Champions were crowned on Friday at the 2022 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships!

By USTFCCCA Communications, USTFCCCA November 19, 2022   

The meet was held at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results | USTFCCCA Scoreboard
Related: National Championships Central | Rankings & Polls Central

NC State started the day with successfully defending its women’s team title, while Northern Arizona closed – ever so closely – with its sixth men’s crown in seven years.

Editor’s Note: this will be updated throughout the day.

Men’s 10k Race

Talk about a nail-biter!

No. 2 Northern Arizona etched its name among the top programs in history, but this one was about as close it can get – the Lumberjacks needed a tiebreaker to overtake host No. 4 Oklahoma State as both teams finished with 83 points. No. 3 BYU was third with 132 points as No. 1 Stanford (195) and No. 12 Wake Forest (204) rounded out the top-5.

With a sixth team title in seven years, NAU joined UTEP (1975-81) as the only program with such a collection. But the Lumberjacks needed just about every second – or a portion thereof – to earn this one.

It was the first time in meet history that a tiebreaker was necessary to determine the national champion – Indiana and Penn State tied in in 1942 prior to tiebreaking rules being used. Current NCAA tiebreaker rules have both team’s five scoring runners matched up head-to-head, with the team with a better such finish earning the higher finish. NAU earned the nod, as its No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 runners were ahead of OSU’s, while the Cowboys had the better No. 3 and No. 5 runners.

But it was still close. How close? NAU’s No. 4 runner – Brodey Hasty – was 25^th, just 0.1 seconds behind 24^th place. Meanwhile OSU’s No. 1 and No. 3 runners – Alex Maier (fifth) and Fouad Messaoudi (12^th), respectively – earned their places by only 0.2 seconds. A change in position for any of those would have negated the need for a tiebreaker.

Charles Hicks of Stanford gave the Cardinal its first-ever individual champion, winning the 10k race in 28:43.6. Hicks outran NAU’s Nico Young (28:44.5) as the Lumberjacks finished 2-3 with Drew Bosley taking third in 28:55.9. Tennessee’s Dylan Jacobs was fourth in 28:58.0, just ahead of OSU’s Maier (28:58.2) in a close finish that had team-title impact.

Women’s 6k Race

Led by a 1-3 finish, No. 1 NC State defended its team crown with 114 points, holding off fast-closing No. 2 New Mexico (140) and early frontrunner No. 5 Alabama (166). Host No. 4 Oklahoma State was fourth – its best finish ever – with No. 13 North Carolina surprising for fifth place with 242 points as the Tar Heels also notched its best in meet history.

Alabama started fast early, leading at the first split at 1.11k 100-105 over NC State. A see-saw battle began as the Wolfpack took control at 2.05k (102-117) and led by six points at 2.83k (110-116). The margin narrowed to four points at the final checkpoint at 4.93k, with NC State leading 138-142. The final kilometer saw the Wolfpack – as well as No. 2 New Mexico – surge impressively for the final totals. The Lobos’ top runner (Amelia Mazza-Downie) was 22^nd but their tight-running group had an impressive 1-5 gap of just 11.1 seconds.

NC State was led by a Katelyn Tuohy, who won the 6k race in a course-record 19:27.7 over Florida’s Parker Valby. Valby took off by herself and led by as much as 11.9 seconds at the 4k split, but Tuohy began a strong pursuit that saw her pass Valby on a late uphill stretch before continuing on to victory. Also moving up throughout the race was the Wolfpack’s Kelsey Chmiel, who claimed third in 19:37.1 over Northern Arizon’a Elise Stearns (19:43.9) and Bailey Hertenstein of Colorado (19:45.1).

Samantha Bush (15^th), Nevada Mareno (24^th) and Brooke Rauber (90^th) completed NC State’s scoring five. Tuohy, Chmiel and Bush were also part of the Wolfpack’s winning team last year.