell in the months to come. That said, he did run 1:45 (800) and 3:42 (1500) earlier in the year (unattached), a very encouraging sign in terms of his overall fitness.
The CSU-Pueblo ace is primarily a half-mile talent who has only had one truly strong cross country campaign. And yet, the year-to-year improvement he has made from the fall of 2022 to 2023 bodes well for what this RMAC star could have in store for 2024.
Mario Giannini, Sophomore, Chico State
After delivering the second-highest finish among true freshmen at last year's cross country national meet, Mario Giannini appears to be one of the most likely first-time All-Americans for later this fall.
Even so, it would be a bit presumptuous to say that a guy who finished his season placing 48th at the national meet last year -- and holds respectable, but far from elite, track PRs of 14:21 (5k) and 29:53 (10k) -- is now a top-25 name.
There's plenty to suggest that Giannini could be a fixture in our rankings over the coming years. He won his collegiate debut against more established teammates (over 6000 meters) and finished runner-up in his next two races including at his conference meet. This Wildcat underclassman was competitive during the winter and spring months as well.
Giannini should only benefit from having a couple of teammates who are also All-American favorites in our eyes, and he may well end the season as the focal star of a top-10 team.
Paul Korir, Junior, East Central
Last fall seemed to provide an optimal confluence of events for Paul Korir to emerge as the fifth scorer on Division Two's most surprising men's podium team (and perhaps the most surprising podium team across all NCAA divisions entering last year).
Korir transferred to East Central from a bordering state institution, Central Missouri, and thrived behind the spotlight of his teammates. Whether it was more a product of a change of scenery or having elite training partners who were also of Kenyan origin, Korir was quietly integral to the Tigers' success in his debut cross country season.
The ECU talent was competitive in the lead-up to the NCAA XC Championships, serving as East Central's fourth or fifth scorer at the Southern Stampede, DBU Old Glory Gallup, Great American XC Championships and the Central Regional XC Championships.
While he was never too far behind his upper-echelon teammates in those settings, that didn't guarantee that Korir would carry that trend to the biggest stage that he had ever competed on as a collegian. A 43rd-place finish in his season finale, just a few spots away from All-American status, was both a great result for Korir's personal trajectory and instrumental to East Central's 3rd-place team finish.
Korir went on to win a conference title in the steeplechase in an 8:53 PR this past spring and then advanced out of the steeplechase prelims at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to set up a respectable 11th-place finish in another sub-9:00 effort. That added postseason success should only help him as he seeks what seems to be an inevitable first All-American result.
Felix Perrier, Junior, Azusa Pacific
If you're a regular reader of The Stride Report, then you should know by now that we take steeplechase results with a grain of salt in terms of how they translate to cross country success.
But when paired with similar success in another distance event, steeplechase prowess is an additive element to the argument that Felix Perrier is in store for a leap of fitness, even as someone who placed 64th at last year's cross country national meet.
In the time since that effort, this Frenchman was relatively quiet on the indoor oval before a boisterous spring season. Perrier finished the 2023-24 academic year with PRs of 13:48 (5k) and 8:41 (steeple), the latter of which was run in a historically fast NCAA Championship final.
His newfound raw fitness helped Perrier not only become a first-time All-American, but also a top-half All-American and the owner of a top-20 all-time D2 steeplechase mark. Then, in the 5k at the outdoor national meet, he found similar success in a tactical race, finishing 5th.
Perrier was steady throughout last fall, looking competitive at the Live in Lou XC Classic and earning bronze at the PacWest XC Championships. It was clear that he had made a considerable jump in his performances from 2022.
That leads us to our biggest question: What kind of impact will the mid-summer departure of Azusa Pacific's head coach, Sean Smith (to California Baptist), have on the Cougars and their leading man?
Perrier clearly has the talent of a top-40 runner and there probably aren't 25 men with higher upside than him, as evidenced by recent his top-five efforts on the track. Still, he was far from a comfortable All-American on the grass a year ago and may be dealing with significant change over the coming months.
Jagger Zlotoff, Junior, UC-Colorado Springs
Like a couple of other men among our "Just Missed" names, Jagger Zlotoff is at his best over a distance other than 8k or 10k.
The Mountain Lions' leading man is one of the surest things in the mile and the metric mile at the D2 level (a four-time All-American in as many tries). However, last fall, he revealed new depths to his athletics acumen when he placed 13th in a loaded RMAC XC Championships field and mirrored the value of that nationally competitive result by finishing 45th at the cross country national meet.
Those results were far better than what Zlotoff produced during the fall of 2022, so his cross country success comes in a relatively small sample size. Still, he was just a freshman in 2022, and this is someone who's been a known quantity on the track despite his youth.
Zlotoff appears primed to emerge as one of the best all-around talents in D2's most competitive conference over the back half of his collegiate career.
Kevin McDermott, Rs. Senior, Western Washington
Kevin McDermott is a maddening individual to place in any set of rankings, let alone rankings that are gauging his status in an event in which he hasn't competed in over eight months.
McDermott spent 2023-24 looking like one of the more dynamic regular season racers and one of the more frustrating postseason performers. Throughout last fall, he looked like a solid All-American candidate after placing 12th at the Lewis XC Crossover and winning the Great Northwest Athletic Conference title.
Alas, McDermott placed 90th in his season-ending effort. That wasn't a terrible result by any means, but it also wasn't close to being representative of his ability. The same was true of his 163rd-place showing at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships.
McDermott was excellent for much of the 2024 indoor track campaign -- running 4:02 (mile), 7:59 (3k) and 13:50 (5k) -- and he was competitive in the spring with marks of 3:46 (1500) and 13:57 (5k). Still, he enters his senior year without having accumulated any All-American accolades or coming especially close.
More likely than not, McDermott will reverse that trend over the coming academic year. He looked like a versatile singular talent last year as he made a considerable leap in fitness from 2022-23. The next step will be racing with the poise of a true veteran when the stakes are at their highest.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order)
Enrico Oddone (West Texas A&M)
Kidus Begashaw (Adams State)
Kyle Partin (Western Colorado)
Lukas Ehrle (Wingate)
Daniel Hernandez (Chico State)
Lars Laros (Wingate)
Garrett Quinan (Shippensburg)
Charlie Wirth (Lewis)
Avery Jaynes (Augusta)
Spain Vaughan (Anderson (SC))
