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TSR's 2026 Preseason D2 XC Top 10 Team Rankings (Men): #1 Colorado Mines Orediggers
Written by Jaime Diedel, edits & additional commentary via Gavin Struve
NOTE #1: 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.
NOTE #2: The Stride Report is aware that a number of meets have already taken place during the 2026 cross country season. However, The Stride Report believes that these early-season races (often called "rust-busters") hold little-to-no importance on a team's national standing due to the limited competition and the lack of top names being entered at these meets.
As one of the most consistent and winningest Division Two men’s programs at the NCAA XC Championships, the Colorado Mines men have their eyes set on another trophy at the “Big Dance.”
After a 3rd place finish in 2025 following gold in 2024, the Orediggers are no strangers to being the best. They’ve seen what it takes to be at the top, and some of their returners have even experienced it.
Even after some big losses to their 2025 national meet roster, the Golden-based men have always found a way to piece it all together at the right time. They’ll enter the 2026 season with just enough returning experience, paired with upside, to be our NCAA team title favorites.
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We didn’t get to see a fully loaded Colorado Mines squad until late September, at the Lucian Rosa Invitational. The anticipation lived up to the hype, though, as the Orediggers battled it out with fellow RMAC powerhouse Adams State. Ultimately, it was Coach Chris Siemers’ men who took the victory by seven points.
As expected, senior Paul Knight led the charge for the Orediggers, taking 3rd place. He was followed closely by Ethan Grolnic in 6th, giving the team two low-sticks on the day. Braden Struhs and Jeremiah Vaille stuck together to capture 13th and 14th, respectively, while Maz Bonenberger (16th) and Dawson Gunn (17th) showcased the team’s depth.
Junior Daniel Appleford (20th) rounded out the Orediggers’ top-seven, providing some scoring insurance as the Orediggers showed off their championship-level depth early-on.
A few weeks later, Colorado Mines fielded somewhat of a “B” team at the FHSU Tiger Open. Despite racing mostly underclassmen, the men of Colorado Mines still took the team victory, a massive testament to their depth once again.
Cody Wyman, who was a freshman at the time, was the first Oredigger across the finish line, taking 6th overall. Another pair of freshmen, Jake Schwarting and Hayden Hooper, crossed the finish in the top-10, while sophomore Chandler Wilburn took 14th place.
Colorado Mines came just nine points short of taking the conference crown at the RMAC XC Championships, as Adams State upstaged the Orediggers after losing to them a month earlier. Even though Knight and Vaille took gold and bronze, respectively, Colorado Mines just couldn’t match Adams State having four men in the top-10.
Nonetheless, there were plenty of positives. Appleford had the best RMAC cross country finish of his career in 9th place, putting up big points for his team. Rounding out the scorers, Bonenberger (11th) and Grolnic (17th) landed in the top-20, individually.
Junior Charlie Welch (19th), Wyman (20th), Wilburn (21st) and Struhs (23rd) packed together nicely and made for nine 'Mines men in the top-25.
Two weeks later, the Orediggers easily secured an automatic qualification to the national meet, as expected. The only team ahead of them at the South Central regional meet was again Adams State.
This time around, however, the men of Colorado Mines were without their usual leader, Knight. Instead, Vaille took over that role, giving the team a solid low-stick in 6th place. Bonenberger and freshman Wyman weren’t far behind in 10th and 12th, respectively. Another youngster, Schwarting, stepped up big time for the men of Golden, Colorado, crossing the finish in 14th and serving as the fourth scorer on the day.
Appleford was once again in Colorado Mines' scoring five in 20th place. And sure, the Orediggers lacked a bit of insurance via the sixth and seventh runners, but they still managed to prove how deep they could be without Knight, similar to how they’ll be this fall.
After an incredibly solid fall campaign leading up to the NCAA XC Championships, it was more than evident that Siemers’ men were a podium threat. And with all the pieces in line, including Knight in uniform, the men of Colorado Mines held the 3rd place team trophy above their heads at the conclusion of the meet.
Knight was an absolute workhorse for the Orediggers, capturing by far his best cross country national meet result in 4th place. Gunn, who had only competed once in the 2025 season before the national meet, seemingly came out of nowhere. He ended up as a top-half All-American in 17th, giving Colorado Mines the added push that was needed on the national stage.
Colorado Mines had two more individual All-Americans, as Grolnic (33rd) and Bonenberger (36th) found themselves in the nation’s top-40. With Wyman landing close behind in 51st place at his first national meet, the Orediggers finished one point ahead of GVSU for 3rd place.
Vaille, who was usually a solid scorer, was the team’s sixth man in 71st, while Schwarting placed 80th. But the Orediggers were so deep, it frankly didn’t matter that Vaille wasn’t a scorer. Pretty much everyone else ran exceptionally, with the exception of Grolnic, who was better in 2024 but still finished as an All-American in 2025.
Regardless of who scored on any given day, including on the national stage, the men of Colorado Mines were simply that good.
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For many programs, it would be a devastating hit to lose a frontrunner like Paul Knight, and key scorers like Max Bonenberger and Jeremiah Vaille. Some teams take years to rebuild when they lose a singular talent, let alone some of their depth. Not the Orediggers. We don't expect them to take a step back at all. In fact, they should take a step forward.
It looked like Colorado Mines may not have an individual star of the caliber of Knight this year, but then Dawson Gunn went and had an exceptional pair of track seasons.
After serving as the Orediggers' second scorer on the national stage last fall, he finished 2nd over 5000 meters at both the 2026 indoor and outdoor national meets. He also won RMAC indoor and outdoor titles in that event and ran as fast as 13:36 (5k)!
A TSR #4 ranking may seem like a high preseason ranking for Gunn, but consider that Knight had never finished that high at a cross country national meet before breaking through last year. Gunn has already been even better on the outdoor oval.
Perhaps just as importantly, Ethan Grolnic will also be returning to the Orediggers' lineup. We were initially under the assumption that he wouldn't be back, given that he raced in portions of four collegiate cross country seasons, but Grolnic will be using his redshirt senior year to star for the Colorado Mines men one last time.
This is a huge development that pushes this team over the top. Grolnic hasn't been the steadiest star, but he has shown top-10 ability in placing 9th at the 2024 NCAA XC Championships and 6th at the 2025 Lucian Rosa Invitational. His 17th place run at the 2025 RMAC XC Championships and 33rd place run at the 2025 NCAA XC Championships obviously weren't as impressive, but they establish a high floor for him as a scorer.
After he ran a couple of personal bests on the track in the time since then, there's reason to believe that Grolnic will be back at his best this fall. At any rate, the Orediggers are surely ecstatic to return the third scorer from the 2024 NCAA title team.
Daniel Appleford and Braden Struhs will also be back in the Colorado Mines uniform this season. They've had more success on the track than on the grass, but there's plenty of reason to believe that they'll make good on their star potential this season.
Appleford didn't race at the cross country national meet last fall, but his top-10 finish at the RMAC XC Championships showed All-American upside. A 10th place finish for the 5k at the 2026 outdoor national meet contributed just as much to him being placed at TSR #21 in our preseason individual rankings.
Struhs' 2025 cross country season ended on the wrong foot with an “off” day at the regional meet. However, he is also stepping into the 2026 season after a phenomenal junior track campaign.
Struhs proved to be one of Division Two's top aerobic athletes earlier this year, as he made the 10k his primary event. He dipped under 29 minutes for that distance at the Bryan Clay Invitational, and then at the outdoor national meet, he raced to an 8th place All-American finish.
It would be a huge win for Colorado Mines if Struhs -- who wasn't great at the 2025 RMAC XC Championships or the South Central regional -- could translate his track strength to the grass throughout the season. On paper, his talent is evident; he just needs to execute it consistently to step up for this team. The upside (and theoretically the baseline) that his 10k prowess on the track gives him led us to rank him at TSR #22.
And then we have Cody Wyman. Despite being just a redshirt freshman last fall, Wyman spent most of the season as a scorer. Of course, expectations for him will rise now that he's more experienced and his team is even more of an NCAA title contender. But given how he peaked in the postseason last fall, he should be up for it.
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Jake Schwarting also made the cut for the Orediggers' final 2025 varsity lineup as just a redshirt freshman last year. We haven't seen him since, but his 14th place South Central regional result and 80th place national meet finish showed that he can step up and deliver when it matters most. He also won't have much pressure to do so, seeing as he's not a projected scorer.
Rowan Nicholas didn't race in any postseason meets last fall, but he caught our attention despite racing just twice this past spring. Nicholas ran 30:35 (10k) at altitude to place 3rd at the RMAC Outdoor Championships and qualify for the 10k at the outdoor national meet, where he placed 20th.
There's still so much about Nicholas that we don't know through just five collegiate races, but it feels fair to say that he has All-American potential this fall once the racing distance increases to 10,000 meters for the postseason.
Charlie Welch is another guy who seems entitled to a varsity spot on paper but will have to battle for it. Last fall, the former Colorado transfer had solid placements of 37th at the Lucian Rosa Invitational, 19th at the RMAC XC Championships and 33rd at the South Central regional meet.
Andreas O’Malley has been an Oredigger for years now, but he's never quite made a major impact for them on the cross country course. That being said, his cross country marks from 2024 were quite solid, and he even placed 21st at the always-loaded RMAC XC Championships.
O’Malley is also terrific over 1500 meters. He gained championship experience in that event at the outdoor national meet this past May. And if he can carry his speed-based endurance and past cross country strength to the grass this time around, he could be another addition to the depth of the Colorado Mines men.
Underclassman Hayden Hooper could also make an impact over the coming months, assuming his fitness has progressed since last fall, because, truthfully, there hasn’t been a whole lot of buzz around his name since.
Despite us not putting much emphasis into cross country times, Hooper’s best and most impressive result from his first cross country season for the Orediggers was his 24:26 (8k) at the FHSU Tiger Open. It became very clear that he has some raw endurance talent, even though we didn’t see him in many large races.
Hooper’s case is helped by the fact that he holds 14:51 (5k) and 9:01 (3200) personal bests from his high school days, making him the caliber of talent that Siemers has developed into a star or at least a scorer in the past.
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Just like last year, the men of Colorado Mines have a wide range of names to choose from on any given day. Gunn and Grolnic are low-stick stars with proven national meet success, while Wyman could develop into that kind of runner and Struhs and Appleford have displayed high ceilings on the track.
With Nicholas, Schwarting, Welch, O'Malley and Hooper providing depth, it feels like the Orediggers have 10 of the top-100 runners in the country.
The Colorado Mines men are versatile and have historically performed well in any situation. Given that there's some modicum of uncertainty behind Gunn and Grolnic, we're not sure whether or not they have the fewest questions of the title-contending teams. What we do know is that they have the most answers. That's why they may well be in line to win their fourth NCAA title in a seven-year span.
