TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D2 Top 25 XC Rankings: Just Missed Names (Men & Women)

As mentioned in our rankings rubric article, 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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JUST MISSED Men (in no particular order)

The Stride Report previously mentioned Mathew Chesum as a "Just Missed" name, but he has since transferred to the University of Toledo and will no longer be competing at the D2 level.

Max Sevcik + Derek Steele (Colorado Mines)

Despite a strong regular season, Sevcik struggled a bit at the NCAA Championships last fall, finishing 92nd after coming on strong towards the end of last season. Two top-10 finishes at the RMAC Championships and the South Central Regional Championships put him on the map, but we were looking for a little more at the national meet.

Steele, on the other hand, didn’t have much of a season, but ran well when it was expected of him. He finished 8th at the South Central Regional Championships and was the sixth runner for the Orediggers at NCAA's in 38th place.

In a year where everything is normal, both runners would have been crucial pieces for the men of Colorado Mines as they attempted to defend their national title.

Dayton Brown (Saginaw Valley)

This one hurt. A lot. We had Brown in and out of our XC Top 25 and debated how his performance compared to the #25 name in our rankings. Ultimately, we were forced to place Brown at the our unofficial TSR #26 spot, but he was a solid talent throughout last fall.

The Saginaw Valley ace was great in the postseason last year. He was 3rd at GLIAC's, 6th in the Midwest region and later 32nd at the National Championships. However, he had a few underwhelming performances during the regular season (28th at Lewis Crossover, 25th at the MSU Spartan Invitational) which is why we placed him one spot out from our rankings.

Regardless, this is someone who is absolutely one of the better distance runners in D2. In fact, you could argue that his potential would have been enough to place him in our rankings.

Ben Zaremba (Grand Valley State)

Zaremba didn't have a ton of flashy performances last fall, but he was fairly consistent with the exception of his race at Lewis Crossover (where he finished 47th overall). Outside of that meet, the GVSU varsity runner was 16th against a quietly respectable Buckeye Preview field. He later finished 11th at the GLIAC Championships, 12th in the Midwest region and 34th at Nationals (All-American). The Lakers are loaded with top-end talent, but make sure you don't overlook this underrated runner when perusing their roster.

Ryan Riddle (Missouri Southern)

Riddle was expected to be a top finisher at the NCAA meet last year before he placed 84th overall. Leading up to that point, he had reeled off a 6th place finish at the Lewis Crossover meet, a 7th place finish at the MIAA Championships and was 10th at the Central regional meet. Expect Riddle to be back vying for a spot in our Top 25 whenever we next have a cross country season. He is a strong, consistent talent who still has a relatively high ceiling.

Augustine Lisoreng (NW Missouri)

Lisoreng finds himself in the same spot as Riddle. He had a hiccup at the Chile Pepper Festival last fall where he didn’t have his best showing. Still, he bounced back by finishing 4th at the MIAA Championships and then 6th at the Central Regional Championships. He finished 41st at the national meet, but there was belief among our TSR writers that he should have finished higher. Lisoreng has all of the potential that you would expect out of a traditional low-stick, he just needs to put it together on a more consistent basis.

Noah Steffen (Grand Valley State)

One of the breakout performers from the 2019 national meet, Steffen would have entered the 2020 cross country season as an All-American from last year. The GVSU runner was 27th at the NCAA Championships last fall. However, his regular season performances weren't quite at that level as he finished 44th at the Lewis Crossover and 93rd at the Buckeye Preview.

Steffen is a talented guy (you don't finish 27th at NCAA's by accident), but we were looking for a little more consistency throughout last fall when crafting our preseason rankings.

Titus Lagat (Lee (Tenn.))

Lagat is an interesting name here because we don’t really know what we are getting. The MTSU transfer flashed his fitness at the Louisville Classic when he ran 24:34 over 8000 meters last fall.

However, when the distance was bumped up to 10k, Lagat struggled as he was 85th at the South Regional Championships and then 246th at the NCAA meet. If he can find some consistency or replicate his Louisville performance at the D2 level on a more consistent basis, then he could be a very good cross country talent.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)

• Chase Kennedy + Jacob Poston (Augusta)

• Jacob Gonzalez (Mount Olive)

• Isaiah Rodarte (Adams State)

• Jack Emanuel + Jhavan Holston (Chico State)

• Casey Guthery (Lee (Tenn.))

• Jesse Becker (Grand Valley State)

• Kyle Hinson (Charleston (W.V.))

• Marcus Graham (Flagler)

• Aaron Pfeil (Lock Haven)

• Mark Simmons (UC-Colorado Springs)

• Yannik Duppich (Queens (N.C.))

• Braden Nicholson (Southern Indiana)

• Noah Hufnagel (Southern Indiana)

• Silus Kipkoech (UNC Pembroke)

• Keynan Abdi (Lubbock Christian)

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JUST MISSED Women (in no particular order)

Rebekah Rairdon (Augustana S.D.))

Rairdon was set to be a key contributor for the Vikings this upcoming season. Sure, her 61st place finish at NCAA's last fall wasn’t what she was hoping for, but up and to that point, she had a strong regular season.

She was 13th in a deep Roy Griak field and she shook off a somewhat poor showing at Lewis Crossover with two top-10 finishes at the NSIC Championships and the Central Regional Championships. She showed massive improvement from the year prior (137th at Nationals in 2018) and was able to put down a handful of strong performances from this past indoor season.

The Augustana ace has plenty of potential, we're just waiting to see her put it altogether on the grass.

Cait Savey (Augustana S.D.))

We have yet another Viking front-runner who finds herself in the "Just Missed" portion of our rankings. Much like her aforementioned teammate, Savey saw huge improvement from the 2018 season into her 2019 season.

Savey was 5th at Roy Griak, but didn’t produce anything overwhelming at Lewis Crossover. Both the NSIC Championships and Central Region Championships were truthfully just a two-team battle, but the other team happens to be U-Mary and a top five finish at NSIC's and a 13th place finish at the Central Regional meet are both strong results. She later finished her season with a respectable, but quiet 53rd place finish at Nationals.

In the big picture, Savey is essentially in the same spot as Rairdon. She’s not there quite yet, but Savey has the chance to be a Top 25 runner whenever she next toes the line.

Olivia Brian (Grand Valley State)

Brian’s best race of the 2019 cross country season was at NCAA's where she finished 45th. Prior to that? She was 24th at MSU Spartan Invite and 45th at the Ohio State Buckeye Preview and 53rd at the Lewis Crossover. Those results don't exactly scream "Top 25 runner" immediately, but Brian would also finish 12th at the GLIAC Championships.

Brian still has a lot of potential given that she was only a sophomore last year. Grand Valley State isn't going to stop producing top-tier distance talents and we believe Brian was primed for a major breakthrough if there had been a season.

Katie Doucette (Western Colorado)

Doucette had a very promising freshman year for the Mountaineers, finishing 42nd at the 2019 National Championships last fall (just two spots out from All-American honors). Her regular season performances were a little lackluster, but she gradually improved as the season went on. In fact, she went from finishing as the team's number four runner to their number two runner by Nationals.

After a strong indoor track season and a clear shift in momentum, Doucette had the potential to make waves this fall now that she has championship experience and a growing list of accolades.

Micah Weathers (Augusta)

Weathers was such a difficult name to gauge in our rankings. We ultimately decided to leave her outside of our Top 25, but if there had been a cross country season this year, she could have made us regret that.

Weathers put together four wins throughout last fall (which included a title at the Peach Belt Conference Championships) and never finished outside the top three of any meet prior to the National Championships. For instance, she finished 3rd at the Southeast Regional Championships, a meet that was headlined by top distance runners Leah Hanle and Nicole McMillen.

A 44th place finish at the National Championships was respectable, but it also made us reevaluate the competition that she was facing during the regular season. Regardless, Weathers deserves the respect of being a top distance talent in the NCAA.

Claire McCune (Drury)

McCune was a highly respectable distance talent who rarely faltered in any race she toed the line for last year. She was 4th at the SBU Invite, 5th at the Southern Stampede meet and then 8th at the GLVC Championships.

McCune was able to pull ahead of a few respectable distance each time she raced and that didn't stop at the national meet where she finished 35th overall. In a world where we do our XC Top 30 rankings, McCune is certainly in there. However, she needed a little more of a spark in her 2019 resume to get ranked this year.

That, however, shouldn't take away from how strong of a distance talent she is.

Piper Meuwissen (Adams State)

Another name that we often debated, Piper Meuwissen left us in a pickle. She was outstanding at the 2019 National Championships last year, putting together a breakout performance where she finished 31st. She later dropped a very nice personal best of 16:54 in the 5000 meters the following indoor track season.

However, Meuwissen's 32nd place finish at the South Central Regional Championships along with a 64th place finish in the Lehigh Paul Short Gold race (which consisted of a couple decent D1 programs) weren't enough to give the Adams State ace the nod for our rankings.

There were multiple moments throughout last year where Meuwissen shined and that was a good sign coming into this fall. While we do believe that she would have been a great low-stick next to Stephanie Cotter this year, we still needed to see it on paper first.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)

• Starlynn Costa (U-Mary)

• Layla Almasri (UC-Colorado Springs)

• Hannah Mae Gigstad (Western Colorado)

• Destiny Everett (Chico State)

• Clarrisa Morales (Stanislaus State)

• Cynthia Mejia (Stanislaus State)

• Stellah Kiptui (Benedict)

• Brianna Robles (Adams State)

• Mackenna Curtis-Collins (Malone)

• Risper Mengich (Central Missouri)

• Olivia Willet (Simon Fraser)

• Alayna Ackley (Cedarville)

• Alyssa Tatum (Western Colorado)