TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D2 XC Top 10 Teams (Men): #5 Adams State Grizzlies

Additional contributions by Garrett Zatlin

One of the winningest Division II programs of all time is set to return after their excellent 2nd place finish at last year's NCAA Championships. However, this year's Adams State team will be losing big names from their 2019 lineup, leaving understandable uncertainty surrounding the structure of this group in 2020.

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Adams State’s had their first big test of the 2019 cross country at Paul Short, a meet that features talented teams from all divisions.

Adams State would hold their own as Dane Blomquist paced the team by finishing 14th overall, followed by Kale Adams in 24th, Carson Bix in 33rd, Paddy Robb in 46th and Isaiah Rodarte in 78th to round out their scoring five. The end result was Adams State impressively placing 3rd as a team and emerging as the top D2 team in the field.

After a successful test at Paul Short, the Grizzlies were set to compete at the RMAC Championships. Coach Damon Martin decided to rest low-stick Kale Adams before the race, resulting in a 2nd place finish behind Colorado Mines.

Two weeks later, Kale Adams was back on the starting line with his teammates at the South Central Regional Championships. There, he would have an impressive 4th place showing while teammate Isaiah Rodarte finished in the top 10 with a 9th place result.

The Grizzlies were having a good season in 2019, but their performance at the national meet is what really stood out and surprised many of us.

Kale Adams paced the way in Sacramento, earning a runner-up finishing individually before Carson Bix shattered everyone’s expectations by placing 10th overall. Blomquist held his own and finished 35th overall to earn All-American honors. Rounding out the last two scoring spots was Isaiah Rodarte (54th) and Miguel Villar (64th), each one playing a huge part in securing Adams State’s 2nd place team finish and keeping their excessive scoring to a minimum.

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Last year's group was strong, although it seems fair to say that they relied upon the upfront success of Kale Adams and Dame Blomquist. Unfortunately, those two men are out of eligibility, leaving some rather significant scoring holes in this lineup.

However, despite those two top talents not returning, there still is a lot of exciting upside for this Adams State team and that upside starts with Carson Bix (TSR #10).

Bix was the surprising X-factor who contributed to Adams State's big runner-up finish at NCAA’s last fall. Throughout the season, Bix wasn’t really on anyone’s radar after only running one regular season race (Paul Short) and not competing at the RMAC Championships.

However, at the South Central Regional Championships, he came up big, placing 15th overall. That performance later set him up for a 10k personal record of 30:05 in Sacramento which resulted in a huge 10th place finish at NCAA’s.

Bix would go on to prove that his breakout cross country season wasn't a fluke by dropping a huge personal bests of 8:03 (3k) as well as a converted 4:02 (mile). In other words, this guy will continue to be the same major low-stick that we saw at last year's national meet.

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After Bix, there is still a great core of returners from last year’s team which includes Isaiah Rodarte, Miguel Villar, Justin Andrade and Paddy Robb. Each runner has great championship experience and they were relatively consistent throughout last fall.

Rodarte finished 11th at the RMAC Championships and 9th in the South Central region last fall. After a strong indoor track season where he ran a converted 8:09 (3k), Rodarte looks like he could be an All-American-caliber runner.

We then have Paddy Rob who is a quietly strong veteran who ran a converted mile time of 4:06 this past winter. He finished 16th at the RMAC Championships last fall -- a solid result which tells us that he can offer more on the national stage.

As we mentioned earlier, Villar was a pivotal piece for Adams State last fall as he brought great scoring stability to this lineup. Teammate Justin Andrade could be that same kind of runner this fall based on his performances at the RMAC and South Central meets.

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Admittedly, the loss of two proven All-Americans -- including someone who was the 4th place finisher at the national meet -- will be tough to overcome and that was the biggest reason why we have them ranked at TSR #5. However, knowing the incredible history behind this program, Coach Damon Martin will surely find someone to step up and contribute in a big way.

Maybe it's one of his returners from last year. Maybe it's an incoming freshman. Maybe it's a new transfer. Maybe it's someone who ran well during the 2020 indoor track season. We don't know who it will be, but based on what we saw from Carson Bix, there is surely one runner waiting in depths of this roster waiting to unleash their newfound fitness.

We may not know exactly what this Adams State lineup is going to look like whenever they next race, but we do know that they will pretty darn good. History alone tells us that.