USTFCCCA News & Notes
Weekend Recap: October 3-5, 2025
How is it already October!?
Seems like just yesterday it was September.
From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results
Regardless, the cross country season is in full stride.
Here are some of the notable meets from the weekend.
Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational
Men’s 8k Championship
No. 7 Wisconsin showed up and showed out on Friday.
The Badgers debuted most of their top squad and cruised to a comfortable 36-point win in the Men’s 8k Championship. Wisconsin was one of just two teams to place two runners in the top 15 (Louisville being the other) – and the only team with four in the top 20. Christian de Vaal and Micah Wilson both earned top-ten finishes for the Badgers.
Elsingi Kipruto of Louisville won the individual title in 23:14.4 and was one of three Cardinals in the top ten. Depth proved to be the death knell for Louisville, as its fourth and fifth runners came through in 46th and 67th place, respectively. The Cardinals eventually finished fourth in the team standings behind host Loyola (Ill.) and Minnesota.
Women’s 6k Championship
No. 2 NC State wouldn’t be denied on Friday – not with Hannah Gapes leading the way.
Gapes claimed the individual title in the Women’s 6k Championship with a time of 19:19.7, finishing 15.2 seconds ahead of runner-up Bethany Michalak of Florida State. The Wolfpack dominated the top ten, placing three additional runners in that range to secure a 34–59 win over upset-minded No. 26 Northwestern.
The Wildcats gave NC State all it could handle on the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course. Northwestern also placed multiple runners in the top ten – three of them, to be exact. Ava Earl and Holly Smith paced the team with fourth- and fifth-place finishes in 19:51.1 and 19:55.3, respectively.
RV Gonzaga finished third with 123 points, followed by No. 11 Washington with 141 and No. 30 Boston College with 165.
Paul Short Run
Men’s College Gold 8k
No. 28 Georgetown proved strongest team in the field, while Harvard’s Sam Burgess claimed individual honors. The Hoyas entered the meet as the top-ranked NCAA DI team in the race and lived up to the billing, finishing with 102 points – 21 fewer than runner-up Utah State.
Birhanu Harriman gave the Hoyas two points toward their team score with an individual runner-up finish in 23:19.2, placing between two Harvard runners: Burgess in first at 23:18.6 and Tam Gavenas in third at 23:20.1. The 29th-ranked Crimson actually put three runners in the top ten, yet finished fourth behind two Aggies – Utah State and Texas A&M.
NCAA DII No. 1 Wingate was fifth with 181 points.
Women’s College Gold 6k
Mid-Atlantic rivals No. 20 Georgetown, No. 15 Penn State, and Villanova put on a racing masterclass on Friday in the Women’s College Gold 6k.
At two miles, the three teams were separated by just eight points with the unranked Wildcats on top at 122. By the finish, Villanova held on for the team title, scoring 110 points to the Nittany Lions’ 115. The Hoyas, headlined by Melissa Riggins’ individual victory, settled for a distant third with 143.
Villanova front-loaded its win with three runners in the top ten, while Penn State just had one in the top 15. That proved to be the difference, as the Wildcats went 3-6-9-31-61 compared to the Nittany Lions at 15-17-18-28-37.
Men’s College White 8k
No. 13 NYU ran away with the team title.
Will Shuflit of Colorado College did the same individually.
The Violets squeezed the life out of a strong field, placing four runners in the top 11 en route to a 47-point victory over No. 25 Amherst, 54-101. NYU and Amherst were two of ten nationally ranked NCAA DIII programs in the mix. No. 15 Carnegie Mellon was a distant third with 183 points, followed by No. 16 Washington and Lee with 238 points, and No. 22 Lynchburg with 239.
Shuflit and Nathan Tassey of Roger Williams broke away from the pack between 5k and 6.3k, and from that moment on it was a two-man race. The Colorado College junior pulled away down the stretch to finish nearly 14 seconds faster than Tassey, 24:04.9 to 24:18.2.
Women’s College White 6k
No. 5 NYU put its foot down and left a strong field in the dust.
So did eventual individual champion Jules Bleskoski of RPI.
The Violets made their move between the first and second mile, flipping a 50-point deficit into a 67-point advantage up front. From there, the gap only widened, as NYU cruised to a 102-point victory over No. 7 Carnegie Mellon, 55-157. Ashlyn Pallota (fourth) and Josephine Dziedzic (fifth) both finished in the top five for the Violets.
No. 12 SUNY Geneseo took third with 197 points, followed by No. 25 Middlebury in fourth with 206 and No. 10 Washington and Lee in fifth with 228.
Bleskoski was one of three runners within 0.6 seconds of the lead at two miles. The RPI junior eventually dropped both Audrey Maclean of Middlebury and Hannah Stephenson of Amherst, sealing a 6.9-second win in 20:20.8.
Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational
Women’s Blue 5k
No. 10 Notre Dame opened the meet with a commanding victory in the Women’s Blue 5k. The Fighting Irish, led by an individual title by Mary Bonner Dalton, placed all five scorers in the top ten to defeat RV South Carolina by 18 points, 29-47.
Elsewhere in the team standings, NCAA DII No. 3 Grand Valley State, paced once again by Lauren Kiley, took fourth place ahead of numerous NCAA DI programs. (Speaking of non-NCAA DI programs, NCAA DIII No. 4 UChicago and NCAA DIII No. 16 UW-La Crosse both competed in the Gold 5k. The Eagles were second, compared to fourth for the Maroons.)
Men’s Blue 8k
No. 9 Notre Dame completed the sweep in the Men’s Blue 8k. Running as a pack throughout the race, the Fighting Irish scored 40 points with finishes of 2-5-7-8-18 – 31 fewer points than runner-up RV Boise State and 85 fewer than third-place RV Wyoming. Ethan Coleman spearheaded the effort for Notre Dame, finishing second overall behind individual champion Nickson Kosgei of Cincinnati.
NCAA DII No. 4 Grand Valley State and NCAA DIII No. 1 UW-La Crosse were fifth and sixth, respectively. Four of the seven runners who finished between 17th and 23rd place were either Eagles or Lakers. And if the meet were scored as a dual between the two teams, GVSU would edge out UW-La Crosse with a narrow 27-28 victory.
Blugold Invitational
UW-Platteville’s men and UW-La Crosse’s women won their respective team titles on Friday at the Blugold Invitational. The 24th-ranked Pioneers topped five other nationally ranked men’s programs, namely runner-up No. 17 UW-Stevens Point. The 16th-ranked Eagles soared over three nationally ranked women’s programs, including runner-up No. 27 UW-Eau Claire.
Mohammed Bati of Augsburg and Claire Vukovics of Carleton captured top individual honors. Bati won the men’s race by nearly ten seconds in 24:39.6, while Vukovics crossed the finish line in 21:45.7, more than nine seconds ahead of the nearest competitor.