NCAA D1 Male XC runners who broke out in college

At the NCAA cross country championships this past fall, there were plenty of opportunities for athletes to make names for themselves in one of the deepest fields ever assembled in collegiate running. While some talents had proven themselves as top athletes in high school, many competitors were not ranked at the top of the nation, state, or even county upon graduation. Today, we take a look at some of those athletes who made their way from relative high school anonymity to All-American stardom.

A senior competing in his last collegiate cross country race, Todd finished in 25th at NCAA Division I championship meet, clocking a time of 29:17. With multiple redshirt seasons, Covid, and time off for a mission, Todd’s journey has been far from linear. Several years of development have compounded to help the Utah State senior get where he is now. With personal bests of 9:10 over 3200 meters and 4:21 over 1600, Todd was a solid high schooler. However, the NCAA standout was not the best in his class and never won a state title at the high school level.

Todd’s collegiate career started modestly with some decent performances, like a 15:09 5K at the 2020 Nike Invitational and an 8:39 3K at the Ed Jacoby Invite earlier that year. He only really started to come into his own in 2021 with his first sub-30 10K and sub-14 5K results coming in April of that year. To date, his biggest win on the track may have been his victory in the heats of the Payton Jordan Invitational in 2024. Todd failed to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2023 and placed 125th the year prior.

To finish 25th in 2024 and secure All-American honors is the perfect end to a long and winding journey to the top.

Similar to Camren Todd, Dylan Throop never won a high school state championship. He never ran at Nike Cross Nationals, never broke 9:10 in the 3200, and never broke 4:20 in the 1600 either. The early days of college were a slow burn for Throop. He didn’t break the 25-minute mark at 8000 meters and did not finish at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic regional championship during freshman year. Since then, his trajectory has taken off and the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championships are his crowning achievement (so far). A 29:19 27th place finish secured an All-American spot as one of two male UPenn athletes to qualify for the championship.

Finishing just seconds outside of an All-American spot, Derek Amicon managed to achieve successes that looked to be a longshot after his high school career. Amicon’s times were strong but were far from the top of the nation or even the state. Amicon never broke 1:57 in the 800, 4:20 in the 1600, 15:30 in the 5000 or 9:40 in the 3200. Even his opening season didn’t look that promising as he failed to break 25 minutes in the 8k and didn’t get the call to compete at the Ivy League championships. Since then, he’s earned a multitude of conference honors in the Ivy League for Cornell University. He secured Cornell’s only qualifying spot for the championship and finished third among all Ivy League performers at the NCAA championship. This concluded a near perfect season that also included a school record at 8000 meters.

A very strong high school competitor at middle distances, Will Coogan was not at the sharp end of the longer high school distances, like the 5000 and two-mile. Coogan’s personal best from high school was just 15:56 over 5K and his a two-mile best was 9:56. Since then, he has excelled at longer distances at the collegiate level. Posting a 13:44 personal best at 5000 meters during the 2023-24 indoor season, Coogan has gone on to become a critical piece of the North Carolina cross country team. This season, he ran a blazing 8000-meter time of 23:03 and scored for North Carolina in every meet he competed in. Finishing in 82nd place at the NCAA championships, Coogan set a personal best at 10,000 meters and helped lift North Carolina to a sixth place finish.

These athletes stand as proof that you don’t need to be an All-American in high school to become an All-American in college. Success at the collegiate level is not necessarily defined by high school success.

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