2024 NCAA Cross Country Championships | Takeaways, Highlights & Biggest Surprises

By Owen Corbett

On a crisp Saturday morning in Madison, Wisconsin, the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championships delivered big-time, throwing expectations out the window and putting on a great show for all involved. Hundreds of runners celebrated the end of a long season with strong performances, but only a select few went home with a trophy.

From a sweep of the team titles, to a repeat individual champion, and everything in between, here are the biggest takeaways from all of the action that went down this weekend.

BYU’s Perfect Day

BYU came into the day with the potential to do something that hasn’t been done in decades: sweep both races. With the Cougars’ men’s and women’s teams ranked No. 1 in the country, they didn’t just meet expectations; they did so in historic fashion: becoming just the fourth program ever – and the first in 20 years – to win both team titles in the same year. BYU joins Colorado (2004), Stanford (1996, 2003), and Wisconsin (1985) in accomplishing the rare feat.

How did they do it? On the women’s side, BYU used their signature depth to win the program’s sixth national title, passing Stanford to become the second most winning program in NCAA history, behind only Villanova’s nine titles. The Cougars became just the fourth women’s team ever to take first without placing a runner in the top 10, and two of the other three were also squads from Provo. BYU won in both 1999 and 2020 without a top ten finisher, as well as Villanova in 1998.

Lexy Halladay-Lowry, the team’s top runner in 14th, said after the race, “that last kilometer was whatever you had for the sisterhood. It wasn’t about ourselves. It was about the women we were running with.” That is the kind of team spirit that you just don’t find many places outside of NCAA cross country.

BYU’s three All-Americans on the day were all returners from last year’s squad that entered the 2023 championship ranked No. 3 and finished a disappointing 14th. Each one played a major part in erasing that memory and replacing it with a title. Halladay-Lowry finished 103rd last year, and jumped all the way up to 14th this year, Riley Chamberlain improved from 216th to 31st, and Carmen Alder skyrocketed from 246th to 39th. 

At the press conference the day before the race, coach Diljeet Taylor was asked if she was worried about her runners’ lack of championship success in cross country compared to some of the other programs like NAU. Her response: “No woman has ever done it, until she does it.” The Cougars chose as good a day as any to get it done, and now coach Taylor has a second national title as a result.

But BYU’s day wasn’t over yet. Unlike the women who didn’t take the lead until the 5k mark, the men were in control from the start. The Cougars led the race at each of the ten kilometer splits, and even had a score as low as 47 at the 4k mark, when they had six men in the top 24. That would have been a winning score even lower than Oklahoma State’s dominant showing last year (49), but the final result ended up being a little more of a nailbiter.

The Cougars won by just 13 points led by a career-best sixth place finish from Casey Clinger. Clinger, who made his Nationals debut all the way back in 2017, finishing 24th as a true freshman, clocked his third top-ten finish after placing 8th in 2021 and 7th in 2022. Clinger wasn’t a part of BYU’s 2019 national title team as he was on his mission, making this the first championship for every runner in the Cougars’ top seven on Saturday, led by seniors Clinger, Creed Thompson (12th), and Joey Nokes (31st). Clinger celebrated accordingly.

In the end, both squads walked away with narrow wins by scores that illustrate just how wide open this year’s races were. The men’s 124 point total was the highest by a champion since 2016, and the women’s 147 points was the highest winning score since 2011.

Graham Blanks Goes Back-To-Back

Over the past two years, Harvard’s Graham Blanks has become one of the most dominant runners in the NCAA… so when are people going to start acting like it? Last year, Blanks came into the championship on an undefeated run, this year, off a trip to the Olympics. Yet both times, the prevailing narrative going in was, “it’s wide open– anyone’s race.”

Blanks has won eight of his nine cross country races over the last two seasons, including the two most important ones in convincing fashion. In between he set an NCAA record, made an Olympic final, and made one of the boldest moves you’ll ever see in a championship race on the track (start the video at the 10:37 mark). His sole loss came at Pre-Nationals this year, on October 19th – likely due in part to his “spring” track season stretching out to August 10th in Paris.

The men’s individual race arguably provided the most drama of the day, with one of the pre-race favorites Solomon Kipchoge of Texas Tech registering a DNS. The 28-year-old Kipchoge was one of the most talked about athletes all season and just eight days removed from winning the Mountain Regional over eventual national runner-up Habtom Samuel of New Mexico. Kipchoge’s Red Raider teammate Ernest Cheruiyot looked to pick up the slack and led the race at the halfway mark, only to fade badly and finish 131st.

Samuel on the other hand provided the grittiest performance of the day, losing his shoe halfway through the race and closing hard to finish second. It was a second straight runner-up finish for the Eritrean, who should be the “way-too-early” favorite for the 2025 title in Missouri with Blanks out of eligibility. Blanks and Samuel are the first pair of runners to finish 1-2 in back to back years since 1960, and clearly respect each other after several battles across the last two seasons.

Doris Lemngole Steps Into The Spotlight

Last year, Alabama’s Doris Lemngole ended her season with three consecutive runner-up finishes behind Florida’s Parker Valby, including at Nationals. She began to break out of Valby’s shadow in the summer, setting an NCAA record in the steeplechase en route to her first national championship on the track.

After a cross country season full of top-2 finishes, Lemngole came into Wisconsin as one of the pre-race favorites for the individual title, but the more popular pick was New Mexico’s undefeated freshman Pamela Kosgei. Had Lemngole’s championship window on the grass already closed?

In the last half mile of Saturday’s race, she broke away from the pack with Kosgei and Lemngole’s former-teammate-turned-rival Hilda Olemomoi of Florida. Then in the final 200m, Lemngole shut the door with a devastating kick that gave her a convincing six second win (unfortunately it wasn’t very easy to see on the broadcast).

Lemngole joins Mercy Chelangat from the 2020 championships as the only Alabama athletes to win an individual cross country title, and she may not be done. While the men’s side has seen two different repeat champions in the last five seasons, no woman has defended her title since VIllanova’s Sheila Reid in 2011, but Lemngole may be the one to break the trend. The 22-year-old sophomore is the first true underclassman* to win the title since New Mexico’s Ednah Kurgat in 2017 (Kurgat later finished fifth as a junior in 2018).

*NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy won as a sophomore in 2022 but was running her at her third Nationals, as the 2020 championships held during COVID-19 did not count against eligibility.

Oklahoma State’s Nightmare Day

Headed into the season, the Oklahoma State men were a sizable favorite to win their second straight title, as they nabbed all 11 first place votes in the preseason poll… but victories aren’t won on paper – that’s why they run the races.

Over the course of the season, they showed a few cracks in their armor. They were beaten by BYU at Big 12s and lost their number one ranking in the process, but maybe that was just the kick they needed to show up in Wisconsin.

The Cowboys were ranked No. 2 headed into the weekend, and were still a popular pick to walk away with the trophy. But by the end of the day, they had finished in eighth, showing the conference loss was just a sign of things to come.

Fouad Messaoudi, who finished 10th at Nationals last year, opened his season at Big 12s finishing 32nd as OSU’s seventh runner. Messaoudi didn’t race at Regionals and was looking for a bounce back performance on Saturday but faded from 40th at 4k to 222nd by the finish.

Laban Kipkemboi was Oklahoma State’s biggest offseason addition, and finished top-3 in three of his first four races as a Cowboy. The lone blemish on his season headed into the weekend: Big 12s. He led the race through 5k, but missed a turn and ended up finishing in 19th. In Wisconsin, he was once again at the front, leading the race through 4k, but ultimately faded to 107th, including dropping 38 spots in the last kilometer.

As a team, OSU didn’t get out well on Saturday. Victor Shitsama, who finished 12th at Nationals last season, was back in 185th through the first kilometer, and he was only their fifth runner. Shitsama didn’t crack the top-100 until the second half of the race and ended up as their third runner in 70th.

That’s right, after having five men in the top 15 last year, their third runner was 70th yesterday, and only three Cowboys finished in the top 100.

On top of all that, their women’s team finished 27th just one year after a third place finish. They had lower expectations heading into the day ranked 16th, but dropped 10 spots as a team over the last kilometer of the race.

It’s not all doom and gloom for Oklahoma State, however. Despite snapping their streak of four consecutive podium finishes, they could still return as soon as next season. Brian Musau (5th) and Denis Kipngetich (11th), who have been the team’s most consistent performers over the past two seasons, are only sophomores, and were the lone Cowboys to run to their potential on Saturday. And despite Kipkemboi’s rough finish to the season, he had a great freshman year, and coach Dave Smith remains one of the top recruiters in the nation.

Emptying The Notebook

So much else happened on Saturday, and while it’s impossible to cover it all, here are a few major rapid fire takeaways from the day:

West Virginia Women: The Mountaineers came into the season unranked, and they ended it just 17 points behind BYU for a national title. They are the first team in the history of the USTFCCCA’s weekly rankings (since 1995), to make the podium after entering the season unranked. They had three All-American performances, led by a gutsy run from Canadian Olympian Ceili McCabe, who finished sixth. McCabe finished third as a sophomore in 2021.

Chloe Thomas: Just three places behind McCabe was UConn’s Chloe Thomas in ninth. It was the highest ever Nationals finish by a UConn runner, concluding a dream season for Thomas, who also won the Big East Championships and the Northeast Regional.

Rachel Forsyth: In 16th, Michigan State’s Rachel Forsyth was one of the top freshmen in either race, only behind Kosgei and Tulane’s Caroline Jeptanui. Forsyth has a promising future ahead of her after an incredible postseason where she finished second at the Great Lakes Regional, and fourth at the Big Ten Championships.

Canadian Women: McCabe, Thomas, and Forsyth all represent Canada, as well as Villanova’s Sadie Sigfstead (15th) and Penn State’s Florence Caron (19th). Those five women would have compiled an incredible team score of 65 points.

Amy Bunnage: Continuing the international theme, Stanford’s Amy Bunnage of Australia was one of the biggest winners of the day, finishing fourth. Bunnage was one of the NCAA’s most anticipated recruits last season, and showed flashes of XC greatness (winning the 2023 Pac-12 championship), but ultimately finished 59th at Nationals. This season, Bunnage flew under the radar, opening her season with a win at the West Regional. Her fourth place finish on Saturday was the highest finish by a Stanford woman since 2013, an impressive accomplishment considering the school’s pedigree. 

Providence Women: The single biggest surprise in the team standings on Saturday came from Providence, who came into the day ranked 11th, before finishing on the podium in third. Early in October I wrote that Kimberley May, Shannon Flockhart, and Alex Millard make up one of the most dangerous trios in the NCAA. They proved that in Wisconsin by finishing 10th, 24th, and 20th respectively, totalling the lowest score of any team’s top three runners. The performance put the Friars back on the podium for the first time since 2015, and they didn’t hide their excitement.

Oregon Women: The Ducks, considered by many to be contenders for the team title, just missed the podium by 4 points behind Northern Arizona. The result is a relative disappointment for coach Shalane Flanagan’s squad, especially with each of their top four runners being seniors. While this year’s team may have just missed their opportunity, the program has massive momentum, and it won’t be long until Flanagan has another team with title hopes. Oregon is back.

Washington Women: The ghosts of Pac-12 past haunted the course on Saturday, as sixth ranked Washington stumbled to a 13th place finish. Earlier in the season the team rose as high as No. 2 in the coaches’ poll, and had two great runs on this exact course winning Nuttycombe and finishing second at Pre-Nats. They never had a clear low-stick prevail throughout the fall, an issue that cost them as their top runner finished 59th at Nationals

Grace Hartman and Hannah Gapes: Although it wasn’t the season that NC State imagined when they shared the preseason No. 1 ranking with NAU, their eighth place finish outdid their No. 13 spot in the polls coming into the race. The Wolfpack were carried by Grace Hartman (5th) and Hannah Gapes (8th), both of whom made huge jumps from their Nationals debuts last season (63rd and 73rd respectively). This marks the sixth year in a row NC State put a woman in the top 10, the longest active streak in the NCAA.

Iowa State Men: One of the most underrated programs in the country, Iowa State now has two runner-up finishes in the last four years. With a 32 second spread between their top 5 runners, they ran one of the best races top to bottom of any program on the day. Led by 10th place Said Mechaal, the Cyclones had four All-Americans, the only team other than the BYU men to do so.

Wisconsin Men: For the past few years, Wisconsin has struggled to live up to their regular season expectations come Nationals. Just last year they came into the big dance ranked No. 5, but finished back in 10th. This year, however, everyone was coming to their course, adding an extra layer of pressure, but the Badgers stepped up to the plate. Ranked seventh in the country coming in, they were certainly in the running for a podium spot, but it would take a big day. While it wasn’t Morgan McDonald taking the win in 2018, Bob Liking nevertheless put the team on his back, finishing 16th, saving his best Nationals performance for his final year. That was just enough to lift the Badgers to fourth place – keeping NAU off the podium in coach Mike Smith’s final cross country season – their highest finish since 2012.

Dylan Schubert: Arguably the most surprising individual result of the day was Furman’s Dylan Schubert. Schubert wasn’t on anyone's radar going into the meet, but maybe he should have been. Competing in his fifth cross country nationals, the senior has plenty of championship experience, and was already a two-time All-American headed into the meet, finishing 11th and 24th in the last two seasons.

Yaseen Abdalla: Last and certainly not least, Arkansas’s Yaseen Abdalla once again made a splash on the broadcast. Abdalla is an interesting figure in the NCAA: the popular social media star just completed his fifth cross country season running for his third school, and capped it off in impressive fashion. Just 105 days after making his marathon debut at the Paris Olympics – where he ran 2:11:41 to finish ahead of runners like Kenenisa Bekele and Eliud Kipchoge – Abdalla finished fourth to carry an Arkansas team whose top runners finished lower than expected. Kirami Yego and Patrick Kiprop, both of whom had top 10 expectations, were the big hitters all year for the No. 3 Razorbacks, but they faded in the second half of the race to finish 20th and 21st. Thanks to Abdalla, they stayed true to ranking and finished third, the highest finish for the historic program since 2005.

And just like that, another great cross country season has come and gone. Some runners will now get a much needed break, whereas others will try to carry over their fitness into an indoor race in just a few weeks time. For those already eagerly waiting for the 2025 season, you are not alone – we’ll see you next year!

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