2023 NJCAA Cross Country Championships Recap

Champions were crowned on Saturday at the 2023 NJCAA Cross Country Championships!

The meet was held at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Alabama.

From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results | USTFCCCA Scoreboard
Related: National Championships Central | Rankings & Polls Central

This was the first year since 2020 that all three NJCAA divisions had their meet at the same site.

Scroll below to find out what happened in the Yellowhammer State.

Men’s 8k Race

Trinidad State (Colo.) waged a close battle with Salt Lake (Utah), but the Trojans prevailed to win their first team title with 71 points. The Bruins – in just their second year as a program – were runner-up with 78 points, as defending champion No. 4 Colby (Kan.) CC (102), No. 1 New Mexico JC (137) and No. 5 Iowa Western CC (166) completed the top-5.

Trinidad State’s top-2 of Kidus Misgina and Hannibal Haile finished 3-5 among scorers to lead the Trojans, who won for the first time (their previous best was fourth in 2021). Salt Lake was led by overall winner JaQuavious Harris and was the first team to have five (and six) runners finish. Trinidad State’s scoring went 3-5-16-19-28 to the Bruins’ 1-14-18-22-23.

Harris won the individual contest in 23:18.0, 5.3 seconds ahead of Tomas Vega of New Mexico JC (23:23.3). Misgina (23:30.1), Kgadi Monyebodi of Colby (23:40.0) and Divan Du Plooy of South Plains (Texas) (23:42.9) rounded out the top-5.

Women’s 5k Race

In just Year 2 as a program, Salt Lake (Utah) CC was a clear winner with 47 points. The Bruins – ranked No. 1 all season – had two top-5 finishers in runner-up Emerald Kehr and fifth-placer Carli Nelson, then followed with scoring positions 9-11-20 to easily outdistance nearest-pursuer No. 2 New Mexico JC, which had 93 points. No. 3 Iowa Western CC (102), No. 5 (and two-time defending champion) Southern Idaho (134), and No. 4 Colby (Kan.) rounded out the top-5.

Salt Lake finished third last year in its debut, with their top-2 from last year – Grace Tipton and Molly Jensen – returning to finish ninth and 11^th.

Top individual honors went to Silvia Gradizzi of Iowa Western CC, who covered the course in 17:20.9 to win by 14.5 seconds over Kehr with Damaris Chewon of New Mexico a close third in 17:37.9. Alliyah Molina of Trinidad State (Colo.) (17:43.6) and the Bruins’ Nelson (17:44.5) completed the top-5.

Men’s 8k Race

It was a wild finish between No. 3 Lansing (Mich.) CC and No. 6 Heartland (Ill.) CC. Heartland had a two-point lead at the 6.2k split, leading Lansing 81-83. In that final 1.8k, however, the Stars inched ahead for the title, scoring 73 points to the Hawks’ 78. Lansing was led by a 2-6-7 barrage of scorers with individual runner-up Michael Dennis being joined by Liam Elder and Gabriel Phillips before any of Heartland’s runners reached the finish.

The Hawks finished with their own flurry led by Ben Huey and Matt Padilla going 13^th and 14^th as their entire top-5 finished before Lansing’s next runner. It was close, but the Lansing scorers went 2-5-6-22-38 compared to Heartland’s 11-12-15-19-21. No. 4 Daytona State (Fla.) was third with 102 points, just ahead of No. 1 Paradise Valley (Ariz.) CC’s 105. No. 7 Wallace State (Ala.) CC rounded out the top-5 with 114 points.

Nathan Pestka of Paradise Valley won the individual race in 24:49.1, bettering Dennis by 5.7 seconds. Kyler Dean of Muskegon (Mich.) CC was third in 24:58.2, followed by Jared Falchook of Daytona State (25:09.2) and Ryan Hatch of Coconino (Ariz.) CC (25:11.1).

Women’s 5k Race

It wasn’t predicted to be easy – four teams entered with first-place votes in the latest poll – but No. 1 Cowley (Kan.) clawed its way back to the title spot, winning for the first time since 2020. The Tigers tallied 66 points, just five ahead of No. 3 Heartland (Ill.) CC’s 71.

The Tigers led the scoring all of the split points, but the Hawks got closer each time. In the end, Cowley’s 5-12-14-16-19 was five points better than Heartland’s 1-6-15-20-29 as the Tigers’ having all five scorers in the top-20 trumped the Hawks’ two in the top-10. The standings continued to be tight with No. 2 Paradise Valley (Ariz.) taking third with 115 points ahead of No. 4 (and Region 1 rival) Mesa (Ariz.) CC’s 125. No. 8 Des Moines Area (Iowa) CC was fifth with 162 points.

Individually, there was little drama as Olivia Ippel of Lake Michigan stormed to a 12.2-second lead at 1.6k (5:32.2) before claiming the title by 8.5 seconds in 17:56.6 with Heartland’s Nora Brady earning runner-up honors. Carmella Baldwin of Mesa was third at 18:23.2, just ahead of Giovana Meade of Daytona State (Fla.) (18:24.9) as Keira Damron of Paradise Valley rounded out the top-5 in 18:27.0.

Men’s 8k Race

No. 1 Harper (Ill.) is back on the top step. The Hawks were convincing winners with 57 points, well ahead of Region 4 rival and defending champion College of DuPage (Ill.), which outperformed the national rankings that had them No. 4 entering the competition. The Chaps had 97 points and were followed by No. 2 Mineral Area (Mo.) (110), No. 3 Joliet (Ill.) JC (143) and Oxford (152) in completing the top-5.

It’s the first team title for Harper since 2018, when they won an eighth crown in a row. Albert Szewczyk led the way for the Hawks, taking fourth and was joined in the top-10 by Owen Whelan (seventh) and Marcos Jaimes (10^th).

Omar Mohamed of Mohawk Valley (N.Y.) CC earned the individual title with a time of 26:01.7, 8.7 seconds ahead of DuPage’s Kevin Diederich. Last year’s runner-up, Bradley Ahrens of Mineral Area, was third (26:15.1), followed by Szewczyk (26:29.7) and Andrew Ciarlette of Joliet (26:54.7).

Women’s 5k Race

Harper’s repeat title was especially sweet as it completed a sweep – in more ways than one. First, the No. 1 Hawks’ team title was joined by individual titlist Lilly Alberts. Secondly, the women joined the Hawk men as victors as Harper became the first program to take home both team titles since 2018 – that was achieved by Harper as well (along with 2016 and 2017).

The Hawks were dominant in scoring 54 points, with eighth-placer Kaili Decker joining Alberts in the top-10 as all five Hawk scorers finished in the top-17. No. 2 Jefferson (Mo.) – in its first year as a program – took runner-up honors with 71 points. No. 3 Mineral Area (Mo.) was third with 86 points, followed by unranked Herkimer County (N.Y.) CC (139) and No. 8 RCSJ Gloucester (N.J.) (146).

Alberts left no doubt individually. She bolted to an 8.8-second lead at 1.6k (5:54.3), then extended that gap to 39.4 seconds at 3.2k (11:49.5) before cruising to her winning margin of 48.2 seconds with her time of 18:15.8. Lauren Keene of Southwest Virginia CC was runner-up in 19:04.0, with Carmen Solis of DuPage (Ill.) (19:47.9), Amelia Bowman-McCoy of Herkimer County (19:58.0) and Madison Palmer of Lorain County (Ohio) CC (20:03.9) completing the top-5.