The four best storylines heading into the NCAA Cross Country Championships

The month of November brings a heady few weeks of racing in cross country, and on Friday the first leg toward the NCAA Cross Country Championships kicked off with nine regionals across the United States.

A total of 31 men’s and women’s teams will reach the final meet of the season on November 22 at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Missouri. This is the first time the University of Missouri has hosted the NCAA Championships since the SEC program first opened the fan-friendly — and lightning-fast — course in 2019.

Nine days separate regional action from the NCAA Championships.

Here are the four main storylines to watch out for in the coming days.

The NCAA’s best freshman ever compete for a title

There hasn’t been anyone quite like Jane Hedengren in women’s cross country for a while.

The true freshman from Brigham Young University – already getting the call a ‘Jane-erational’ talent – started her collegiate career as one of the best recruits of all time, and in the months since she stepped foot on campus in Provo, Utah, she hasn’t missed a beat.

In the first meet of her collegiate career, the nearly 6-foot-4 Hedengren won the Missouri Pre-National Invitational at Gans Creek Cross Country Course (home of NCAAs), claiming a 6,000-meter time of 18:42.3, which was quite an entry and a new course best— it surpassed a mark that had lasted less than a month when Washington State freshman Rosemary Longisa ran 19:07 during an early-season meet.

The BYU freshman followed that up on Oct. 31 with a win at the Big 12 Championships and added her third victory in as many attempts on Friday in 19:06.6, beating last year’s NCAA runner-up, sophomore Pamela Kosgei of New Mexico, by 42 seconds. Hedengren has been extremely dominant, in a way that may not have been seen since Katelyn Tuohy entered the NCAA space with North Carolina State in the early 1920s.

“She’s one of them,” BYU coach Diljeet Taylor said told the Salt Lake Tribune after the Mountain West Regional. “I’m talking about how, instead of being a ‘generational talent,’ she’s a ‘Jane-erational talent.’

As it stands, the Auburn runner is the practical favorite to claim her first NCAA title.

Are the New Mexico women a threat to BYU at the NCAA Cross Country Championships?

For all the brilliance Hedengren shows, she may not be enough to guarantee the BYU women a repeat of their NCAA championship in 2024.

On Friday, the New Mexico women showed superior depth behind the top-five finishes of Kosgei and Judy Rono, leading the Lobos to defeat the No. 1 Cougars by two points, 45-47, at the NCAA Mountain Regional.

That said, a two-point swing on championship day could be an easy margin to counter.

But the finish just goes to show that wild swings are the norm in cross country, and that they can produce all kinds of outcomes on a high-stakes race day. The BYU women are looking to win their third national cross country title since 2020 under Taylor, while New Mexico hasn’t won that top prize since 2017.

The BYU women are ranked first in the most recent U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association national poll, followed by North Carolina State, Florida, Oregon and Notre Dame. The Lobos were ranked #8.

Will Habtom Samuel earn his first NCAA Cross Country title?

Arguably, Habtom Samuel has been one of the best cross country runners in the country since his tenure at the University of New Mexico began in 2023.

But his luck has not been great.

After opening his collegiate career with a second-place finish at the 2023 national championships, Samuel was expected to compete for a title as a sophomore on the Thomas Zimmer track in Wisconsin before losing his shoe mid-race (see photo) and still somehow found a way to finish second behind Harvard’s Graham Blanks.

Since then he has also finished second on the track a few times. This past outdoor season, he had two second-place finishes in the 5K and 10K, which followed another second-place finish in the indoor 5K months earlier.

In total, he has 10 All-American finishes across cross country, indoor track and outdoor track, but has only one victory: an outdoor 10k victory in 2024. Samuel is clearly one of the NCAA’s top runners, and one of a handful of men expected to compete for the title on November 22.

But as in most years, he will have a lot of work to do. On Friday he won the Mountain Regional in 29:45.3 over 10,000 meters. It was a relatively easy effort, he said, and part of the overall goal of reaching the NCAA championships as a team.

“Our goal was to make sure we could qualify as a team and also individually,” he said Dyestat next. “It doesn’t really matter to me, but I didn’t want to lose either.”

Washington State’s Solomon Kipchoge, Wake Forest’s Rocky Hansen, Arkansas’ Timothy Chesondin and Oklahoma State’s Denis Kipngetich are also all in the picture.

How exactly will the team race play out at the NCAA Cross Country Championships?

If we were to predict the NCAA Championship based on the current rankings, the men of Oklahoma State and Iowa State are on a collision course in Missouri.

The nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams faced off in the NCAA Midwest Regional, with the Hokies winning by just three points, 38-41, behind Kipngetich’s victory in Stillwater.

But Iowa State – which had a public announcement of suspensions to team members in October – remains on the hunt. The Cyclones went 2-3-4 at regionals, locking elbows between the trio of Joash Ruto, Robin Kwemoi Bera and Sanele Masondo.

The NCAA Championship always seems to come down to the final 1,000 yards, and historically the nation’s best teams have earned their stripes based on superior depth at the line.

But the 2024 race was one of the closest the championship has had in years. BYU scored 124 points and defeated Iowa State by 13 points. It was the highest point total for a win since 2016, when Northern Arizona put up 125 to beat Stanford.

Other men’s contenders to consider include No. 3 New Mexico, No. 5 Syracuse and a sleeper at No. 7 with Oregon. The No. 4 Virginia and No. 6 Colorado men did not earn automatic bids from regionals but are guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Cross Country Championships dance based on results.