TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D3 Top 20 XC Rankings: #5-1 (Men)

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.

5. Ethan Widlansky, Junior, Pomona-Pitzer

One of only two non-seniors in our top 10, Ethan Widlansky proved to be a clutch #1 scoring option for Pomona-Pitzer last fall when it mattered the most (as only a sophomore).

Leading the Sagehens in every meet, Widlansky found himself in the top 20 against highly respectable D1 and D2 competition at the Capital Cross Challenge before finishing 6th at the KollegeTown Invitational against the Midwest gauntlet of competition.

After adding on a pair of 2nd place performances at the SCIAC meet and the West Regional Championships, it's clear that Widlansky was having himself a great regular season. But how would that translate to NCAA's?

The answer? Terrifically.

Widlansky would find himself taking 7th place at the national meet and leading Pomona-Pitzer to their first ever national title -- a great way to cap off his sophomore campaign.

As he heads into his next season (whenever that happens), Widlansky will once again be tasked with securing as few points as possible for the Sagehens as they look to repeat their title victory from last fall.

We’ll see how he stacks up against the big dogs of D3 when the time allows for it, pandemic pending.

4. Jared Pangallozzi, Senior, Johns Hopkins

As the ace for one of the up-and-coming men’s programs of D3, Jared Pangallozzi of Johns Hopkins made a big statement with his 4th place finish at the National Championships last year.

Being one of three people to beat eventual national champion Patrick Watson last fall, Pangallozzi certainly had some good competition to face and he often held his own throughout the season. He was actually Johns Hopkins’ #2 runner for a few meets, but rose to the #1 slot at the Louisville Classic, finishing 6th overall in a very talented field (he would have been the top returner among those finishers in 2020).

He later took the victory at the Centennial Conference Championships and also finished 2nd to Patrick Watson (twice) at both at the Rowan Inter-Regional Battle and the Mideast Regional Championships, with the former meet finding Pangallozzi only two seconds behind Watson.

When it mattered the most, Pangallozzi stepped up his game and scored big for the Blue Jays. Johns Hopkins was meant to return their entire top five for this season, and it would have been interesting to see how well they would have fared, especially with someone as lethal as Pangallozzi as their star low-stick.

3. David Fassbender, Senior, UW-Whitewater

Hailing from the ever-so-strong WIAC, Fassbender has proven to be one of D3’s finest over the last year, cementing himself as a top talent.

Winning his first three meets of the year, Fassbender even took down fellow stud Matthew Wilkinson at the Blugold Invitational. As he traveled out east, Fassbender later finished 4th behind Aidan Ryan, Danny Aschale and the aforementioned Wilkinson which truly cemented his place near the top of the D3 ranks.

After adding a 4th place WIAC finish and a Midwest regional runner-up result to his 2019 resume, Fassbender closed out his season with an impressive 6th place finish at the National Championships, his second All-American result on the grass.

During the indoor track season, Fassbender was simply electric, running 8:15 (3k), 14:26 (5k) and even splitting 4:10 on a DMR mile leg early in the season. He was a guy who very well could have won a national title on the indoor oval had it not been for COVID-19.

Fassbender’s growth during the 2019-2020 year, on both the grass and the track, showed us that he was one of the prime title contenders in D3 this year.

2. Aidan Ryan, Senior, Williams

Serving as one of the faces of D3 running over the last year and a half, Aidan Ryan had a terrific cross country campaign last fall, going undefeated nearly the entire season.

Even though he didn’t face much competition at the start, Ryan found himself on a roll, winning his first four meets against local competition with ease. Then came the big test: the Connecticut College Invite. Faced against respected rivals such as David Fassbender, Danny Aschale and Matthew Wilkinson, this was sure to be a tough test.

But what did he do? Take the win and destroy the field by 20 seconds.

The Williams ace was clearly ready to bring it against anybody he toed the line against. He went on to win the NESCAC title as well as the New England regional title, bringing his undefeated season to an almost-perfect end.

That was, until the national meet.

His disappointing 10th place finish in Louisville was a little surprising, but for someone who rarely has bad days, it was just one sub-par race on an otherwise perfect resume.

Coming back from that just three weeks later to run 8:08 for 3000 meters was surely a race for redemption, landing Ryan at NCAA #3 all-time in the D3 record books. Running a 4:05 mile didn't hurt either...

The Williams veteran has certainly proven himself worthy of being D3’s finest with his resume, and we feel that his TSR #2 ranking is well deserved. It would have been a thrill to finally see the duel between him and Wilkinson this fall that the D3 community has been waiting for since the winter, but that battle will have to wait.

1. Matthew Wilkinson, Senior, Carleton

Deciding on our TSR #1 spot wasn’t an easy choice, but Matthew Wilkinson has proved himself to be worthy of taking top-honors in our preseason rankings.

In the early stages of last season, Wilkinson found himself doing battle with the likes of Fassbender, splitting their battles at the Blugold Invitational and Connecticut College Invitational. However, at the latter invitational, Aidan Ryan crushed Wilkinson by 20 seconds to take the victory.

But come the national meet, the result nearly was the opposite: Wilkinson finished 2nd in that race while Ryan was 10th overall with a 21 second margin splitting the two runners.

With a MIAC title, a Central region title and an NCAA runner-up finish to his name, Wilkinson was certainly looking like the one to beat this fall, pending any or all global pandemics to occur.

Wilkinson continued his terrific momentum into the 2020 indoor track season, running some scorching times such as 4:08 (mile), 8:11 (3k) and 14:22 (5k). With those results, he found himself in the top-five in each of those events on the D3 leaderboard. The Carleton star was one of the national title favorites in both the 3k and 5k last winter, but fate decided that there will be another time for that.

His aggressive, front-running tactics make him such an electric runner to watch, and there is no doubt in our mind that we’ll see him toeing the line again sometime soon.