TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D2 XC Top 10 Teams (Men): #10 Lee (Tenn.) Flames

Written by Eric Baranoski and Garrett Zatlin

The Flames finished the 2019 cross country season as the 27th place team at the National Championships -- a spot that doesn’t exactly scream Preseason Top 10 for the following year.

Naturally, one might ask the question: How is Lee ranked at TSR #10 in your preseason rankings? Allow us to explain...

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The biggest reason why we expect the Lee Flames to be a brand new team in 2020 is because they finally return Christian Noble who went off this past indoor track season, running a flat-track converted 8:00 for 3000 meters after he did not compete during the fall of 2019 (which he was presumably redshirting). He’ll be one of the top talents in the nation whenever we do return to competition, giving the Lee Flames a massive scoring boost at the front of their lineup, something that they were lacking in 2019.

But that’s not all. This offseason, the Flames added Middle Tennessee State runner Titus Lagat to their already young and promising roster. This addition should bode well for a team that could use a little extra championship experience. Lagat, despite being labeled as an 800 meter runner, was part of the MTSU team that qualified for the D1 NCAA XC Championships last fall.

When we only look at Lee’s returners from last year, they bring back six out of their seven runners who competed at the national meet, losing only one runner who wasn't a scorer at a handful of their meets throughout the season (but was at the GSC Championships and NCAA's). Together, they make this a very deep roster with a variety of lineup options to choose from. On paper, this team has a lot of exciting promise.

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Ben Tabor, now a senior, is coming off of his best cross country season yet, running 24:35 (8k) and 31:40 (10k) last fall. His 18th place finish at the Royals XC Challenge and 16th place finish at the Trevecca Nazarene Showcase were to great examples of Tabor's ability to run well in larger invitationals.

Then there is Casey Guthery who finished as Lee’s top runner at both the Gulf South Conference Championships (7th) and the Trevecca Nazarene Showcase (7th). He later upped his fitness during the winter, running new personal bests of 14:42 (5k) and 8:32 (3k)

Thomas Kelton had his best race of the 2019 cross country season at the South regional meet, placing 7th overall and showing that he is a true 10k specialist. Just like Guthery, he came back strong during the indoor track season to set a new personal best in the 3000 meters of 8:38. He will likely benefit from having another extra year of experience under his legs after a 2019 schedule which featured a handful of competitive meets.

Then we have Will Stone who had a few struggles throughout the 2019 season when trying to stay consistent in his performances. That, however, isn’t totally unexpected for someone who was just a freshman last year. Stone showed plenty of promise as a potential top scorer in the early portion of the 2019 season and we expected to see improvements from him this fall.

Once he refines his already-promising fitness, we are confident that he’ll emerge as an underrated scorer whenever he races next.

The final name we need to talk about is Caleb Eagleson, a consistent presence at the top portion of this Lee lineup throughout last fall. He never really had a bad race during the 2019 regular season, but he did falter quite a bit at the National Championships, finishing 228th overall. Even so, he is yet another respectable piece to watch when analyzing this lineup.

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Last year’s Lee team wasn’t expected to be super competitive, especially without a star low-stick like Christian Noble. However, they consistently produced great results and surprised a ton of D2 fans when they came out on top at the Royals XC Challenge last year, taking down teams such Queens (N.C.), Mount Olive and Charleston (W.V.).

Admittedly, the start of their 2020 cross country season wasn't great, losing to a very talented (and underappreciated) Alabama-Huntsville team in their season opener. However, in larger invitationals, that story may be different.

Even so, this year's Lee team is/was far better positioned for larger invitationals where their low-sticks (i.e. Noble) have a far greater impact on the team score. When you consider that they also bring back all but one runner from last year's lineup (who wasn't even a scorer), then this team was set to be much better than some people realize.