NCAA Top 50 List: #50-41

By Garrett Zatlin

So in case you haven’t heard, this “Top 50” thing that Etrain has been doing is going pretty well for him… So why not try it for the NCAA? 

Just like Jarrett, my goal/plan is to create an updated “Top 50” list each week that correlates to the performances that happened in that past week. This way I’ll be to show what direction I think some guys are going, while at the same time, giving updates and reviews of races. So with that, here is my first annual NCAA XC Preseason Top 50 list…

50. Graham Crawford, Senior, NC State

For me, Crawford was a guy who deserved to make the list, but didn’t deserve anything higher than the last spot. He was on and off the list multiple times and sat on the verge of being left off at one point or another. With all of that said, his upside potential was what kept him here.

Crawford has been slowly progressing throughout his time with NC State. His finishes at ACC’s have gone from 14^th to 9^th to 5^th. He’s been making the proper adjustments each year and it has shown in the results. Unfortunately, his performances last year at the big time meets like Notre Dame and Pre-Nats weren’t exactly thrilling (77^th and 85^th respectively). However, after very underrated track seasons (7:55 3k indoor/3:40 1500 outdoor), I believe Crawford now has the strength to take on the next level of competition during the fall season.

Crawford has the ability to make an impact on the XC courses. He will have a strong training partner in George Parsons that will continue to push him in the right direction. If Graham can make it through regionals, watch out for the speedy miler to take advantage of a fast nationals course.

49. Jordy Williamsz, Senior, Villanova

The second-to-last spot on the list goes to the speedster, Williamsz. As I began making my list and putting names on paper, Jordy’s name was constantly being bounced around. His teammate, Robert Denault, and Big East rival, Darren Fahy put me in a tricky situation and eventually made me choose Jordy.

Jordy has a surprisingly solid XC resume considering he is a guy known for his success on the track. Williamsz started out his cross season last fall with a 5^th place finish at Paul Short where he beat out guys like Kevin Dooney (Yale), his teammates Sam McEntee and Robert Denault, and Lehigh stud Ryan Mahalsky. After what was arguably his “worst” performance at the Princeton Invite (11^th place) Jordy stormed back to grab 3^rd at Big East’s where he would beat out the entire Providence and Georgetown squads. His regional performance wasn’t quite as thrilling when he placed 13^th in a not-so-deep field. Jordy’s nationals performance ended with him crossing the line with his teammates to a respectable 58^th place finish. Overall, it was a solid season for Jordy, but it could’ve been better in certain aspects.

This year, NCAA’s will be switched to the very flat course of Tom Sawyer park in Louisville, Kentucky. The course switch favors the Aussie quite a bit with a terrain flat enough to put his blistering mile speed to work. We may not see Jordy on this list as the season begins, but he could very well be here (and better than 49^th) by the end of NCAA’s.

48. Wes Gallagher, Senior, Mississippi

Gallagher takes the honor as one of only two guys from the South region to make the list. Originally, I had his training partner Robert Domanic on the list instead of Wes. But besides Pre-Nats, Gallagher beat Domanic in every race they were in. Gallagher is the top returner from the South region, but the lack of talent there only places him at 48^th for now.

From what I could find, it seems that Gallagher actually started his career at Northeastern before transferring to Ole Miss (last year was his first year as a Rebel). At Northeastern, Gallagher had mild success by winning the CAA championships and grabbing third place at the New England championships behind D2 stud, Mike Biwott (American Intl.) and rival Rich Peters (Boston). Gallagher also made an appearance at NCAA’s that season. After his sophomore year, Gallagher transferred to Mississippi where he would continue his running career and lead a Rebels team desperately looking for a spark. Gallagher would team up with Domanic to give Ole Miss that spark with 3^rd place performances at SEC’s and regionals (South). Gallagher would end up finishing 80^th at NCAA’s that year.

There’s a lot of upside with Gallagher this season. He comes back to the South region and SEC meets as the top returner from a year ago. He will also have a couple of new teammates that have transferred to push him on his way to success.

47. Jake Leingang, Junior, Oregon

Leingang seems to be the forgotten Duck in Oregon. He has sat back and let his teammates take the spotlight (and titles) while Jake kept his head down and continued to work. Now, Jenkins, Geoghegan, Winn, Alexander, Watson and Pepiot are all gone…which are massive shoes to fill. While he may not be able to fill all of those spots, Leingang has been waiting in the shadows for two years and should be ready to show that he is more than just a replacement.

Leingang’s first year at Oregon was a somewhat quiet, but decent one. His best showing was his first collegiate race where he placed second (behind only Cheserek) at Beantown. He would eventually go on to place 34^th at Pre-Nats, 16^th at PAC 12’s, and 28^th at regionals. However, his opening season as a Duck would end with a disappointing 149^th place at nationals. After redshirting his freshman track seasons, Leingang would enter his sophomore cross season with high expectations. Alas, it was not as successful as anyone had hoped with unimpressive finishes at Beantown (40^th), PAC 12’s (24^th), and regionals (57^th). When it seemed like Leingang was going backwards, he hit the reverse button and began making excellent improvements during his track season running 3:44 (1500), 7:53 (3k), 13:46 (5k) and qualifying for NCAA’s during outdoor.

While his XC seasons haven’t been stunning, Leingang seemed to have his breakout season last spring. He ran exceptionally well and is now stepping into a role where he must be a scorer. The pressure is on for him to perform and with him being at Oregon, I’m convinced Coach Johnson will train him to become a low-stick talent.

46. Grant Fisher, Freshman, Stanford

First off, let me just say congrats to the one commenter who nearly guessed the exact placement of where I was putting Fisher. In my “At A Glance” article, I mention that one freshman made the list. I challenged the readers to guess who the freshman was and where I would place him. The first comment read “Frosh is definitely Fisher, probably no higher than 45th though”. One off…not bad.

There’s a lot of arguments to this one. Some will say that he’s simply a freshman that hasn’t proven he can contend on the collegiate scene yet, and I can definitely understand that. What I don’t think people realize, is how monumental his two national titles are. Why’s that? That’s because if you look at the names of other two-time national champions, Fisher is in pretty good company…

2-Time National High School XC Champions

-Edward Cheserek

-Dathan Ritzenhein

-Abdirizak Mohamud

-Lukas Verzbicas

-Grant Fisher

Abdirizak seems to be the only one irrelevant after high school. Dathan is now one of top American distance runners and Ches has earned the nickname “King Ches”. Verzbicas was set to run at Oregon, but dropped out in pursuit of his triathlon career. All three of those guys are near or at the top of their respective events.

I can’t see a reason why Grant shouldn’t be on the list. He has a sub-4 mile and two national titles. I see Fisher becoming one of the most dominant runners in the NCAA this year and going as low as 15th on the list at the end of this season. For now though, he’ll have to sit at 46^th until he proves himself. We’ll just have to wait and see.

45. Ryan Walling, Senior (5th year), Mississippi*

*Edit: After further research, Walling be transferring to Mississippi for his fifth and final year of racing.

Ryan Walling is more of a gut instinct for me. I had the guy bouncing around until I finally felt that this was the right spot for him. Some may argue that he doesn’t have the numbers to make the list, but his performance in the big meets is what caught my eye.

Walling has been pretty underrated in my mind. The guy has now made the trip to NCAA’s twice and has had some pretty nice performances along the way. Walling went from being 60^th in his region during his freshman year, to 8^th and 9^th in his sophomore and junior year (respectively). His 6^th and 10^th place finishes at ACC’s also improve his resume. His 48^th place performance at nationals this past year is up to par to where his season indicated he should be…something most guys at the top level can’t accomplish.

The guy has been consistent throughout the past two years and I don’t see that stopping this season. With strong, new teammates at Ole Miss, look for Walling to stick around the 40’s or lower as we he goes into the post season.

44. Chartt Miller, Junior, Iona

Miller is a guy who I nearly missed. I began looking through results for other athletes until I noticed that his name kept coming up. After a deeper look into his profile, I knew Chartt deserved to be on the list.

I put Miller at 44 mainly for the fact that he didn’t have a race where he fell apart last season. Miller only ran four times last season, but all at big meets where he showed up. His Paul Short performance was excellent where he grabbed third and was the top D1 runner (finished behind Biwott (D2) and Dinzeo (D3)). It was there that Miller would beat out the entire Villanova squad (that was missing Tiernan) as well as some excellent individuals. Miller would follow that up with a solid performance at Wisconsin placing 22^nd and beating out guys like Erb and Lennon of Syracuse, All-American, Benjamin Connor (Providence), Ryan Walling (UNC), as well as other notable names. After an easy sweep of the MAAC championships, Miller found his first struggle of the season with a 76^th place finish at NCAA’s. While it wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t what he was capable of either.

Miller is going to need a “staple” race this season if he is to move down the list. It will be difficult for him to replicate his Paul Short performance. However, a loaded field at Wisconsin will give him a shot to prove his worth. It also doesn’t hurt if he improves on NCAA finish from last year.

43. Sam Wharton, Junior, Stanford

For me, Sam Wharton will always be that guy who won NXN in the worst course conditions in cross-country history. I believe his time was in the low 17’s…the slowest ever for a champion. Some people argued that there should be an asterisk next to that race. But in my mind, there isn’t a race out there that could’ve shown the strength and toughness Sam Wharton has.

Now before you attack me for putting a guy who placed 123^rd at Wisconsin, let me explain my thought process here. Wharton walked away last season having seen it all. The guy was constantly facing the toughest competition week in and week out. He went up against the likes of Colorado, Oreogn, UCLA, and Washinton multiple times. This was all part of his first official cross country season when you consider that he was redshirted his freshman year. While the first half of his season was rough, he began to find his groove after Wisconsin with a 26^th place finish at PAC 12’s, 40^th place finish at regionals (West), and a huge 39^th place (All-American) at NCAA’s. Wharton held tough against some of the deepest competition in the NCAA and in the end that experience paid off.

When it matters, Wharton is clutch. He now has a big year of experience under his belt and is entering the prime of his junior year. With a strong class behind him and high team hopes, Wharton could become the biggest “X-factor” in the NCAA.

42. Colin Bennie, Sophomore, Syracuse

I’m a big fan of Syracuse this year and I won’t hide it. Some will probably argue that Bennie hasn’t proven himself on the grass enough to deserve a spot on the list. While that may be true, the potential he has as well as being another year older gets him a spot.

As a freshman, Colin Bennie had a great XC season finishing 13^th at ACC’s and 15^th at regionals (Northeast). His 3^rd place at Harry Groves also cemented himself as a guy-to-watch by beating out runners like teammate Dan Lennon, Glen Burkhardt (Penn St.), Darren Fahy (Georgetown) and other big names. Unfortunately, his NCAA performance can only be described as underwhelming (95^th). Despite his poor championship race, Bennie seemed to find his stride once the spring season rolled around. Bennie ended up with a 13:53 5k and made an appearance at NCAA’s finishing 14^th (5k).

It appears that Bennie has gotten over the learning hump and is heading in the right direction. Talented teammates and hopes of a top team finish will push him to become one of the top runner in the nation by seasons end.

41. Matthew Schwartzer, Senior, Indiana

Matthew Schwartzer is probably a guy not many have heard of before. The Indiana Hoosier has had a very quiet, but solid cross-country career. What got him on this list however, is his excellent progression.

Shwartzer has three big years of experience at nationals going from 200^th place his freshman year, to 81^st his sophomore year, to 43^rd his junior year (just missing out on All-American). This means that his placement improved by 59.5% freshman to sophomore year, and 46.9% sophomore to junior year. At regionals (Great Lakes), Schwartzer has gone from 40^th to 17^th to 12^th. Big 10’s? 25^th to 10^th to 10^th. That should speak for itself...

This guy has shown no points of slowing down. He is arguably the most improved runner in the NCAA and shouldn’t be kept out of the BIG 10 title conversation. The only thing holding me back from placing Matt lower on the list, is his failure to grab a top ten finish in any big race. If he can do that, he will surely improve on this list.

So what do you think so far? Feel free to discuss and get ready for more content tomorrow!

Run on,

Garrett