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TSR's 2024 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): #6 Lynchburg Hornets
- Gavin Struve
- Sep 8, 2024
- 6 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.
After breaking into the top-10 at the 2023 cross country national meet, the Lynchburg men have the potential to crash the top-five in 2024.
They return three scorers and five varsity runners, two of whom are major breakout candidates after playing key roles on Lynchburg's 2024 national title-winning DMR squad.
It's hard to infer how much that DMR triumph will boost the Hornets as they transition onto the grass this fall. What's inarguable is that Lynchburg has as much momentum as virtually any Division Three men's distance program.
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Lynchburg opened their 2023 cross country season in-state at the Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational. It was unclear if they put forth a concentrated effort, but the Hornets finished sandwiched between four Division One programs.
They went up against even more D1 teams during their next race: the Lehigh Paul Short Run "Gold" race. The Hornets finished 20th, but received two strong low-stick results from senior Frank Csorba (28th) and sophomore Chasen Hunt (33rd), who finished one second apart.
Next came a highly competitive Division Three meet: the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational. Once again, Csorba and Hunt led the way, finishing first and second, respectively. Sam Llaneza (11th) and Tor Hotung-Davidsen (12th) also finished within a spot of each other.
There was a gap back to the fifth scorer, Marko Kovacevic, in 25th place. However, even if Kovacevic had finished just behind Hotung-Davidsen, the Hornets still would have finished runner-up behind Carnegie Mellon. That's because Carnegie Mellon placed all five scorers in the top-10.
Even so, that was a strong result for this Virginia-based squad, who finished comfortably ahead of a good Johns Hopkins team.
The Hornets then comfortably won the ODAC XC Championships. Csorba, Llaneza and Hunt swept the top-three spots in that order, and Cooper Hurst and Bryce Davis closed out the scoring in 5th and 6th place, respectively.
Csorba, Hunt and Llaneza again finished in the top-five upon advancing to the South Regional XC Championships, as Lynchburg picked up a second win in as many meets.
By the time they reached their final meet, it was clear that Lynchburg was in the midst of a strong season. Still, the diverse medley of meets they competed in made it difficult to gauge just how strong this team was. Fortunately, they put forth one of their better results at the cross country national meet.
Frank Csorba predictably led the team in 14th place, and Llaneza nearly made for two Lynchburg All-Americans as he finished 42nd. Hunt, who had clear All-American potential, finished close behind him in 53rd place, and Hotung-Davidsen (80th) gave the Hornets a strong fourth scorer.
There was a gap back to Davis, the fifth scorer, who finished 184th, but Lynchburg still placed 9th, twice as high as they did at the national meet during their breakout 2021 season.
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The most notable difference between the Hornets in 2023 and 2024 is that they will enter this season without Frank Csorba, their low-stick star who tragically passed away this past spring during his final season of eligibility.
They also lose fifth scorer Bryce Davis, a program veteran who raced at two cross country national meets.
Still, it's quite possible that someone on this year's team can better the 184th-place finish he produced on the national stage last fall. Had their fifth scorer finished 55 places higher, Lynchburg would have placed 5th overall! The Hornets have some backend questions, but that kind of fifth-runner result doesn't feel like it's out of the realm of possibility.
The discussion of this year's team starts with Chasen Hunt, who has as high of a ceiling as virtually anyone in the Division Three ranks. He sits at TSR #8 in our preseason individual rankings. Hunt was an All-American favorite last fall and didn't quite reach that status, but he still nearly cracked the top-50 at the cross country national meet.
Of course, where he really leveled up during the 2023-24 academic year was on the track. Hunt was on that aforementioned gold-medal-winning DMR team and placed 5th over 3000 meters at the indoor national meet. He was even better on the outdoor oval, where he ran eye-popping marks of 1:51 (800), 3:43 (1500) and 14:00 (5k) and earned bronze in the latter event at the outdoor national meet.
Hunt was very good at essentially every meet last year aside from the cross country national meet, where he was simply "good."
And get this: The 2023 NCAA XC Championships was the first national meet that Hunt competed at as a collegian. He now has three under his belt from 2023-24 alone. What might he be capable of with a year of high-level experience behind him?
For as great as Hunt could be, Llaneza is the most accomplished individual on this roster. In addition to becoming a DMR national champion, he was a top-half All-American over 800 meters at the 2024 indoor national meet and won the NCAA title over 1500 meters this past spring.
He also ran a 3:43 PR to finish eight-hundredths of a second ahead of Hunt at their home meet in May. However, it's Llaneza's 14:25 (5k) PR from April which suggests that his aerobic capacities have improved alongside his speed.
After finishing just outside of the top-40 at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships and then winning multiple national titles over the next six months, Llaneza could certainly make an All-American leap on the grass this fall.
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Tor Hotung-Davidsen is similar to Llaneza in that he has more of an inclination for the middle distance events on the track, but more than held his own on the grass last fall. The problem, however, is that we haven't seen this 1:49 half-miler race since early February, which gives us a bit of pause.
The Hornets won't ask too much of him beyond respectable backend scoring. They were reliant on having a strong top-four last fall, so it would be difficult to move up through the top-10 if they don't have enough stability behind Hunt and Llaneza.
Can Lynchburg bank on internal improvement among their backend contributors?
Jonathan Cobb emerged as a varsity runner for this team late last season, racing with the full-strength squad only at the ODAC XC Championships and the NCAA XC Championships. Cooper Hurst raced with the Hornets' top group throughout last fall and was their seventh runner at the NCAA XC Championships.
While those two men entered 2024 with similar 5k PRs (14:54 for Cobb and 14:52 for Hurst), both found a new sweet spot on the track this past spring. Hurst ran 9:09 in the 3000-meter steeplechase and Cobb ran 30:43 (10k) and won the ODAC 10k title.
Marko Kovacevic was hurt at the end of last fall, but was a varsity runner as a sophomore leading up to the postseason. He raced only on the indoor track and for just a few meets in the first half of 2024.
If he is at less than his best this fall, either upperclassmen Tanner Baker or Ronan Creamer could step up after making a couple of appearances in the top-seven in 2023.
A few newcomers should also make a push for varsity roles. The Hornets brought in an impressive freshman class with names like Alex Jordan -- who has run under 9:10 (3200) and 15:00 (5k) -- and Cameron Sidebotham -- who holds marks of 4:21 (1600), 9:23 (3200) and 15:35 (5k XC).
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Even in the absence of two 2023 scorers, Coach Jake Reed's team is well-equipped to build upon their top-10 finish from last year's cross country national meet. On a perfect day, they may even end up on the podium.
Much of that relies on Hunt making the leap that we expect him to, Hotung-Davidsen being healthy/available and some combination of the program veterans and/or newcomers emerging as above-average backend scorers.
That's a lot to ask. But beyond losing Csorba, the Hornets have considerable continuity for an ascendant program. With that in mind, we expect them to make a small improvement after their breakout 2023 campaign.
