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TSR's 2024 Preseason D3 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): #9 Washington U. Bears
- Kevin Fischer
- Sep 5, 2024
- 6 min read
Written by Kevin Fischer, edits & additional commentary via Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
DISCLAIMER: One of TSR's writers, Conor Daly, contributed to the crafting of these rankings and currently competes for Washington U. He is also mentioned in this article. While he did not write this article, he did have a voice as to where the Bears (and other teams) were listed in these rankings.
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.
The last couple of years for Washington U. would be considered a success for most Division Three schools. But for this powerhouse program, the expectation in the previous decade was to seriously contend for podium finishes, and the results lately haven't been of that caliber.
Between 2016 and 2021, the Bears finished no worse than 7th at a cross country national meet. Then in 2022, they were 18th, and in 2023, they made a slight improvement with a 17th-place finish. They were still a nationally competitive team, but not in the way we were used to seeing.
Entering this fall, there is abundant reason for optimism and improvement. Despite a couple of losses, Washington U. brings back what looks like their best roster since 2021, and this blue-blood now has the potential to climb back into the top-10 on the national stage.
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Following some disappointment with results from the 2022 cross country season, the Bears came into the fall of 2023 with a bit of a chip on their shoulders. Their start, however, was not the most promising. At the Gil Dodds Invitational, they finished 2nd behind a UAA rival, U. of Chicago.
After then dropping a close team battle to JUCO powerhouse Colby CC in the "Open" race at the Gans Creek Invitational, Washington U. saw top-tier Division Three competition at the Augustana Interregional Invitational. That also gave them a chance for a rematch against the U. of Chicago men, a test that the Bears passed with flying colors.
Cullen Capuano provided a great low-stick result in 7th place. That potent lead scoring effort was complemented by Matthew Hornung (31st) and Conor Daly (38th) who offered valuable middle-lineup scoring.
Admittedly, both Alexander Bullard (65th) and Alexander Evans (73rd) were a bit further back in the results, making it challengeing for the Bears to keep pace with the highest ranked teams. Even so, they stayed relatively close to each other and cut off their team scoring fairly quickly.
Not only did Washington U. finish comfortably ahead of the Maroons, but they also beat several other eventual national qualifying teams. Sure, they weren’t super competitive against top-10 squads like North Central, Wartburg and UW-Whitewater, but that wasn’t the expectation.
Finishing 2nd at the UAA XC Championships, an incredibly tough conference meet from which five out of eight teams received national meet bids, was another step in the right direction. The Bears were much more tightly packed there than they had been in earlier meets, lowering their top-five scoring spread from 61 seconds at Augustana to 36 seconds at the UAA XC Championships.
Capuano, Daly and Alexander Gadin went 4-8-14, while Bullard and Hornung closed out the scoring quickly enough in 20th and 21st place, respectively. The Bears placed their full top-seven among the top-30 individuals on the conference stage, a respectable display of improved depth.
The Midwest Regional XC Championships brought more of the same, as Washington U. put together a really nice 3rd-place team finish behind North Central and Wartburg. Both of those teams ultimately finished in the top-five on the national stage the following week.
The Bears, however, didn't have the same luck in their season-ending effort.
Capuano, who had been this team’s focal star all season long, put forth another strong result to eke out an All-American finish in 38th place.
None of his teammates joined him in the top-100, however.
Hornung, Daly, Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff and Gadin rounded out the scoring respectably enough with five runners in the top-155. Of course, the lack of more potent middle-lineup scoring relegated Washington U. to a still-solid 17th-place team finish at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.
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Alexander Evans is the only member of this team's varsity lineup who will not return. He was the seventh finisher for the Bears at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, finishing 214th.
The team also lost Kyle Puckett and Micah Benson, both of whom ran on the “A” squad at the Augustana Interregional Invitational. However, Benson and Puckett were the eighth and ninth runners on this team at the 2023 UAA XC Championships.
The entire scoring five from 2023 is back for Washington U., as is Alexander Bullard, who was their sixth runner at the 2023 cross country national meet. That fact alone gives us confidence in an improved national meet finish for Washington U., and some nice developments on the track make it clear that their floor should be above a 17th-place finish.
Cullen Capuano, after narrowly missing out on both 2024 NCAA Championships on the track and posting a personal best of 14:11 (5k), looks like a potential top-half All-American this fall.
We have the Bears' lead ace ranked TSR #12 in our preseason individual rankings after his 2023 regular season suggested that he was even better than the 38th-place finish that he produced on the national stage in spite of a fall near the finish line.
Conor Daly saved the best for last in his outdoor track season with a highly competitive 14:27 (5k) mark which indicates that solid progress has been made since last fall after he was already a steady scorer for this group. He seems in store for a finish higher than 132nd at the NCAA XC Championships now that he has his first national meet experience under him.
Matthew Hornung, the Bears' second scorer at the national meet last year (he placed 104th) and third scorer at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships (94th) has not been quite as flashy on the track, but his progress in that arena indicates that he could be an even better middle-lineup scorer in 2024.
Hornung was close to the 14:40 (5k) barrier on several occasions and broke 31 minutes over 10,000 meters before winning the 2024 UAA 10k title.
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When you look at someone like Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff who primarily runs the 1500 meters, it’s often difficult to project cross country ability.
In his case, however, he has more than proven himself on the grass over the years and will be looking to recapture his form from the fall of 2021, where he finished just four places shy of cross country All-American honors. Sidamon-Eristoff is an experienced scorer who looked to be close to his best this past winter.
James Corbett on the other hand, ran a flashy 3:48 mark over 1500 meters on the track this past spring but does not have that kind of cross country pedigree. But his overall talent is great enough to where there is always the potential for his track improvements to translate on the grass... perhaps even to the extent that he finds himself as a backend scorer.
Alexander Gadin, who was the Bears’ fifth man in 2023 and 2022, did not have the kind of year on the oval that he may have liked, but he should still be in the mix to contribute to the scoring rotation. The same can be said for Alexander Bullard, who did run a couple of PRs earlier this year.
Beyond the “on-paper” top seven, men like Jack Maranz, Fernando Ribeiro-Duraes and Will Liu will be looking for breakthroughs to become contributors. The latter notably ran 9:12 over the barriers and water pits as a freshman earlier this year.
Washington U. also welcomes an uber-talented class of first-year athletes headlined by Sean Green, a California recruit and Ben Lorenz of Connecticut, both of whom have run under 9:10 over 3200 meters.
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Distance running doesn't always work out in reality the way it does on paper, especially in the chaotic confines of collegiate cross country.
More often than not, though, if the top six runners on a cross country team return from the preceding autumn, that team should improve.
That appears particularly true for this Washington U. team that is not only more talented than last year but more seasoned as well. This team has experience, depth, optionality, a solid and defined scoring structure, candidates for internal improvement and an elite recruiting class.
All of that makes for one of the teams with the highest floors in the country entering 2023. We really can't envision Washington U. finishing any lower than they did the past two years.
When you analyze this roster, you'll see a clear-cut All-American favorite leading the charge, a sub-14:3 (5k) runner, a top-50 cross country national meet finisher from 2021 and several high-level depth pieces beyond them.
If everything more or less plays out how it should, that's a recipe for a team that can absolutely be one of the 10 best squads in the country come November.
