TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D1 XC Top 25 Teams (Men): #16 Purdue Boilermakers

We are aware that certain conferences and universities will not be competing this fall due to ongoing concerns surrounding COVID-19. However, for the sake of content, we have constructed these rankings as if a regular cross country season will happen.

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You have to appreciate a team like Purdue.

They have consistently improved over the past few years, have recruited the right athletes, added underrated transfers and have built a lineup structure that is competitive with some of the top programs in the nation.

The Boilermakers, as well as TSR #17 Ole Miss, feel like the first few teams of a new tier in our preseason rankings as we expected them to still be nationally competitive coming into the now suspended 2020 cross country season.

While the Purdue men do lose a major scorer, they were able to retain a heavy portion of their 2019 squad and position themselves for further success this fall.

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When looking at their 2019 lineup, it feels fair to say that three runners made up most of Purdue's identity as a cross country team last year. Between Jaret Carpenter, Curt Eckstein and Brody Smith, the Boilermakers displayed overwhelming firepower throughout the months of September, October and November.

That trio (with Smith and Eckstein sometimes in a different order) earned finishes of 8-9-10 at John McNichols, 13-16-20 at Joe Piane, 22-26-29 at Nuttycombe and 5-8-11 at the BIG 10 Championships. Carpenter would later secure a 10th place finish at the National Championships while Eckstein finished 24th. Smith would have an off day, falling outside of the top 150.

There were very few teams in the NCAA that had a top three that were as lethal and as consistent as that group was. Their top-heavy lineup earned them strong team finishes at some of the nation's most competitive meets and helped them standout in larger invitationals

The backend of their lineup, while not quite as strong, still held their own and was plenty reliable when they needed to be. Tyler Bowling was a quietly valuable #4 scorer throughout the 2019 season, earning a 17th place finish at John McNichols and a 94th place finish at the national meet. He admittedly could have been better at certain races like Nuttycombe and Joe Piane, but Bowling did his job and ensured that the Purdue men stayed competitive throughout the 2019 season.

But Bowling wasn't the only runner who emerged as a #4 scorer for Purdue last fall. As just a sophomore, Bailey McIntire showed plenty of promise, recording a 53rd place finish at Joe Piane and a 23rd place finish at the BIG 10 Championships. He was a very reliable backend scorer who consistently gave this team the necessary finishes that they needed to compete with the best of the best.

Others names such as Kyle Griffith and Alec Fleming were two underclassmen who often appeared inside Purdue's top seven. They rarely appeared as scorers, but they did their job and gained valuable championship experience.

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As we venture into a theoretical 2020 cross country season, we have good news, bad news and then some more good news for this team.

The good news is that the Purdue men are set to return six of their top seven from last year's lineup. That is a huge deal for a group that showed how much they had grown from 2018 to 2019. The backend of last year's team was relatively young and they'll be able to maintain their depth and hopefully build upon that whenever competition returns.

Now for the bad news.

Jaret Carpenter, the elite superstar scorer who always gave the Boilermakers exceptional scoring potency last fall, is out of cross country eligibility. That is a massive blow for a Purdue team that heavily relied on the top-half of last year's lineup to help them standout in larger invitationals.

Trying to replace all of that lost scoring potency in a single season seems unrealistic unless someone makes an unprecedented leap in fitness. This, however, is where the second piece of good news comes in.

During the offseason, the Boilermakers added Hillsdale graduate transfer Joey Humes to their roster. The former D2 runner was a multi-time All-American in cross country and owns personal bests of 8:14 (3k) and 14:24 (5k).

Will Humes make up for the entire loss of Carpenter? No, probably not. But will he step into this varsity seven, emerge as a middle-lineup scorer and minimize the damage of Carpenter's departure? Yes, almost definitely.

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The return of Curt Eckstein (TSR #19) and Brody Smith (TSR #29) ensures that Purdue will still have a very strong pair of All-American candidates at the front of their lineup. Adding the combination of Humes, McIntire and Bowling to the rest of this top five leaves Purdue with a well-rounded group of scorers who are experienced and consistent.

On paper, that's a tough group to dislike. It's also hard to ignore the fact that there were plenty of younger guys with a ton of potential waiting in the depths of this roster.

Even so, the loss of a superstar scorer was hard to dismiss when crafting our rankings. Despite returning six of their top seven, we struggled to see a scenario where Purdue was as good as they were last year.

The bar, after all, is set pretty darn high.

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Although we have Purdue ranked at TSR #16, there is certainly an argument that they should be ranked higher. This team has more upside than most teams and we have grown increasingly more confident in Coach John Oliver's ability to develop distance athletes.

We may not get to see them compete this fall, but we should get used to seeing Purdue as a top-ranked team on an annual basis.