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TSR's 2025 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): #5 East Central Tigers
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 crashing the national meet podium in 2023, one year after sending just one man to the 2022 NCAA XC Championships, the East Central men had lofty expectations for 2024. They were listed at TSR #4 in our preseason team rankings, but ultimately fell back to Earth a bit as essentially all of their men underwhelmed throughout the season.
The Tigers weren't terrible by any means, placing 8th at the 2024 cross country national meet, because they had so much natural talent on their roster. That, in turn, gave them a deceptively high floor.
Now, many of those same men return and should be poised for some sort of bounce-back season. We've tempered expectations a bit, but East Central has the same build in 2025 as in 2024 and 2023: a lineup laden with firepower that affords both a strong floor and one of the nation's highest ceilings.
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East Central started the 2024 cross country season one state over, competing at Arkansas' Chile Pepper XC Festival. Racing in the top men's section, the Tigers weren't quite as electric as expected. Amos Pkiach was arguably a low-stick in 16th place, but there were too many gaps in the scoring lineup from him to Paul Korir (26th) and Brian Mitei (27th) and then Aspel Kiprob (38th) and Oliver Kiptoo (54th).
That all added up to a shrug-inducing 3rd-place team finish. It wouldn't have been fair to expect East Central to hang with a D1 podium team like Arkansas, but the Tigers finished a ways behind runner-up Western Colorado. Even so, they defeated solid CSU-Pueblo and Alabama-Huntsville squads in a performance that foreshadowed their season at large.
The men of Ada, Oklahoma predictably handled the opposition at the DBU Old Glory Gallup. However, it was a bit concerning that their lead scorers were still outclassed at the front of the field. After all, this was a team that had four All-Americans and five top-45 finishers at the 2023 cross country national meet.
Peter Kimaiyo (formerly Peter Kipkemboi) bounced back from placing 60th at the Chile Pepper XC Festival to finish 3rd at the DBU Old Glory Gallup. However, he was 24 seconds behind the individual winner, New Mexico Highlands freshman Weldon Chebon. Behind them, Korir (4th) and Mitei (5th) were once again the Tigers' second and third scorers, respectively.
Putting their final two scorers -- Pkiach (12th) and Kiptoo (13th) -- in the top 15 might have been promising, but this team was one point away from posting a perfect score at the same meet in 2023.
It was more of the same at the Great American Conference XC Championships. Mitei led the way in 3rd place, 28 seconds behind the winner, while Pkiach, Melvin Kipkemboi and Korir finished 4-5-6, respectively, and Kimaiyo was 8th. The Tigers dominated their conference, but still tallied almost twice as many points (26) as they did en route to compiling a perfect score at their conference meet a year earlier.
East Central started trending up slightly once the racing distance increased to 10,000 meters, something that theoretically suited the more aerobic-centric athletes on the team. The Tigers won the Central Regional XC Championships over top teams like Northwest Missouri and Pittsburg State. Despite not having any men finish higher than 10th, they had six runners in the top 18.
The 2024 NCAA XC Championships played out similarly. East Central went from five top-45 finishers in 2023 to none in 2024. Kimaiyo (55th) led the way with Kiptoo (64th), Kipkemboi (68th) and Korir (74th) close behind. Mitei (94th) gave the Tigers a more-than-serviceable fifth scorer and Pkiach (101st) was close behind to offer added insurance.
All of that added up to an 8th-place team finish, one spot behind divisional rival Pittsburg State, but just ahead of Western Colorado (who had defeated the Tigers in their opener) and Northwest Missouri.
It was hard to argue East Central wasn't capable of more, given that a lineup of mostly the same men had reached the podium the year prior. Even so, we had to credit Coach Steve Sawyer's group for emerging from obscurity to become a top-10 team in the country two years in a row.
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East Central returns three men who raced at the 2024 NCAA XC Championships and three who raced at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships, but they're not the same trio. How's that possible? Aspel Kiprob started last season in the lineup, but did not race beyond the DBU Old Glory Gallup in early October. Newcomer Brian Mitei effectively filled his scoring role.
The significance of that situation is that Kiprob recently received a medical hardship waiver, according to Sawyer, clearing the way for the 6th-place finisher at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships to spend one more season with East Central. That development also gives us an indication of why Kiprob didn't look like his star self last academic year.
At his best, this is someone who has 8:45 (steeple) and 14:02 (5k) chops. He also went undefeated in his first three NCAA cross country races.
We're not sure which version of Kiprob we can count on seeing over the coming months. If he's even half of the harrier he was in 2023, he could return to All-American contention. More than anything, the Tigers likely want him to be a reliable scorer who can raise their floor after they lost Oliver Kiptoo, Melvin Kipkemboi, Amos Pkiach and Michael Iyali to graduation.
All four of those men raced at both of the past two cross country national meets. Pkiach and Kiptoo were All-Americans in 2023.
Mitei joined East Central last fall by way of Central Missouri and fared relatively well. His 2025 track seasons weren't the greatest, but he has All-American upside if he's at his best. After all, he was the 2023 MIAA cross country runner-up ahead of All-Americans like Gidieon Kimutai, Matthew Oglesby, Donald Kibet, Grant Bradley, Drew Atkins and Nate Mueller.
Peter Kimaiyo was one of the most reliable Tigers over the past two years. He was "only" their fourth scorer on the national stage in 2023, but he was their leading man at the 2024 cross country national meet, finishing top 55 at both. For what it's worth, Kimaiyo contributed to a trend of East Central men who were underwhelming on the track this year, racing just twice on the oval in 2025 after running 13:54 (5k) in 2024.
Paul Korir was similarly solid on the cross country course, even as he also regressed slightly last year. He served as the Tigers' fifth finisher at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships and their fourth finisher at the 2024 NCAA XC Championships, landing in the top 75 both times.
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For as impressive as the four returners who I've mentioned are, it's possible that none of them is East Central's lead scorer in 2025. This squad added Kennedy Bett, who was an NAIA star at Cumberland (Tenn.).
Bett's times don't necessarily jump off the page, but the same can be said for several of his Tiger teammates. The more important component that he has in common with his fellow Tigers is a penchant for performing well in the postseason. Bett placed 3rd in the 10k at the 2025 NAIA Outdoor Championships, and he placed 12th at the 2024 NAIA XC Championships.
The latter race was only eight kilometers, and Bett has shown that he's seemingly better as the distances get longer. As such, he should adapt well to the 10k racing distance that D2 men face in the cross country postseason.
It's also an auspicious sign that he ran under 24:30 for 8k in five of his six cross country races last year and won in the other instance. Just as notable, Bett won the "Blue" section at the Louisville Classic over Ronan O'Neill, who went on to finish 53rd at the 2024 NCAA D2 XC Championships.
All of that leads us to expect that Bett could become an All-American in his first year in East Central's developmental system. If nothing else, he slots nicely into the vacant scoring role alongside the four varsity returners.
Donald Kipsang is another addition who seems like a credible varsity contributor. The transfer from Texas A&M International placed 6th at the 2024 Lone Star Conference XC Championships as a freshman, just behind West Texas A&M's scoring contingent.
One of Dieumerci Ufitimana (transfer from D2 Flagler) or Bhekizulu Khumalo (Butler Community College transfer) should make for a serviceable seventh man. East Central also added freshman Emmanuel Kemboi, Aspel Kiprob's brother. His bloodline means he could hold immense upside, but we're tempering expectations because of his youth and lack of available results.
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Which version of East Central will we see in 2025: the one that crashed the podium party two years ago or the one that couldn't quite live up to the lofty expectations we set in 2024?
We're projecting something in between, and having a top-10 team for a third year in a row would be an excellent development. Kiprob and Kimaiyo are returning All-Americans, although they achieved that status in 2023. Korir and Mitei also have strong scoring experience, and Bett should slot in nicely.
There's a chance that all five of those men are All-Americans in November or that none of them are. We haven't seen Kiprob look like his best self in over 15 months, Kimaiyo and Korir took small steps back last season and Bett has yet to race at the NCAA level.
Nonetheless, the proven talent of those five men should again afford East Central one of the higher floors in Division Two. The Tigers' ceiling still extends to podium potential, but we're going to take slightly more of a wait-and-see approach this fall.
