Meet Recap: 2025 NJCAA Cross Country Championships

Champions were crowned on Saturday at the 2025 NJCAA Cross Country Championships!

The meet was held at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where the runners were greeted by a blanket of snow at sunrise with additional accumulation throughout most of the day.

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This was the fifth time that the NJCAA Cross Country Championships were held in Fort Dodge after hosting the 2020, 2017, 2015 and 2013 editions. The 2020 meet, which included the rebirth of DII cross country, was the first to contest all three divisions at the same site since 2003, while the other three meets were DI only.

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

Men’s 8k Race

Home course magic worked wonders yet again for host Iowa Central CC. Ranked No. 3 coming in, the Tritons won their sixth title – and fourth as host – as their 58 points put them ahead of No. 2 Hutchinson (Kan.) CC, which tallied 69 points.

The team battle was incredible as the two had a back-and-forth duel throughout. In the later stages Iowa Central led by two points at 5k with Hutchinson ahead by three points at 6k. At 7k, the Blue Dragons increased their lead to nine points, but the Tritons stormed ahead in the final kilometer to flip the margin of nine points in their favor.

The two teams combined to sweep the top-4 places individually. Hutchinson’s Cornelius Kogo overtook teammate Titus Kiprotch just before the 7k point after Kiprotich had bolted to an early lead after 2k. Kogo’s winning time was 24:54.7, 8.0 seconds ahead of Kiprotich, and the Blue Dragons had a third runner in the top-10 – Dennis Cheruiyot in seventh, improving on his 10^th-place finish last year.

Meanwhile, Iowa Central’s duo of Chakib Cherkaoui Rhazouani and Saad Rifi Loutfi followed in third and fourth. They were followed by Said Rifi Loutfi (12^th), Soufyane Laaziz (17^th) and Taha Ouchene (22^nd) as all five scorers are freshmen. Hutchinson’s final two scorers were 27^th and 32^nd.

It took a tiebreaker to decide third place, with No. 5 Butler (Kan.) CC getting the nod over No. 10 Snow (Utah) as both scored 144 points. Snow’s only previous finish at the nationals was 11th last year. No. 6 Central Arizona rounded out the top-5 teams with 157 points.

Women’s 5k Race

Odessa (Texas) – a season-long unanimous No. 1 in the national coaches poll – cruised to their first-ever team title with 54 points. It was an easy victory – winning by 73 points in reaching the top-5 for the first time since 1991, when they had their previous program-best finish of fifth place.

Odessa was led by the freshman trio of Milicent Wafula, Roukia Mouici and Salma Saddoug, who placed third, fourth and sixth, respectively. They were joined by Kaydeen Johnson (15^th) and Lilian Mateo Torrez (26^th), both returners from last year’s eighth-place team.

No. 2 Iowa Western CC also reached a program high as runner-up with 127 points, and No. 5 Hutchinson (Kan.) CC followed suit with a program-best finish of third with 143 points, just ahead of No. 3 El Paso (Texas) CC’s 144 points. No. 7 College of Southern Idaho (174) was fifth, reaching the top-5 for the sixth year in a row.

The individual race was a surprising runaway win for Hutchinson’s Mildred Rono, whose time of 17:11.1 was for 42.2 seconds ahead of runner-up Juliana Sakat of Iowa Western. Sakat had been previously unbeaten by NJCAA competition, including a victory of 1.1 seconds over Rono a month ago at the Fort Hays State Tiger Open.

Men’s 8k Race

Lansing (Mich.) CC was dominant in winning a third team title in a row, totaling just 34 points to win by 78 points. Their winning total was the lowest score in this division since Rend Lake (Ill.) had 23 points in 2003, and their winning margin was the largest since at least 2001.

The Stars were had three runners in the top-5 – individual runner-up Nate Carmody, Lucas Hopkins in third and Evan Suydam in fifth. That trio was followed among scorers by Logan Zahn (11^th) and Quaid Schimetz (13^th). Hopkins and Zahn (as well as No. 7 runner Aiden Janes) were on last year’s winning team, and Suydam was a member of the 2023 championship team.

No. 3 Des Moines Area (Iowa) CC (110) was runner-up for the second year in a row, while No. 4 Paradise Valley (Ariz.) CC (127) followed in third. No. 6 Daytona State (Fla.) and No. 5 Mesa (Ariz.) CC completed the top-5 teams with 168 and 231 points, respectively.

Esteban Boisseau literally ran away with the individual title, running alone for most of the race as his time of 26:15.8 gave him the victory by 12.7 seconds over Carmody. Boisseau was 11^th last year.

Women’s 5k Race

The rivalry between No. 1 Mesa (Ariz.) CC and No. 2 Paradise Valley (Ariz.) CC had its final chapter of the year after one or the other – or both – rated No. 1 all season in the national coaches poll.

At the finish here, Paradise Valley looked in charge based on the teams’ top-3 runners, with the Pumas’ Arianna Mason leading a 1-3-4 showing (1-2-3 in team scoring).

The Thunderbirds, however, countered with not only three top-10 finishers of their own – Kinley Jackson (fifth), Olivia Baker (sixth) and Katie Munoz (ninth) – but also two more before PVCC’s next scorer with Lucy Melzer (16^th) and Marissa Hernandez (25^th).

The team placings ended the same as last year, with Mesa (54) ahead of Paradise Valley (87). No. 5 Daytona State (Fla.) finished in a program-high third as the tiebreaker had them ahead of No. 11 Cowley (Kan.), with both scoring 220 points. No. 4 Muskegon (Mich.) CC also reach a program-high in fifth place, just eight points behind that duo..

Individually, Mason was followed closest by a fast-closing Savannah Rivera of Roane State (Tenn.) CC, who finished 3.3 seconds behind Mason’s winning time of 18:43.9.

Men’s 8k Race

No. 1 Harper (Ill.) regained the national time it last won in 2023, scoring 55 points to gain revenge over last year’s champs, rival No. 2 College of DuPage (Ill.), which had 68 points. The Chaps won by six points over the Hawks last year. Yet another Region 4 team – Joliet (Ill.) JC – followed in third with 87 points.

Harper had two in the top-5 with Sebastian Welc and Ryan Golden finishing 4-5 – which became 3-4 in team scoring and followed by 13-15-20. The only other squads with more than one scorer in the top-10 were DuPage (three with at 6-8-10) and Joliet (2-9). No. 5 Thaddeus Stevens (Pa.) edged No. 4 Mineral Area (Mo.), 118-120, to complete the top-5 teams.

Individually, Paul Clark of Ononadaga (N.Y.) CC upset defending champion Nathan Ciarlette of Joliet, winning by 7.9 seconds in 26:50.0 after taking fifth last year. Clark broke away in the last 2k and was never caught. Evan Schiefer of Terra State (Ohio) CC was third ahead of the 4-5 finish of Harper’s Welc and Golden.

Women’s 5k Race

No. 3 College of DuPage (Ill.) won its first-ever team title, scoring 56 points to outduel defending champion No. 1 Mineral Area (Mo.), which had 69 points. No. 2 Joliet (Ill.) JC was third with 78 points, while No. 5 Kellogg (Mich.) CC and No. 6 Jefferson (Mo.) rounded out the top-5 teams with 108 and 127 points, respectively.

The Chaps were led by third-place finisher Jessica Balmer while leading closely at each checkpoint over the Cardinals, which had two runners in the top-10 – Clay Wittenburg (fifth) and Emily Marriott (seventh). DuPage had its top-5 all in the top-19 in scoring.

The individual title went to Laney Vecchio of RCSJ Gloucester (N.J.) in 20:20.5 after taking control after the 1k split from Tyliyah Diaz-Cruz of Thaddeus Stevens (Pa.). Diaz-Cruz was runner-up in 20:32.8 after finishing fifth last year.