TSR's "If Everything Was Normal" D3 XC Top 10 Teams (Men): Honorable Mentions

Written by Hannah Thorn, Brett Haffner and Kevin Fischer

Analysis involving eligibility is based off of data from TFRRS.

Teams are listed in no particular order

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Colby Mules

Nobody could have predicted the success that the Colby Mules had during their 2019 cross country campaign (apart from perhaps Colby themselves). They entered the season ranked 9th in New England in the USTFCCCA coaches poll and stayed that way until October when they caught some attention with a 4th place finish at the highly competitive Connecticut College Invite.

They continued to prove any doubters wrong with strong efforts throughout the postseason, most notably their surprise 2nd place finish at the New England regional meet. They backed that up by finishing a solid 16th place overall at Nationals.

The Mules return their top six competitors from the 2019 national meet, including the All-American duo of Tyler Morris (who was only a freshman last year) and Eli Decker. There is certainly an argument that they belong in our Top 10, but it would have been difficult to leave out teams like Carleton and Wartburg, who also return a lot of great talent.

Besides, something tells me that this is a team that thrives on bulletin board material

Had the season gone on as anticipated, it would not have been surprising to see Colby improve upon their placement from the 2019 National Championships.

Emory Eagles

Emory had a tough day at the national meet last year which was a bit surprising considering that they had won the South regional title just the week before.

However, once you take a closer look at the results, their finish makes a lot more sense. Their typical #2 runner, Spencer Moore, was a DNF and that hurt them big time. After what I am sure was a disappointing day, the Eagles enter this fall in our "Just Missed" category as they would have returned their entire top seven.

Emory is led by All-American Jack Whetstone who had a breakout season last year on the grass as he lowered his 8k PR by a minute and a half over the course of the season, dropping his time to 24:40. His great season culminated at Nationals where he finished 14th overall, an improvement of 194 places from the year before.

Whetstone is supported by a strong group of upperclassmen. This includes seniors John Cox, Egan Kattenberg, Matt Dillon as well as juniors Spencer Moore, Brett Lucas and Jon Marcus. This team has a great deal of experience that they can lean on in the postseason.

They would have had an excellent chance of defending their South regional title this fall and hopefully would have taken that momentum into Nationals where they would have hoped to break into the Top 10.

SUNY Geneseo Knights

SUNY Geneseo had a solid front pack for the majority of the 2019 season. Led by the veteran trio of Sean McEnany, Matthew Sayre and Luke Holtzman, they finished an impressive 16th overall in the Paul Short Gold race, emerging as the top D3 program.

They then followed up that performance with a 3rd place finish at the highly competitive Rowan Interregional Rumble, then dominated their conference meet as well as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships.

The Knights capped off their 2019 campaign with a respectable 8th place finish at Nationals, but it is reasonable to think that they could have finished higher, especially if McEnany had a better individual performance.

After graduating three of their top seven from last year, Geneseo looked like a little bit of a question mark going into the 2020 season. They do return All-American Matthew Sayre, but their loss of scoring potency is tough to overlook.

Other faces will need to step up, including rising sophomore Ezra Ruggles. As a freshman he only finished 145th at Nationals, but his times on the oval (4:15 mile, 8:33 3k) suggest that he is ready to make a big improvement on that placement.

Nick Andrews, who did not compete at the national meet, but ran 8:40 (3k) and 14:52 (5k) during indoor track, is another sophomore who can move into a bigger role in the future. Despite losing some big names to graduation, Geneseo would still be a competitive team heading into a normal 2020 cross country season.

John Carroll Blue Streaks

The men from John Carroll were hoping to make a big leap this year. They were a little all over the place during the 2019 regular season, but got it together in time for the postseason. They placed 2nd at the Ohio Athletic Championships, 3rd at the Great Lakes regional meet and the 19th at the Nationals Championships.

The John Carroll men should have improved this year as they are led by the top freshmen from last year's national meet, Alex Phillip. The current sophomore performed very well throughout last fall and did not let the pressure of a championship season get to him as he placed 15th at the national meet. There is a high ceiling for Phillip and with another year of training under his belt, he should be ready to mix it up with the big dogs up front.

Another man looking to step up for the Blue Streaks is junior Ian Pierson. He had an "off day" at Nationals last fall, finishing 229th overall, which was almost two minutes slower than his regional time. However, if Pierson could have worked together with senior Jamie Dailey, then this John Carroll team would have been in a much better spot.

Pierson and Dailey will be joined by juniors Pat White and Jared Arnold, sophomore Sam Holt and senior Andrew Miner. Those men would have been working to close the hole that graduating seniors and top seven runners Matt Hallgart and Jack Kawalec left behind.

If they could do that, then the Blue Streaks would have been a formidable foe against almost anyone they faced.

Carnegie Mellon Tartans

Carnegie Mellon is going to be battling back after losing a big part of their top seven.

They had a strong 2019 season, winning the Rowan Interregional Border Battle, their UAA conference meet and the Mideast regional meet. The team was looking like a strong contender heading into the national meet, but unfortunately, the Tartans had a rough day, placing 18th overall. In that race, they finished behind Wash U., Johns Hopkins, SUNY Geneseo, and U. of Chicago -- all teams that they had beaten at least once prior to the national meet.

Unfortunately, Josh Kalapos, Evan Yukevich, Liam Walsh and Hunter Hartshorne have all run out of cross country eligibility. However, one of the strongest returners for the Tartans is senior Matthew Karee who, for most of the 2019 season, was part of a strong trio when running with Kalapos and Yukevich.

Karee is going to be looking for redemption after finishing 104th at last year's national meet. He was 6th at the UAA Championships and 5th at the Mideast regional meet before ending his 2019 season on a tough note.

Karee will be working with juniors Michael Obroin, Graham Eversdden, Naren Karur, sophomore Justin Hsu and senior Edward Goebel in an effort to rally this team back into the upper-ranks (whenever that may be).

In fact, Goebel was the best finisher for Carnegie Mellon at last year's national meet, finishing 49th. It would have taken a lot of improvement for the men of Carnegie Mellon to break into the Top 10 this year, but they probably have enough motivation to do just that.