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TSR's 2024 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): #10 RPI Engineers
- Kevin Fischer
- Sep 4, 2024
- 6 min read
Written by Kevin Fischer, edits & additional commentary via Gavin Struve & 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.
Over the last two years, RPI has cemented their status as a top-10 men's cross country program in the country. This year, however, they will have to navigate some losses to stay in the upper-echelons of Division Three.
But a new look doesn't necessarily mean a major fall-off is in store, especially for teams with plenty of depth. And that's one thing that RPI has in abundance.
The Engineers were the 7th-place team at the 2023 cross country national meet, so their TSR #10 preseason ranking this year does indicate that we don't anticipate them to be quite as lethal without some of the main characters from last year's campaign. Even so, we have no doubt that they have the dynamism and scoring depth to continue to be a force to be reckoned with in 2024.
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After opening the 2023 cross country season with a sweep at their home meet, the men of RPI brought out their “A” team again at D3 Pre-Nationals. On that stage, the Engineers finished an impressive 3rd place overall behind MIT and Williams.
That result was driven by top-10 finishes from their dynamic duo of Cory Kennedy and Vince Simonetti and a solid 16th-place connective effort from Mitchell Dailey. That was roughly what we expected from Kennedy and Simonetti, although Dailey's performance is what truly gave this team the "oomph" that we were looking for.
Jonathan Craun (33rd) and Jack Loughery (42nd) were admittedly a bit further back, opening up a gap that did allow RPI's team score to get away from them a bit. Even so, both Craun and Loughery held their own and allowed their low-stick teammates to truly capitalize on their potent up-front scoring.
The Engineers later ventured to the Liberty League XC Championships. There, they simply outclassed a lesser field as Kennedy won the conference title while Simonetti, Dailey, Craun and Loughery all joined them in the top-10. It was hardly a competition.
At the Mideast Regional XC Championships, the Engineers got the chance to avenge their Pre-Nationals loss to Williams, but were unsuccessful by a margin of 10 points. Even so, they came away with a runner-up result as Kennedy and Simonetti led them by placing 1st and 3rd, respectively. For them, the goal was to simply advance to the NCAA XC Championships.
RPI's two superstars shined yet again at the 2023 cross country national meet, with Kennedy finishing 5th and Simonetti placing 8th. We expected Kennedy to end his season with a result worthy of a high-octane star like himself, but Simonetti reached a new plane on the national stage with an elite and highly potent result.
The team's supporting cast was solid as well. Nobody else was close to an All-American finish, but Justin Cascio, Dailey and Jason Gibbons all finished within the top-120, leaving RPI with a commendable 7th place team finish. That was a surprisingly good result considering that neither Craun nor Loughery finished the race as scorers.
In other words, it was RPI's depth, not necessarily their firepower, which allowed them to comfortably end their 2023 fall campaign as a top-10 team.
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This year’s edition of RPI's cross country lineup. won’t have Cory Kennedy.
It won’t have Mitchell Dailey, either.
And Jason Gibbons? Yep, he's gone, too.
Those are all brutal departures. While Gibbons didn't emerge as a scorer last fall until the postseason, his end-of-season scoring value was still plenty clutch. Dailey was a highly underrated middle-lineup scorer who offered tons of stability to this group. And Kennedy? Well, he was the face of this RPI program over the last few years.
In addition to being key cross country scorers, Dailey and Gibbons were both national meet qualifiers on the track this past academic year. Dailey finished 4th over 10,000 meters at the outdoor national meet last spring while Gibbons competed in the 3000 meters at the 2024 indoor national meet.
As for Kennedy, it's hard to overstate his value. He was a reliable low-stick and perennial All-American on the track who simply can't be replaced, at least not easily.
Despite some serious losses, this squad retains a measure of high-level star power with Vince Simonetti returning. Not only that, but the depth that they have coming back is impressive, especially when considering the leaps that some of their athletes made on the track.
Simonetti is the clear headliner of the returning group. After emerging as a top-10 cross country national meet finisher, he carried that momentum forward to place 4th in the 5000 meters at the 2024 indoor national meet. Having run 14:01 (5k) and 29:18 (10k) earlier this year, he's situated at TSR #4 in our preseason individual rankings for good reason.
Of course, he is probably the name who we need to talk about the least -- we already know how valuable he is and, mathematically speaking, he can only improve by a few points this fall.
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There may not be any other true stars behind Simonetti on this team, but there is a wealth of scoring options throughout RPI's roster.
Justin Cascio was the highest national meet finisher among that crew, earning a 98th-place result. After sitting out during the indoor track season, he came back in the spring to run 15:00 over 5000 meters and 31:25 for 10,000 meters. Both of those marks were well short of his personal bests, but they displayed that he is knocking on the door of his 2023 fitness despite not competing last winter.
Jonathan Craun stayed within RPI’s top-seven in every competition last fall, and while he did not race at the Mideast regional meet, he made his return at the cross country national meet, finishing a solid 156th place.
The biggest reason why we are high on him, however, is because he ran 30:07 (10k) at Bucknell this past spring. That's an indicator that Craun is further ahead in his fitness than he was entering last fall, and if his progress translates well, he could make a serious jump.
Let's also not forget that Craun was a consistent scorer for this team going into the regional and national meets. He kept last year's backend scoring relatively in check and given his recent progress, it's hard to envision him not improving in 2024.
The Engineers' final returner from the 2023 cross country national meet is Jack Loughery. After a solid fall campaign where he placed 4th at the RPI Harvest Classic and 42nd at D3 Pre-Nationals, he had some postseason struggles.
Even though he fell to 258th at the cross country national meet, he bounced back well on the track, running 3:52 (1500), 8:18 (3k) and 14:35 (5k). The Jack Loughery who we expect to see this fall is the one we saw during last year’s regular season, and his tough November result should be considered an outlier.
There is depth beyond those returners too, most notably Evan Lacey, who ran 14:30 over 5000 meters as a true freshman this past spring.
Additionally, Brady Geisler, Joey Smith, Jack Czarnecki, and Tobin Durham all return after coming off of sub-15:00 (5k) marks this past spring. Geisler, in particular, seems to hold the most potential to break into the postseason lineup. He placed 5th at the RPI Harvest Classic in his only race of the 2023 cross country season and holds a personal best of 14:49 (5k).
Others who could break into the top-seven include 15:02 (5k) man Gwilym Horner and Caleb Watson, the latter of whom stepped into the seventh spot at the Liberty League XC Championships in the absence of Cascio. Having trustworthy guys like them beyond just the projected varsity lineup is a luxury that many teams, even at the top level, don't necessarily have.
While RPI didn't bring in too many “immediate impact” freshmen, Thomas Manson has run 9:12 over 3200 meters and may be on that tier if everything clicks for him this fall.
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The biggest strength of the Engineers last year was that they held one of the best 1-2 punches in the country. Of course, they aren't expected to have that this year. Between Cory Kennedy, Mitchell Dailey, and Jason Gibbons, the quality of departures that RPI is dealing with would set most programs back several years.
With this group, that shouldn't be the case.
The presence of a superstar like Vince Simonetti leading the charge, along with a slew of talented and experienced men in their supporting cast, figures to keep the Engineers plenty relevant as a top-10 team once again this fall.
