With one of the biggest weekends of the cross-country now at a close, the post-season will soon be upon us. The weekend that was left us with a ton of questions and some answers. These storylines could propel us into the latter half of the season as we begin to look ahead to the three NCAA Championships.

We'll break down a few of the top storylines on our mind after the weekend that was.

• 2025 College XC Rankings Presented By HOKA: Division I
• 2025 Lewis Crossover Recap
• Jane Hedengren Makes Historic Collegiate Debut
• Workout Wednesday: New Mexico Ahead of Nuttycombe
  

Habtom Samuel Returns (Nuttycombe Invitational)

One of the most anticipated athletes to finally open up his fall campaign, the runner-up from the last cross country national championships, Habtom Samuel of New Mexico, put on a show at Nuttycombe with a huge surge at the halfway mark to negative split his way to a new Nuttycombe meet record of 22:58.0 (while also keeping both spikes on). He led the New Mexico lobos to a 51 point victory, 99 ahead of Colorado's 150

To top it off of, Samuel will be looking to carry the momentum that he had during the 2024/25 year that saw him set one of the fastest performances ever in collegiate history in 5000m (13:04.92) and several All-American titles as well that will see him as the favorite to claim the individual national title at Gans Creek  at the NCAA DI National Championships in November. 

Other names to watch out for alongside him include Brian Musau and Denis Kipnetich of Oklahoma State, Solomon Kipchoge of Washington State, Bernard Cheruiyot of Tulane.

The Wolfpack vs. The Cougars (Nuttycombe + Pre-Nats)

This past weekend we were treated with what could end up being the #1 and #2 teams at the NCAA DI Cross Country Championships, as the women of NC State and BYU have now played nearly all of their aces this past weekend at Nuttycombe Invitational (NC State) and Pre-Nationals (BYU) to set the tone for what's to come in the post-season.

Highlighting the weekend, BYU freshman and generational talent, Jane Hedengren, made it known that she will be one to look out for in November, as she opened up her collegiate career with a Gans Creek Course Record of 18:42.3 for 6000m, shattering the previous record by 25 seconds and finishing 23 seconds ahead of Clemson's Silvia Jelego. For the Cougars, Riley Chamberlain, Taylor Rohatinsky, Jacey Farmer, and Lexi Goff rounded out the top-5 with Nelah Roberts as their sixth to all finish within the top-10 and score 25 points, 145 points ahead of second place Villanova.

Over at Nuttycombe, Grace Hartman and Angelina Napoleon opened up their fall campaigns and led the Wolfpack with a huge 1-2 finish, with Bethany Michalak in 9th, Hannah Gapes in 11th, and Sadie Engelhardt in 18th to round out the scoring five. The women scored 41, 84 ahead of ACC rivals Notre Dame in second.

With how factors tend to come into play during the cross-country season, it is not 100% certain on who would come out on top if these two squads were to go head-to-head and due to being in completely different regions and conferences, we will not get to see these two teams truly duke it out until the national championships in November.

Midwestern Dark Horses (Lewis Crossover)

It has been a few years since the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) had a male and female athlete pose a threat to the top of the national podium at the NCAA DII Cross Country National Championships with the last pair being Zach Kraft (Walsh) in fourth and Elizabeth Walmsley (Hillsdale) in 11th in 2023. This time around, after stellar showings not just at Lewis Crossover, but also throughout the fall leading up to now, Claire Rethman (Walsh) and Ramon Rodriguez (Tiffin) will likely be the highlights of the conference heading into post-season competitions.

For Rethman, it wasn't until Lewis Crossover where she was able to finally compete against national-level competition. She nearly went three-in-a-row, just missing a staple victory by .02 against (#1) Hannah Hartwell of Fort Lewis who is one of the favorite's to win the national title. Despite having relatively relaxed fields leading up to Lewis Crossover, Rethman was still able to string together national-level performances, notably a 19:54 for the 6000m distance at RMU Colonial Cross Country Invitational followed by 20:27.2 (1:09 victory-margin) at Lockhaven.

Moving onto Rodriguez, he won the Tiffleberg Opener (5k) earlier this season and then kicked things off with a huge runner-up finish at the DII Pre-Nationals (Lucian Rosa Invitational) just behind Alabama-Hunstville's Ahmed Ibrahim. In that same race, he finished above several notable athletes and teams including the top-5 from both the Colorado School of Mines and Adams State. Fast forward to Lewis Crossover, Rodriguez set the tone for the rest of the region going into post-season, notching a staple win against Matthew Storer (Colorado Christian), who finished fourth last year at the NCAA DII Cross Country Championships.

Clash Of The DIII Titans (Interregional Invitational - Connecticut College Invitational)

While Nuttycombe and Pre-Nationals were underway at the Division I level last weekend, many of the titans in Division III took to the line against many familiar names and faces that they will see in November at the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships, as Augustana and Connecticut College hosted meets that saw countless ranked teams and athletes converge:  Interregional and Connecticut College Invitational

Starting west, Wartburg nearly pulled a major upset on the current national champions, UW-La Crosse, being within arms reach on the team scores in second with 68 and trailing just 8 points behind UW-La Crosse's 56. Looking deeper into the scoring, placement at nationals could potentially be determined by the 4-5 or even 6-7 man, as on paper, without the 1-2 from each team, Wartburg would have won by, coincidentally, 8 points. On the women's side, UW-La Crosse completed the sweep with a 20 points victory over Trine, who also managed to finish ahead of U. Chicago, Washington U., and Colorado College.

Individually, Isaac vanWestrienen (Cornell College) has now added himself to the list of men who could potentially take the title in November, following a huge win over Grant Matthai (UW-La Crosse) at Augustana, notching his first victory of the season, and dipped under 24-minutes for the first time over 8000m. Among that group, excluding Matthew and vanWestrienen, Leblond of Johns Hopkins, Ryan Hagan of SUNY-Geneseo, Mohammed Bati of Augsburg, and Aidan Matthew.

Over east at Connecticut College, Emmanuel Leblond of Johns Hopkins continues the momentum following a huge showing at Paul Short just a few weeks ago, as he the Gold Race in 23:41.94, nearly 12 seconds over SUNY-Geneseo's Ryan Hagan who took second in 23:53.67. On the team side, despite a DNF from star freshman, Anthony Clark, Johns Hopkins comfortably won the men's side with 96 points, 15 points ahead of Tufts, who finished ahead of SUNY-Geneseo.

Maclean, Bleskoski Looking To Take The DIII Throne (Interregional Invitational - Connecticut College Invitational)

Following the departure of Faith Duncan from NCAA DIII competition, the title is currently up for grabs this November at the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships, and so far, it looks like it could come down to Audrey Maclean (Middleburg) and Jules Bleskoski (RPI).

Starting with Jules Bleskoski, she has remained undefeated across the 6000m distance so far this season, starting with a nearly 90 second victory at Purple Valley XC Classic in late-September (20:39.3), a personal best and win in the White Race at Paul Short (20:20.8) while also finishing ahead of notables Audrey Maclean (Middlebury), Hannah Stephenson (Amherst), Olivia Warr (Washington and Lee), and Haley Schoenegge (RPI); and most recently notching a victory at Interregional by nearly a minute (20:47.4) over Sidney Swick of Trine (21:42.0).

With Maclean, the junior has put up solid performances this fall, beginning with a 1-2-3 finish for Middlebury at the 33rd Ronald C. Hoffmann Invitational (21:32.2), a second place finish in the White Race at Paul Short just behind Bleskoski (20:27.7), and now just set the tone going into the post-season following a huge victory at Connecticut College Invitational, setting a personal best for the 6000m distance in 20:17.2. Similar to Bleskoski, she will be looking to improve upon her 6th place finish from last year's championships to claim the individual title in November.

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