We said we were going to do it and we finally did. Here are our rankings as we head into the real part of the season. With Pre-Nats and Paul Short this weekend, the D3 Landscape will take shape. For now, we ranked the top 10 and as the season progresses we will get to the top 32.

For this we relied on Bijan Mazaheri's Website: LACCTIC - A great simulation and ranking tool to see where your team lines up. You can simulate any team with any team! Check it out.

Women's Top 10:

Men's Top 10

As mentioned in the show, this was a fun way to bring some excitement to the sport. If you have an issue with the rankings, run faster! However, we'd love to hear your feedback so let us know on social media or send us an email [email protected]

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

If you would like to help support the podcast, please consider making a donation on the D3 Glory Days Venmo. This helps offset some costs and hosting services.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

All artwork done for this by Maddie Bahr.

“My job is to protect what we already have and what I sold the guys in our locker room. If I go and recruit a kid that wants a lifestyle that's completely opposite of that, I'm doing those guys in the locker room and injustice because I'm bringing in a poison.”

Sean Carlson’s approach to coaching comes from the fear of being out worked and not being good. He had this mentality at North Central College running 120 mile weeks as a Sophomore which led to a team finish of 16th place. His perspective of what constitutes hard worked was shaped during his time at North Central when that 16th place team eventually won the National Title 2 years later. He has followed a similar trajectory leading the Notre Dame Cross Country team from a 14th place regional finish to a National Runner Up in 5 years.

Sean knew he wanted to be a Coach but having daily wisdom from Al Carius was a helpful catalyst to know he was heading in the right direction. Coach Carlson credits the rise of the Notre Dame distance team to a strong team culture, which he learned from Al Carius. Sean has worked tirelessly to get the team to be at a point where they are doing all the small things correctly, and are running at Notre Dame for the right reasons. He has even gone to recruited kids that would be a better fit for the team, rather than take the fastest kid available.

You can listen to Al Carius’ episode here: https://www.d3glorydays.com/podcast/episode-22-al-carius

We mentioned the documentary, ‘16 2 1’ in our conversation with Al. It’s a documentary made by @NCCMensXCTF alumnus, RJ McNichols. It highlights the rise and fall from 2005-2011. He’s offering our listeners 50% off if you follow this link: https://vimeo.com/r/2Tcn/WHJqaGw0WG

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

The man who gave D3 Glory Days life is back! Will Leer joins us for Episode 55 to fill us in on what he’s been up to and answers Listener questions! It was great to hear from Will on what his plans are as he winds down his competitive career. He reflects back on how D3 shaped his career, what he’s looking forward to working in the running industry, and how supporting his wife, Aisha Praught-Leer, during her Olympic cycle was a blast. Will offers advice to younger runners

Thank you to Under Armour All Out Mile for partnering with us! You can learn more and register for the CITIUS Mag team here: www.uaalloutmile.com/d3. You’ll have a chance to win Cash Prizes, Gear, and if the CITIUS Mag team has the most milers, we can donate money to charity!

Official training for the mile is from August 30th to September 30th. You then can run your mile from October 1st - October 11th. Need training advice? The link above has you covered!

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store.

Carmen went to Roanoke College with the intention to play soccer as that was the sport she was recruited for. She eventually joined the track team after being asked by the coach. As a naturally talented athlete, Carmen was able to pick up new events quickly. While she was a pure track runner, her fall soccer conditioning helped her get into fitness for the track season. Slowly but surely her coaches kept adding to her training and she found her speciality was in the 800.

Carmen quickly rose to the national level in the 800 with qualifying for the 800 her Sophomore year. Unfortunately, she finished the dreaded 9th, meaning she was the first one out of the final. This proved to be her motivation as she never missed another 800m final after that.

Her senior year, she wanted to break school records and eventually tried the Steeplechase. Her coach saw her naturally ability shine through but was put on the back burner as the focus was still the 800.

After college, Carmen pursued running as she wanted to keep the dream alive. She so quick success in both the 5k and Steeple. She brought her 5k PR down to 16:09 and her Steeple to 9:49.

Her love/hate relationship with running has taken out and brought her back into the sport many times. The latest is when the Pandemic hit, she decided to give running another shot. She ended up qualifying for the Trials this year. A similar story to college, she was the first one out of the final. As looks to the big meets coming up, Carmen has a great outlook on running and a nice shiny new PR of a 9:41 Steeple.

Thank you to Under Armour All Out Mile for partnering with us! You can learn more and register for the CITIUS Mag team here: www.uaalloutmile.com/d3. You’ll have a chance to win Cash Prizes, Gear, and if the CITIUS Mag team has the most milers, we can donate money to charity!

Official training for the mile is from August 30th to September 30th. You then can run your mile from October 1st - October 11th. Need training advice? The link above has you covered!

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store.

On July 8th, D3 XC went under a regional realignment from 8 regions to 10 regions. It came as a surprise to some and an “Oh yeah” to others as this was voted on in the 2019 Coaches Convention. Some regions stayed the same, while others were completely changed. The Wisconsin schools will face off against the Minnesota schools, colleges in New York and Massachusetts will be split amongst different regions. These changes were made to create equal field sizes as some regions would be north of 50 teams while others would barely get to 20.

More information on the realignment

The biggest change will be the 1 Automatic Qualifying spot. In years past, it’s been 2 with 16 At-Large Bids. Now, there will be 10 Auto Spots and 22 At-Large Bids, giving a lot of responsibility to the selection committee. Jordan Carpenter  comes back on to discuss these changes and what went on behind the scenes when creating this realignment. Cassie Funke-Harris, Head XC Coach at Amherst College, and Jeff Stiles, Head XC Coach at Wash U, share their thoughts on the realignment and how it may affect their programs.

Stay tuned for our rankings!

Thank you to Under Armour All Out Mile for partnering with us! You can learn more and register for the CITIUS Mag team here: www.uaalloutmile.com. You’ll have a chance to win Cash Prizes, Gear, and if the CITIUS Mag team has the most milers, we can donate money to charity!

Official training for the mile is from August 30th to September 30th. You then can run your mile from October 1st - October 11th. Need training advice? The link above has you covered!

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store.

"I wasn't supposed to be doing this (running) and now it's all I can do. It's what makes it fun for me to train for something and knowing it's worth it"

Thank you to Under Armour All Out Mile for partnering with us! You can learn more and register for the CITIUS Mag team here: www.uaalloutmile.com.

Jack Pinho was a 3 sport athlete in high school with an emphasis in Football and Basketball. Track was a secondary sport as baseball was too slow for him. As he went off to Springfield College for their PE/Education program, he had plans to only be a student. As time wore on, the feeling of not having competition took over and he ventured over to the Track Captains’ practices. He quickly became invested in the team and want to join them.

Jack had PBs of what most D3 Coaches would want coming out of high school: 2:00/4:30. Yet Jack was unsure on how he’d fair on the team. His hard work mentality showed him success early on as he consistently broke 2 in the 800.

An ultimatum was the force behind joining cross country led him to losing his nickname of ‘Fake Distance.’ Jack continued to improve while working hard. He lowered his 800m PB down to 1:53 and was on the cusp of making it to Nationals.

As a walk-on at the D3 Level, Jack didn’t expect to have the success that he had. He began focusing on the mile for his senior year and came away with a 4:07PB and a 4th place finish at the National Meet. From there, he knew he had to repeat that success but it would come down to the final last chance qualifier at Swarthmore. A 3:47 PB would get him qualified for the Outdoor National meet but his qualifying time placed him 6th in the nation.

Jack chalked it up to his training that led him to a senior year All-American performance. Despite a heatstroke in the prelim, Jack recovered enough to repeat his 4th place performance.

With 2 season of eligibility left, Jack continued at Springfield to continue to lower his mile PB. Unfortunately, that fell short but gave him the fire of keep competing after college.

Jack has lowered his mile PB to 4:03 and is continuing to hunt for that sub 4 attempt. For a kid who wasn’t supposed to continue running, he has a quintessential D3 Story.

Official training for the mile is from August 30th to September 30th. You then can run your mile from October 1st - October 11th. Need training advice? The link above has you covered!

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.

“We want to say we’re good runners without the asterisks of good for D3.”

D3 Glory Days is back for Season 3. And with a new partner! We’re partnering with Under Armour All Out Mile to bring you an epic mile race this fall.

Kicking off the new season we’re joined by Elias Lindgren and Aidan Ryan from Williams College. Aidan is a repeat guest but earned the right of passage to return to D3 Glory Days as he became the unofficial #2 5k of All Time in D3. His teammate Elias, is the unofficial #4 5k of All Time.

When Covid cancelled their XC season, they made the decision to take the full year off to focus on running. Aidan, as you recall, went to Boulder in the fall and convinced Elias to join him in the spring. While training with Noah’s team, Roots Running Project, they were able to run massive 5k PBs in the process

We go into what they learned in their time away from Williamstown, MA, what they’re looking forward to this fall, and how they won’t put as much emphasis of winning a national title like they did in 2019.

Thank you to Under Armour All Out Mile for partnering with us! You can learn more and register for the CITIUS Mag team here: www.uaalloutmile.com. You’ll have a chance to win Cash Prizes, Gear, and if the CITIUS Mag team has the most milers, we can donate money to charity!

Official training for the mile is from August 30th to September 30th. You then can run your mile from October 1st - October 11th. Need training advice? The link above has you covered!

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.