USTFCCCA News & Notes
2025 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships Set For Saturday
It’s almost time.
The 2025 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships are set for Saturday, November 22, at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Missouri. This will be the first time that the Show-Me State has played host to the NCAA DI Championships.
From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: National Championships Central
Want to know what to expect when the meet gets underway in CoMo?
Check out these previews from writers over at DyeStat.com.
Men’s Preview
By David Woods for DyeStat
In another cross country autumn dominated by Kenyan runners, it’s plausible an American man could win the NCAA individual title for a fifth time in six years.
That champion could be Wake Forest junior Rocky Hansen.
He would have to beat a formidable field, led by New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel, an Eritrean who finished second in each of the past two years.
Kenyan contenders include Brian Masau and Denis Kipngetich, both of top-ranked Oklahoma State, Solomon Kipchoge of Washington State and Florida freshman Kelvin Cheruiyot.
The NCAA Cross County Championships will be Saturday on the Gans Creek Course at Columbia, Mo. Start times are 9:20 CT (10:20 ET) for the women’s 6,000 meters and 10:10 CT (11:10 ET) for the men’s 10,000 meters.
Races will be televised live on ESPNU.
No Kenyan has won the race since Iowa State’s Edwin Kurgat in 2019. BYU’s Conner Mantz won both titles in 2021 (March and November), and Harvard’s Graham Blanks did so in 2023 and 2024. The 2022 champion was Stanford’s British-born, American-raised Charles Hicks.
Hansen finished 100th last year, 78 seconds behind Blanks, after recovering from heat stroke. But he is coming off two emphatic victories, winning by 21 seconds in the ACC and nine seconds in the South Region.
“I’m just super confident with where I’m at fitness-wise,” Hansen said. “I’ve been extremely grateful for health this year. In past years, that has not been the case.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE PREVIEW
Women’s Preview
By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor
One year ago this week, Jane Hedengren was getting set for Nike Cross Regionals Southwest, and in some ways, it touched off an incredible year of athletic achievements for the BYU freshman.
Hedengren ran 15:50 for 5,000 meters that day at Toka Sticks Golf Course and it was topic of considerable conversation in the afternoon following the race: What could Hedengren have done at NCAA’s today in Madison?
What followed, obviously, was a course-record tour of Nike Cross Nationals and a string of record-breaking track performances that spanned the indoor and outdoor seasons.
Hedengren, who grew up in Provo, Utah and attended Timpview High, made what appears to have been a seamless transition to life, and running, at Brigham Young University.
In three meets so far, Hedengren has dominated fields at Pre-Nationals, the Big 12 Championships and the Mountain regional. Last Friday in Salt Lake City, she defeated New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei, the NCAA 5,000 and 10,000 champion, by 42 seconds.
Head-spinning stuff, yes, but that’s the qualify she has shown for an entire year.
On Saturday at Gans Creek Course in Columbia, Mo., Hedengren gets another opportunity to show what she can do.