It is not clear that Ahmed would have made the top 24 (although he was 25th). His first race was the Big Ten race and they took the pace out fast so that they would get an adequate time for the Regional meet. They would have had a hard time going too much faster in that race which was a Canadian Junior record (surpassed by his NCAA 4th/28:57). If the standard was the top 24 only (i.e., no regionals) a number of other runners would have tried to get better marks and even a faster time would not have gotten him into the top 24.
Thus, Ahmed's 4th place finish (and 0.04 from 3rd) might make him the poster child for not having the descending list 24 for NCAAs.