After last year I think having another thread is a good idea, and I’m starting this one a bit earlier. There were a good amount of posts last year and it provided a lot of information about teams that I don't think many of us would have known without the thread.
Indiana Wesleyan has to be huge favorite on the men’s side for the team title. They’re returning everyone outside of Steven Ott from a team that placed fourth last year, as well as bringing in Colten Covington and Luke Pohl. Any of their projected top seven can grab an All-American medal on the right day, and Pohl, Fullerton, Covington, and Wakeman all can potentially finish in the top 15. However, even with all of the talent I just mentioned above, Braden Sweet is the only IWU athlete who was an All-American outdoor and even that was only in the 1500.
The other teams I can see being in the mix are Milligan, Eastern Oregon, College of Idaho, St. Mary, and St. Francis.
Milligan has the best top three in the country, but lacks the depth they had in 2021 when they won in the end. Unless they have some recruits that I don’t know about, they’re a fair bit behind Indiana Wesleyan.
Eastern Oregon should be one of the best returning teams, but they’ve seemed to fall apart at nationals the last couple years. Ash and Mendoza should both be All-Americans this year but didn’t come close last year.
College of Idaho is an incredibly deep team that always seems to run well when it matters, but they did not have a stellar track season and lack a low stick. Their only runner who had any top mark in the longer events was Hayden Bostrom, but he fell short to countless Milligan, Indiana Wesleyan, and St. Francis athletes at nationals.
St. Francis looks to be the biggest challenger to Indiana Wesleyan, returning 5 of their top 7 (if Freese is returning?) on a team that tied for fourth place last season, losing the tiebreaker to Indiana Wesleyan and ultimately losing out on the trophy. Timothy Wade seems to be very improved. However they also lack a low stick and lose the head coach they’ve had for the last 10 years. Reif has been an All-American in cross country the last two seasons, but outside of him this team does not have any top returners from the team that took 4th in 2021.
St. Mary has Emad Bashir-Moahmmed leading the pack who just finished off a track season with a 10k runner up finish at nationals and a 5k national championship. He’ll have Brig Merrit, Liam Neidig, and Ryan Heline all close behind him to give St. Mary an elite pack. St. Mary will need a fifth runner to step up big time to compete with the other top teams in the nation.
I’d expect the individual race to be a close one between Jason Bowers, Aaron Jones, Luke Pohl, and Emad Bashir-Mohammed. At this point I’d say either Bowers or Bashir-Mohammed are coming in as the favorites. I wouldn’t count out any of Aiden Kammler, Nelson Kemboi, Bryn Woodall, Will Stockley, or Brint Laubach from winning either. I’m assuming none of Nchogu, Chelangam, or Abebe are returning after missing their entire track seasons, but I could very well be wrong.
I’m less sure about what’s going on with the women’s side, especially with the change up from 5k to 6k. I’d feel relatively safe in assuming Addy Wiley will still be the favorite to win nationals, however she was upset last year. Alyssa Bearszi will be her main competitor this upcoming season. I think the top women’s team should be a close one between Taylor, Milligan, and College of Idaho. I’ll give the edge to College of Idaho as of right now.
As per usual with the lack of coverage in NAIA, there’s a lot of unknown, at least for me, with who may be joining and leaving what top teams, as well as the top overall recruits in the NAIA. Some of the biggest moves I’m aware of are that Luke Pohl and Colten Covington are transferring to Indiana Wesleyan; almost all of Grand View’s top athletes from last year have decided to transfer elsewhere, and Bryan Hernandez is transferring from Grace to Lipscomb to compete at the D1 level.
Does anyone have any information on what is going on with Oklahoma City’s top two from last year, neither competed in track after they came back from winter break? Is Jordan Freese returning to St. Francis? He also did not compete much in track and from what I’ve heard, he was upset with much of the situation there. Nearly all of the top athletes from Southern Oregon’s cross country team did not compete in track, is there a situation going on there that I’m not aware of? I saw that Reece Gibson recently ran a marathon with his new coach at Huntington after not racing much in outdoor (only race was a 16:30 5k), what happened to him and does he, or anyone else from Huntington for that matter, intend on returning to that mess? Is Vincent Nchogu returning to Texas A&M Commerce?