USTFCCCA News & Notes
Weekend Recap: NCAA DI Cross Country Conference Championships
Welcome to Conference Championships Weekend.
We hope you enjoy your stay.
From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results
Ranked teams are vying for conference glory across the nation.
Let’s see which meets stood out the most over an epic few days.
ACC Cross Country Championships
Men’s 8k
With a nation-leading seven nationally-ranked teams taking the course at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park Course in Louisville, Ky., the competition was once again top notch and fierce. A marker of this depth, matched with its parity, is that the top eight finishing men represented eight of the league’s programs.
But, there was no stopping Wake Forest’s Rocky Hansen who led the 8k race wire-to-wire, winning by 21 seconds in a course record 22:18.6. By the 5k mark, he had put 10 seconds between himself and defending champion, Virginia’s Gary Martin, who would take runner-up honors decisively.
The first 25 finishers contained a duel between No. 4 Virginia and No. 6 Syracuse. As the splits went by, the teams flipped places, but Virginia was the ultimate winner, squeezing out the 61-65 victory in overall scoring. The ‘Hoos capture their first conference crown since 2008. Behind Hansen’s victory, No. 12 Wake Forest placed third (111), No. 16 Notre Dame was fourth (114), and No. 27 Virginia Tech was fifth (152).
Women’s 6k
The ACC has six nationally-ranked women’s teams. Even as the league continues to extend its depth, many of the themes stayed the same.
For the ninth time in 10 years, the No. 2 NC State Wolfpack won the team title, and for the seventh-straight year, the individual crown went their way as sophomore Angelina Napoleon claimed the conference crown, winning the 6k race in a course record 19:13.9.
NC State claimed a decisive victory, scoring just 28 points, in placing its top five in the final top-10. Defending champion Grace Hartman finished fourth, after leading for much of the race. Hannah Gapes, Bethany Michalak, and freshman Sadie Engelhardt placed fifth, eighth, and tenth, respectively. Notre Dame’s Mary Bonner Dalton was runner-up, just a second behind Napoleon, while Silvia Jelego was a close third.
Dalton led No. 5 Notre Dame to a runner-up showing and unranked North Carolina asserted itself as a top-notch team by taking third. No. 13 Stanford was fourth, No. 15 Virginia took fifth, and Duke was sixth.
Big Ten Cross Country Championships
Men’s 8k
Abdel Laadjel raced away to the individual title in leading No. 10 Oregon dominantly claiming its first team title. Laadjel, who competed last year for Providence, won by 6.9 seconds in 23:11.6, with his winning margin over Michigan State’s Riley Hough coming entirely in the last kilometer. The Spartans had a 2-3 finish with freshman Thomas Westphal leading the rest of the top-5, ahead of Oregon’s Evan Bishop and Washington’s Jamar Distel.
The Ducks were strong early, and their score at 1k – 27 points – wasn’t far from the final tally of 36 points. Aiden Smith was sixth while Benjamin Balazs (12th) and Connor Burns (13th) completed their scoring five. It was the first team title for UO coach Jerry Schumacher since he led Wisconsin in 2007.
No. 13 Michigan State, hosting the meet at Forest Akers East Golf Course, was runner-up with 68 points for their best finish since 2017, when they were also runner-up. No. 15 Wisconsin was third with 90 points ahead of No. 25 Michigan (100) and Washington (135).
Women’s 6k
Diana Cherotich of Oregon pulled away at the 4k point to win by 14.9 seconds in 19:31.3 in leading a 1-2-3 Duck finish with a time of 19:31.3. Juliet Cherubet and defending champ Silan Ayyildiz were followed by Penn State’s Florence Caron and yet another Duck, Dalia Frias, in rounding out the top-5.
Teamwise it was all Oregon, repeating as champions in record-scoring fashion – their 18-point score bettered the 22 of Wisconsin from 1985, when a star-studded Badger group won their first national title. Mia Barnett completed UO’s scoring in seventh, with Anika Thompson also in the top-10 in ninth.
Four ranked teams followed in an order different than their national ranking: No. 12 Penn State was runner-up with 78 points ahead of No. 8 Northwestern at 96. No. 20 Washington (103), No. 24 Michigan State (147) both finished ahead of No. 19 Wisconsin (164).
Big 12 Cross Country Championships
Men’s 8k
Here are two numbers: 20 and 3.
The first represents how many points No. 2 Oklahoma State scored to capture the conference title on Friday morning at Rim Rock Farm. The Cowboys went 1-2-4-6-7 for the lowest winning total since 2010 when they throttled the competition on their way to eventual back-to-back national titles.
The second? That’s how many consecutive individual titles Oklahoma State’s Brian Musau has now claimed at the meet. The native Machakos, Kenya, galloped to victory in 22:53.7 – 1.6 seconds ahead of teammate Adisu Guadia – becoming the first male athlete to win three consecutive titles since Colorado’s Jorge Torres from 2000 to 2002.
No. 1 Iowa State finished runner-up with 43 points, powered by top-five finishes inRobin Kwemoi Bera (third) and Joash Ruto (fifth). Rodgers Kiplimo also cracked the top ten for the Cyclones in tenth place.
No. 5 Colorado and No. 8 BYU rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Women’s 6k
Jane Hedengren continued her dominance, setting another course record while leading top-ranked BYU to its third consecutive Big 12 title. Hedengren completed the 6k course in 18:29.6, finishing 44.7 seconds ahead of West Virginia’s Joy Naukot. Hedengren’s teammate Riley Chamberlain took third behind Naukot and three other Cougars placed in the top 15.
No. 6 Iowa State was runner-up, paced by the freshmen trio of Mercyline Kirwa, Betty Kipkore, and Mercy Kibet, who placed fifth, sixth, and seventh, respectively. No. 7 West Virginia, No. 11 Oklahoma State, and No. 16 Colorado followed in rank order for third, fourth, and fifth.
SEC Cross Country Championships
Men’s 8k
A freshman stole the spotlight and a veteran program proved its depth on a crisp morning in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Florida’s Kelvin Cheruiyot broke away from the pack and never relinquished control, capturing the individual crown in 23:08.3. The rookie held off Auburn’s Nickson Chebii, who ran a season best of 23:11.5, and Arkansas junior Timothy Chesondin, who crossed in 23:14.8 for third.
Behind them, No. 8 Alabama pieced together a steady, balanced performance to secure the team title with 64 points. The Crimson Tide placed all five scorers inside the top 20 — led by Dismus Lokira in fifth and Dennis Kipruto in eighth — to edge Georgia (123), Oklahoma (126), and Arkansas (131).
Missouri completed the top five with 145 points, highlighted by senior Drew Rogers in seventh.
Women’s 6k
Individual dominance and pack running headlined in the women’s race, as Florida captured the team title and Alabama’s Doris Lemngole left no doubt about who rules the conference individually.
Lemngole, a junior for the Crimson Tide, surged to the lead early and never looked back, winning decisively in 19:32.4. Her performance set the tone for Alabama’s strong showing, as freshmen Caren Kiplagat and Cynthia Jemutai followed in third and fourth, respectively. Florida’s Judy Chepkoech placed second in 19:47.12 to pace the Gators’ front pack.
That pack proved too much for the field. No. 3 Florida placed four runners in the top ten – Chepkoech, Hilda Olemomoi (7th), Tia Wilson (8th), and Desma Chepkoech (10th) – on its way to a winning total of 45 points.
No. 25 Alabama finished runner-up with 117 points, while South Carolina (130) and LSU (159) followed close behind. No. 23 Missouri rounded out the top five with 172 points, led by freshman Monica Wanjiku in sixth.