TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D2 XC Top 10 Teams (Men): #6 Western Colorado Mountaineers

Death, taxes and the Western Colorado men being a top ranked cross country team.

All three of those things are guarantees in life.

The Mountaineers are set to return nearly everyone (with the exception of one backend runner) from last year's championship lineup which finished 7th at the NCAA Championships in Sacramento. With a dynamic duo and a far more experienced supporting cast, the Western Colorado men were set to be a very competitive group once again.

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I feel obligated to start our conversation with Taylor Stack and Charlie Sweeney, one of the best 1-2 punches in Division II. Last fall, that duo finished 5th and 12th at the Chile Pepper Festival, 2nd and 3rd at the RMAC Championships and then 3rd and 11th at the NCAA Championships.

Very few teams in the NCAA will be able to match the overwhelming scoring potency that the Western Colorado men were expected to have (yet again) this fall. Stack and Sweeney were a major reason why this group stayed competitive throughout last fall and we don't expect that to change.

As for the rest of this lineup, Evan Sutherland is back despite what TFRRS says in last year's national results. He was a quietly great #3 scorer for this team at certain times throughout last fall, although he didn't really find his groove until the postseason. The Western Colorado veteran finished 14th in the loaded South Central Regional Championships last year and later went on to post a respectable 82nd place finish at the national meet.

We think Sutherland will continue to be a key piece for this Western Colorado team moving forward. He ran converted times of 4:12 (mile) and 8:25 (3k) this past indoor track season which could favorably translate to the grass.

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The rest of this team is loaded with options, although they will all need to make improvements in order to compete with the other powerhouse RMAC programs.

Gage Mayo is one interesting name to watch as he ran a converted 1:51 (800) and 4:12 (mile) this past indoor track season. He quietly finished 107th at the NCAA Championships last fall, but his cross country resume is highlighted by his excellent 17th place finish at the South Regional Championships. Mayo's 29th place finish at the RMAC Championships wasn't half-bad either.

In addition to Mayo, we could see a handful of other men step up and contribute as potential scorers on this team. Those men include Max Sawyer (who finished 22nd at 2019 RMAC Championships), Albert Hesse (who ran a converted 8:31 (3k) this past indoor track season as a redshirt freshman) and Ryan Outler (who was on Western Colorado's championship squad as just a freshman last fall).

There are a handful of options at the backend of this lineup (some who we haven't even mentioned) and we think there is still plenty of upside in store for some of these athletes, especially for guys like Hesse and Outler who were underclassmen last year. In fact, back in 2018, Hesse actually finished 46th at the NCAA XC Championships as a just a true freshman.

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Overall, there is a lot to like about this team, although it's fair to say that their top two runners are responsible for a heavy amount of their scoring. If the Mountaineers were going to contend for a podium spot this fall (despite the national meet now being cancelled), they were going to have to bridge the gap between their top two and the rest of their team.

Even so, Hesse may be the guy who can provide this team with some unexpected scoring potency if he is able to replicate his success from two years ago.

It was hard to rank a team this talented outside of our top five, but they certainly have enough potential to prove us wrong.