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TSR's 2024 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): #8 George Fox Bruins
- Gavin Struve
- Sep 6, 2024
- 6 min read
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.
In 2021, George Fox didn't send any men to the NCAA XC Championships. In 2022, they burst onto the scene and finished in 17th place at the cross country national meet. Then, last fall, the Bruins came one spot shy of ending the season as a top-10 team.
Progress isn't always so linear as it has been for the George Fox men in recent years. But as this ranking suggests, we expect them to continue their climb over the coming months.
We think that Coach Mike Wilson's group is in store for improvement in spite of the fact that they lost their lead scorer (who was their lone All-American). Once you get a grasp of this team's depth, you'll likely see why.
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George Fox plunged headfirst into elite competition upon first fielding their full varsity lineup last fall. After some members of the team raced in September, the Bruins really got underway when they ventured across the country for D3 Pre-Nationals.
In that setting, Peter Weiss established himself as a tentpole low-stick by finishing 8th out of nearly 400 men. While none of his teammates could match his fitness, Alex Mills (25th), Austin Gappa (28th) and Adam Peterson (37th) anchored the middle of the lineup admirably, providing underrated scoring stability.
Gavin Grass (60th) gave the Bruins a final scorer who was competitive with almost every other team's fifth runner, and teammate Andrew Ross was just three places behind him.
With a potent up-front presence and solid balance throughout the lineup, George Fox finished in 5th place at 2023 D3 Pre-Nationals. They weren't all too close to competing with MIT or Williams at the top of the team standings, but the Bruins beat solid teams like Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) and Johns Hopkins as they put their best foot forward in their true season debut.
They went straight into the postseason from there, winning the NWAC XC Championships with ease. Weiss and Mills went 1-2, respectively, and three of their teammates fit into the top-10 to boot.
George Fox's scoring presence wasn't as strong at the West Regional XC Championships. Weiss (7th) and Gappa (15th) were the only men on the team who finished in the top-25, and the Bruins lost to CMS this time (as well as Pomona-Pitzer). Still, they did enough to advance to the NCAA XC Championships for the second consecutive season.
It was on the national stage where this team thrived the most last fall. The complexion of George Fox's lineup structure didn't change much at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, but their depth helped them to a particularly strong result.
Weiss earned his first All-American honor, placing 21st. While there were no other top-40 finishers on the team, Gappa (56th), Adam Petersen (66th) and Mills (75th) offered very solid complementary scoring which mimicked their performances from D3 Pre-Nationals. Thanks to their efforts, the Bruins were well on their way to a top-10 team finish.
Alas, their fifth runner crossed the finish line just over 100 places later. Gavin Grass was hardly the worst fifth scorer in the field, although the Bruins still salvaged a strong 11th-place team finish.
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We just highlighted how Peter Weiss led this team throughout last fall, and his absence this fall is a difficult reality to confront for a team that otherwise could be a dark horse podium threat given that every other varsity runner returns.
It's that level of retention, however, that has us convinced that the Bruins should be able to pick up right where they left off. Weiss was George Fox's only genuine low-stick star a year ago, but that doesn't mean that there aren't others who could step up in his place.
Austin Gappa went from just outside the top-100 at the 2022 cross country national meet to just outside of the top-55 at the 2023 cross country national meet. After qualifying for the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 3000-meter steeplechase, there's ample reason to believe that Gappa could become the Bruins' new All-American low-stick.
Not only did he deliver when the stakes were highest last fall, but Gappa was also a steady presence throughout the 2023 cross country season. His reliability makes us feel better about his prospects of being someone the Bruins can rely on at the front of their lineup this fall.
Adam Petersen has followed a similar trajectory to his fellow senior, save for the fact that Gappa holds a sub-9:00 steeplechase PR. Petersen is another experienced member of this varsity lineup who basically cut his 2022 national meet finish (131st) in half a year later (66th).
Sure, he wasn't as steady as Gappa at the front of the lineup, and some of his efforts were certainly better than others. Even so, we would argue that Petersen never had a truly "poor" race last fall.
Alex Mills was actually George Fox's second scorer for their first two meets last season. He hardly fell off from there, finishing 75th on the national stage after placing 85th at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships. In fact, he has arguably been the steadiest of the Bruins' elder statesmen throughout the entirety of his NCAA career. Just look at his overall 2023 fall campaign and you'll find someone who gave his team incredible reliability on a handful of different stages.
However, the fact that Mills only finished one of the four races (all 10ks) that he entered this past spring gives us some reason for pause. If for some reason Mills isn't at his best, George Fox's floor drops considerably.
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Gavin Grass is the fourth senior returnee among the Bruins' 2023 scorers. On the track, he's just as accomplished as any of his aforementioned classmates individually. After all, it's over the barriers and water pits where Grass appears to be at his best.
It's probably worth mentioning that Grass was better in 2022-23 than 2023-24, and the Bruins will have to hope that he can bounce back in his senior sendoff campaign. If that happens, then this team could be ranked one or two spots higher than where they are now.
If you thought the list of rising seniors ended there, you would be mistaken. Gabriel Lachenmeier emerged as this team's sixth runner throughout the postseason last year. His portfolio doesn't stand out in any singular way, but he's another veteran presence who established some measure of consistency that this team can rely on.
Andrew Ross is the Bruins' last returner from the 2023 NCAA XC Championships. And you guessed it, he's a senior.
Like Grass, Ross was a bit better in 2022 (when he placed 150th at the national meet), but PRs over 5000 meters and 10,000 meters this spring hint that Ross may have some further upside to tap into on the grass. That would be huge, especially as George Fox attempts to collectively improve enough to make up for the loss of Peter Weiss.
The final varsity spot may well go to another senior. Aidan Arthur hasn't been quite as prolific on the cross country course as his teammates, but he recently shaved 14 seconds off of his metric mile PR to run 3:47 and qualify for the 2024 outdoor national meet.
While that's a no-joke time, we don't necessarily expect Arthur to translate that firepower directly over the coming months or to fill in Weiss' role if he is the only man to move into the lineup. The Bruins realistically only need him to fill in as a top-seven or top-five runner.
Of course, it's no guarantee that Weiss is the only individual whose varsity role is vacated. Coach Mike Wilson is excited about the sizable crop of incoming freshmen, and one of them could forge their way into the top-seven.
Caleb Doddington stands out in particular, coming in with PRs ranging from 1:54 (800) to 15:25 (5k) and boasts valuable NXN experience.
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The George Fox men have improved in each of the past two seasons after not reaching the national meet in 2021. We expect that trend to continue even with low-stick star now out of eligibility.
As a unit, Gappa, Petersen and Mills should make up for the loss of Weiss' firepower and replicate last year's front-end lineup value well enough. We'd put the over/under of top-50 national meet finishers among that trio at 1.5.
The back-half of the lineup leaves us with more questions than answers, but isn't that the case almost everywhere? We trust that a couple of individuals who we outlined above will step up and be serviceable enough for the Bruins to enjoy significant success.
Depth and stability, especially in the middle of the lineup, was the element that allowed this team to thrive in the deepest fields that they faced last fall. After all, this burgeoning Pacific Northwest power was at its best in its two most competitive meets a year ago (D3 Pre-Nationals and the D3 NCAA XC Championships).
And it is depth that we expect to be the element carrying George Fox forth without much of a hiccup even in Weiss' absence.
