On Nov. 23, some of the top-ranked Division 1 men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the National Championship meet at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Madison, Wisconsin. The men raced a distance of 10 kilometers, while the women competed over six kilometers.

In both the men’s and women’s races, the field remained tightly packed for more than half the race while 255 individuals jostled for position. The most notable performance was Brigham Young University (BYU), which became the first team to sweep both the men’s and women’s team titles since Colorado in 2004.

On the men’s side, BYU won with a score of 124 points, with Iowa State (137), Arkansas (202), and Wisconsin (212), rounding out the top team positions. In the individual race, Harvard senior Graham Blanks won a back-to-back individual title with a time of 28:37.2, followed by the University of New Mexico sophomore Haptom Samuel who finished at 28:38.9 after losing his shoe just past the halfway mark.

On the women’s side, BYU finished as the top team with a score of 147 followed by West Virginia (164), Providence (183), and Northern Arizona (206). Fans have made the notion that the individual race was highly contested compared to recent years, due to the absence of Florida’s Parker Valby and North Carolina-State Katelyn Touhy (both now running professionally for Nike and Adidas respectively). Nevertheless, Alabama’s sophomore and Kenyan native Doris Lemngole took the top position with a time of 19:21.0 nearly 7 seconds ahead of runner-up Pamela Kosgei, a freshman from New Mexico with a time of 19:27.8. Other notable performances include first American finisher, junior Grace Hartman from NC-State with a time of 19:39.5 coming in 5th place.

The 2025 Division 1 Cross Country National Championships will take place on Nov. 22 at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Missouri.