TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D3 XC Top 10 Teams (Men): #5-1

Written by Hannah Thorn, Brett Haffner and Kevin Fischer

Analysis involving eligibility is based off of data from TFRRS.

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5. MIT Engineers

The Engineers had a young team in 2019, with several freshmen regularly making an impact on the team score throughout the season.

In New England, they quietly had a very solid season, and while they were sometimes overshadowed by the dominance of Williams, they were considered by everybody to be the second best team in the region.

At the New England Championships, however, they slogged through the ice en route to a disappointing 3rd place place result, 10 points behind runner-up Colby. While the Mules should certainly be given credit for their regional showing, the lack of big meet experience among many of the MIT athletes was apparent.

The young Engineers bounced back the following week with a respectable 9th place finish in Louisville, led by freshman Sanjay Raman and sophomore Andrew Mah. An improvement upon that placement seems like it would have been very likely if the season had continued as expected.

It’s hard to fully emphasize how impressive their class of 2023 is. In addition to Raman, two other MIT freshmen (Matthew Kearney and Vedang Lad) competed at the National Championships last year. Sam Acquaviva and Cameron Kleiman also showed their potential for breakout seasons in the future.

In the next few years, it would not at all be surprising to see this team earning national podium spots and competing for titles. They aren't there quite yet, but we see them only improving on last year's results.

4. North Central Cardinals

We're going to start by evoking a terrific quote from Hannah that she said last year:

“Death, taxes, and Al Carius at the DIII National Meet.

You can always count on those three things in life.”

Even though North Central was "rebuilding" last year, they still managed to finish 2nd at the national meet, which only adds to their prowess as a flagship D3 program. Al Carius might have stepped into an assistant coaching role, but at the end of the day, North Central is still North Central -- they’re going to be very good and the impact of his coaching will still linger no matter what position he is in.

Gabriel Pommier stepped onto the D3 scene in a big way last year, showing that he was ready to step up behind the only returner from the previous year, Matt Osmulski. Pommier served as a very reliable second scorer when it mattered most, walking away from the 2019 cross country season with his first All-American honor, placing 33rd at the national meet.

He’s also quite talented on the track as well, running times of 4:15 in the mile, 8:35 in the 3k and 14:34 in the 5k. That's some quietly impressive range. If he can work down towards the top-10 at the national meet and secure his place as a true NCC low-stick, then that will help the Cardinals immensely.

Behind him, NCC has multiple guys who could end up being fringe All-Americans if they step up their fitness. The two guys who could very easily do that are Alex Makrounis and Zachary Chapman, both seniors. They finished 58th and 85th at the National Championships last year, but have the veteran experience to potentially place better than that whenever the national meet returns.

This program has been more than successful at bringing guys up to their varsity seven during their freshman and sophomore years and developing them into high-quality runners.

What’s special about the Cardinals is that you’ll never know who it’s going to be, but they always get seven fast men on the line come November. They’ll need more than just Pommier to truly have another podium team, but looking at the way they do it every year, the Cardinals will be just fine: you can never count out North Central.

3. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags

In the late stages of last year’s national meet, the battle between rivals Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona Pitzer was getting seriously heated. Through nearly the entire race, the Stags were right near the top in the team standings. With just 1500 meters to go, the Saghens of Pomona-Pitzer were leading the Stags by only 11 points.

When it was all said and done, CMS ended up placing 6th while Pomona Pitzer took home the national title. This likely would have been a motivating year for the Stags as they return six of their top seven from their 2019 lineup and would have been ready to fight for NCAA gold once more.

Throughout most of the 2019 regular season, Kyril van Schendel, Miles Christensen, Stevie Steinberg and Thomas D’Anieri were consistently together near the front of races for the Stags. However, when it came to Nationals, their pack was a little more spread out as D’Anieri, (who has since graduated) ran the race of his life to place 3rd overall. Kyril van Schendel was 42nd, Steinberg was 51st and Christensen was 90th.

Looking at how those three returners performed during the regular season, along with their track times, they all have great potential to be All-Americans whenever competition returns.

Christensen has run 8:29 (3k) and 14:24 (5k) and seemingly has the necessary firepower to be on the low-end of All-Americans at the next national meet. Meanwhile, Steinberg has secured personal bests 8:31 (3k) and 14:46 (5k) and was running right near Christensen throughout all of last season. When you throw in van Schendel (who was the best national meet finisher of this trio), you get a (potentially) very lethal top three.

We haven't even mentioned Henry Pick yet who, as just a freshman last year, finished 89th in Louisville, right ahead of Christensen and serving as a strong fifth scorer when the Stags needed him the most. If he can replicate his clutch postseason performances (which includes his conference and regional finishes), then the potential of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps goes through the roof.

2. Johns Hopkins Blue Jays

Last year, the Johns Hopkins men performed consistently at a high level throughout the season despite not winning any big meets.

They recorded consecutive 2nd place finishes at the Louisville Classic and the Rowan Interregional Rumble, eventually falling short of the win at the Mideast regional meet to Carnegie Mellon. However, their most impressive performance took place when it mattered the most. The Blue Jays finished 5th at the NCAA Championships last year, their highest finish in the history of their men's program.

In 2020, the Blue Jays would have had a perfect opportunity to rewrite their history once again. They returned all of their top five competitors from last year, including reliable low-stick Jared Pangallozzi who came up with a clutch 4th place performance in Louisville last November.

Among Pangallozzi’s supporting cast is Declan Hines (who just missed out on All-American honors in 2019, but is ranked at TSR #10 in our individual preseason rankings), Conner Delahanty (who finished 63rd at the 2019 national meet), Sean Laidlaw (who finished 67th at the 2019 national meet), and Patrick Dye (who finished 81st at the 2019 national meet).

However, beyond that group of scorers, the Blue Jays also have impressive depth with the likes of Tyler Amos, Matthew Kleiman and several others who could come out of the woodwork and compete for varsity spots.

Johns Hopkins has a very strong core coming back, and in a normal year, they would have likely ended up on the podium and in contention to win the national title.

1. Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

When the defending national champions return six out of their top seven, there aren’t many scenarios where that team wouldn’t be ranked at TSR #1. In the case of Pomona-Pitzer, they only lose their third scorer from last year, meaning they retain most of their firepower and almost all of their depth.

If Carleton’s Wilkinson and Mueller are the potential best duo in D3 this year, Pomona-Pitzer’s Ethan Widlansky and Dante Paszkeicz are easily right behind them, if not better.

Widlansky and Paszkeicz were only sophomores last year, but capitalized on their opportunities at the NCAA Championships, placing 7th and 16th, respectively. They were also the best two sophomores that day as well, finding themselves at the top of their class in D3.

With not many track opportunities for the west coast teams during the indoor track season, we haven’t seen the Sagehens race a whole lot since their title victory from last November. If they are able to continue their impressive growth from last fall, then they will be extremely difficult to beat whenever cross country competition returns.

Widlansky is the fourth best returner from last year's national field and is easily an individual national title contender. Considering Paszkeicz wasn’t that far behind, what’s to say that he can’t be a contender either? That duo will be lethal.

Behind those two, Ethan Ashby and Owen Keiser finished 68th and 71st at Nationals last year, essentially right next to each other. If they follow the same progression that we saw out of this team last year, we could see both of these men emerge as All-Americans (or at the very least, fringe All-Americans).

If the Saghens are looking at two low-stick title contenders, plus two low-end All-Americans...well, the rest of Division III is going to be have a hard time dealing with this group.

After their first national title last year, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Sagehens repeat their victory. Coach Jordan Carpenter really brought this team up last year and we are very excited to see what this young squad will accomplish in the future.