Fast Women: NCAA showdown lives up to the hype

Doris Lemngole repeats as NCAA cross country champion, freshman Jane Hedengren takes second, and NC State earns its fourth title in five years.

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Alabama’s Doris Lemngole in the homestretch. (Photo courtesy of the NCAA)

Doris Lemngole wins her fifth NCAA title

In the week leading up to the NCAA Cross Country Championships, Jane Hedengren mania seemed to overtake many running fans. I was surprised to see so many previews, polls, and predictions casting the BYU freshman as the favorite. She had dominated all of her collegiate races so far, but she had yet to race four-time NCAA champion Doris Lemngole of Alabama.

Lemngole’s winning margins this season were smaller than Hedengren’s, but that was because she was doing what she needed to do to win, not dominate, her races. And it made sense that Lemngole would want to conserve some of her energy. Because her track season was so successful, it didn’t end until September 17, when she finished fifth in the steeplechase at the world championships. (She was in medal contention until the final water barrier when the runner in front of her fell and impeded her.)

There was no doubt this was going to be an interesting showdown. But if there was a favorite, it was Lemngole, who had two years of experience in the NCAA, and had proven herself to be a world-class runner. On the TV broadcast, commentator John Anderson said that after worlds, Lemngole’s coach, Nick Stenuf, tried to give her 2.5 weeks off, and nine days in, he caught her running. After that brief break, she rolled straight into cross country. If she had a weakness this season, it was going to be cumulative fatigue. But that didn’t appear to be an issue on Saturday.

Shortly after 3K, Lemngole and Hedengren began to pull away from everyone else. Like many, I expected Hedengren to do a lot of the pacesetting, but Lemngole wound up being the more aggressive of the two, with Hedengren hanging on. Hedengren held her own, but about 17 minutes into the race, with less than 500m to go, Lemngole gapped her and went on to win 18:25.4 to 18:38.9.

(I appreciate that ESPN now shows the NCAA Cross Country Championships without commercial breaks, but they still managed to miss the move because they were showing the middle of the pack when it happened. Hopefully they learned their lesson there.)

Lemngole, 23, became the first woman to repeat as NCAA cross country champion since Villanova’s Sheila Reid won back-to-back in 2010 and 2011. I think it’s safe to say Lemngole is one of the best distance runners ever to come through the NCAA, and with each season, she’s adding to her legacy.

Hedengren, 19, ran a phenomenal race and had the best finish by an American freshman since Allie Ostrander took second in 2015. Over the final 500m, Hedengren paid the price for going with Lemngole, but the duo had put enough distance on everyone else that it didn’t matter. Finishing second at this meet as a true freshman is an incredible feat, especially as the NCAA gets more competitive.

Florida’s Hilda Olemomoi ran her best race of the season by far, moving up from 20th at 4K to finish third for the second year in a row (18:46.4). And Riley Chamberlain, who was best known for anchoring BYU to back-to-back distance medley relay titles indoors, showed that she can excel at cross country, too. After finishing 216th in 2023 and 31st last year, she jumped to fourth this year, running 18:47.0.

By 3K, NC State led the team race. And by 5K, they were dominating, with a 48-point lead. Over the final kilometer, they struggled a bit, and BYU moved up. But NC State’s cushion was large enough that they held off BYU’s challenge to win 114-130. Angelina Napoleon had a rough day and lost 21 spots in the final kilometer, but she hung on well enough to be the team’s fourth runner, grab the final All-American spot, move up 56 places from last year, and help her team to a national title. Coach Laurie Henes said Napoleon was under the weather leading up to the race.

“We definitely had some things that weren’t perfect today,” Henes said. “But people just kept fighting.”

Oregon finished third with 153 points, and New Mexico rounded out the podium with 216 points. Despite the fact that women are underrepresented in collegiate cross country and track coaching, the top three teams have female head coaches.

Henes is in her 34th year at NC State, and she seems to have mastered the art of building winning teams. NC State won three-straight NCAA cross country titles from 2021 to 2023. Last year, they dropped to eighth, but knowing that it was a rebuilding year, they weren’t concerned. The rebuild didn’t take long though, as they are already back on top.

Hannah Gapes (fifth, 18:51.3) and Grace Hartman (sixth 18:52.6) led the way, followed by Bethany Michalak (29th, 19:14.9), Napoleon (40th, 19:22.7), Sadie Engelhardt (51st, 19:32.4), Brooke Rauber (117th, 20:02.3), and Fleur Templier (155th, 20:16.2). The team’s top five runners from last year all returned, with Michalak moving up 131 spots from her 2024 finish.

Englehardt, a freshman, is more of a middle-distance specialist, but she proved to be a clutch performer for the team, coming in as the team’s fifth scorer in her NCAA championship debut. Three of NC State’s runners had directly contributed to their past titles. In 2022, Rauber was the team’s fifth runner. In 2023, Hartman and Gapes were the fifth and sixth runners, respectively, and now they’re leading the team. (Results | Full race replay)

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The number of Kenyan athletes in the NCAA has ballooned, and some people aren’t happy about it

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the number of international athletes in the NCAA. This isn’t a new topic—coaches have been debating the matter for decades. But the discussion has ramped up in recent years for several reasons: Schools are paying hefty fees to recruiting services to help identify talent, rules changes have made running in the NCAA more lucrative, roster limits make it harder for teams to rely on developing athletes, and the number of international athletes has increased dramatically.

And when people talk about the number of international athletes in the NCAA, they generally aren’t complaining about the number of athletes from Great Britain, Canada, or New Zealand. They’re usually talking about the number of Kenyan athletes. Here’s a breakdown of where the athletes in this year’s top 40 are from:

Kenya 16
U.S. 15
Canada 2
New Zealand, Sweden, Türkiye, Great Britain, Morocco, Australia, Switzerland: 1 each

On the women’s side, the dramatic shift came last year, when only 14 of the All-Americans (top 40) and two of the top 10 runners were from the U.S. But this year, U.S. athletes had a slightly stronger showing with 15 All-Americans and four in the top 10.

The conversation came to a head on Friday when the Deseret News published this article about the increase in “foreigners” in the NCAA. It included quotes from BYU coach Ed Eyestone like, “All the races look like the world cross country championships,” and “if you make a stink about it, someone will say you’re racist. But I’d take a Kenyan (recruit) if he was born in the U.S. Actually, we’re currently recruiting one. Some coaches have decided to take a shortcut by taking foreign talent. Many are older and developed. I always felt I’d be embarrassed to have seven foreigners on the team. The NCAA is definitely the way we develop talent in this country.”

To that I would say, I think there are ways to discuss some the challenges collegiate cross country is facing without being racist, but some people are struggling to pull it off. I think it starts with not treating Kenyan athletes as a monolith. (Also, I’m confused about what Eyestone meant by a Kenyan recruit who was born in the U.S.)

I had a thoughtful exchange the other day with an athlete who came from Kenya to compete in the NCAA. She told me she doesn’t like that coaches are paying recruiting companies to bring in athletes regardless of their age or if/when they graduated from high school. She said that some of these athletes are essentially professional runners before they enter the NCAA. She doesn’t like that this is leading to more doping in the NCAA. And she is also concerned about U.S. athletes having fewer opportunities to develop their talent. She makes some good points.

So I think it is important for the conversations about the topic to be nuanced, and that the people who have the power to change the rules focus on the things like eligibility rules, the use of recruiting services, and doping instead of attacking athletes and/or coaches who are operating within the rules and assuming all Kenyans are “over-age” or are doping (and that Americans aren’t).

Oklahoma State coach Dave Smith heard some of Eyestone’s comments in Friday’s press conference for the first time, and I thought his response (which has two parts) was thoughtful. I think it’s worth listening to his comments in context and hearing the tone with which he said them, too, because out of context, they seem more harsh than they were.

“I believe if someone doesn’t like a rule, or doesn’t like a situation in the NCAA, don’t bitch about it, go change it,” he said. “Get involved in the sport, get involved in leadership, and make change the way change is supposed to be made. Otherwise, shut up and coach your team.”

“It bothers me when we call Brian Musau a foreigner or Alex Maier an American,” Smith continued. “It’s Alex and Brian. And they’re guys on the team, they get along, they’re friends, they support each other, they root for each other, they go through hell together, they suffer together… And it didn’t matter what color their skin was, what language they spoke, what god they worshipped, who they loved, or what side of a line they were born on. They were in Stillwater together, chasing a common goal. And this idea that we need to try to divide people…that’s part of what our problem is as a society.”

I also think it’s important to acknowledge how much athletes like Doris Lemngole are raising the bar in the NCAA. Would Lexy Halladay-Lowry and Angelina Napoleon have made the world championship team last summer if they hadn’t been chasing Lemngole the previous season? Maybe, but also maybe not. And I certainly don’t blame any Kenyan athlete for wanting to take advantage of a life-changing opportunity to run and attend school in the U.S.

Beyond the recruitment of international athletes, I think a lot of things have gotten out of control in the NCAA. And without fully understanding what they do and don’t have the power to change, I think it’s going to be interesting to see where collegiate coaches and programs go from here.

NC State celebrates earning its fourth NCAA cross country title in five years. (Photo courtesy of NC State)

Other NCAA Cross Country Notes

• The NCAA Cross Country Championships is one of the deepest events in the sport. Each year, there are people who finish near the back of the pack who go on to do big things in the sport (and some of them already have). Just being in the race is a huge accomplishment. I imagine finishing near the back is demoralizing for some competitors, but truly, they’re all incredible.

• The teams in the field that beat their rank by the largest margin are the University of Washington (ranked 27th, finished 19th), LSU (ranked 30th, finished 23rd), and NAU (ranked 14th, finished eighth).

• Notre Dame’s Mary Bonner Dalton has had a breakout season, so it was no surprise to see her finish 10th. She made the biggest jump of anyone in the top 10, after finishing 82nd last year.

• Eight months after having a baby, Utah Valley University graduate student Morgan Nokes had the best race of her career on Saturday, finishing 23rd and earning All-American honors for the first time.

• Tomorrow will mark 40 years since the Iowa State women earned a surprise runner-up finish at the 1985 NCAA Cross Country Championships and then lost two coaches, three runners, a student trainer, and a pilot in a plane crash on the way home. Longtime readers are probably sick of me bringing this up, but their story has always stuck with me.

• Last week, I erroneously wrote that South Central Regional champion Elizabeth Khatevi represented Texas A&M. She actually runs for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (and she finished 46th on Saturday).

• At the Division III race in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Middlebury’s Audrey MacLean moved into the lead by 2K and kept putting more distance on the field. She won the 6K race by 48 seconds, in 20:16.8. NYU earned its first-ever team title on the women’s side, with 79 points. And I appreciated this post from ZAP Endurance. It was the second year in a row that the winning team had a ZAP alum (Joanna Thompson with NYU and Whitney Macon with MIT) on its coaching staff. (Results | Replay)

• At the Division II meet in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Adams State’s Tristian Spence took over by 3K and won by six seconds, running 20:11.0 for 6K. Grand Valley State edged out Colorado School of Mines to win the team title, 65-69. (Results | Replay—coverage was not great)

• At the NAIA Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida, Jaynie Halterman repeated as champion, running 20:13.2 for 6K, and leading her Taylor University team to victory. (Results)

• A lot of the NCAA’s top distance runners will race at Boston University on December 6, with the hope of knocking out qualifying times for the NCAA Indoor Championships before they take a break. But NC State’s Grace Hartman said that as long as her hamstring is feeling okay, she plans to race at the USATF Cross Country Championships that day. You can see some of the athletes she’ll race here.

Other News and Links

• On June 4, Colleen Quigley launched Meridia, a women-led professional track team based in Boulder, Colorado. Four of the founding members—Madie Boreman, Katie Camarena, Skylyn Webb, and Molly Sughroue—had already been training together before Quigley got involved. But less than six months later, Boreman, Camarena, and Webb have all left the group. Boreman and Camarena told Fast Women that Quigley’s account of the split doesn’t match their experiences. They say they felt manipulated into joining the team and misled about the support they’d receive, and they said Quigley did not respond well when they brought their concerns to her attention. The team now consists of Quigley, Sughroue, Annie Rodenfels, and Gracie Hyde. Rodenfels was a founding member but didn’t move to Boulder until late August, and Hyde joined in October. Camarena has since relocated to Flagstaff, and Boreman plans to move there soon.

• You’re not going to want to miss Mary Cain’s book, which comes out on April 28, 2026. I sat down to read a few pages of it last week and ended up reading all of it in less than a day. She does not hold back. You can preorder it here, but Goodreads is also giving away 20 early copies. You can enter the giveaway here.

• In an Instagram post, Abby Nichols indicated that she has left NAZ Elite, and an Instagram story she reposted on Sunday showed her training with members of the Union Athletics Club. (My editor points out she’s already on the UAC roster.)

• In October, Natosha Rogers said on a podcast that the pressure was on because 2025 was the last guaranteed year of her Puma contract. But things seem to have worked out for her, because in this post, she implied that she will still be a Puma athlete in 2026.

• I learned from this post that Nora Cary, 70, set an American age-group record of 1:35:25 at the Philadelphia Distance Run back in September.

• Emma Bates shared that she has been diagnosed with hemachromatosis.

• The California International Marathon will serve as this year’s USATF Marathon Championship and Sara Hall and Biruktayit Degefa headline the field. The race takes place December 7.

• Molly Seidel is planning to run the Bandera 50K on January 11.

• Emily Lipari’s child, Jackson, arrived on November 14.

Jade Belzberg leads Shea Aquilano at the JFK 50 Mile. (Photo by Karen Mitchell/RunnersGazette.com)

Additional Results

• In her debut at the distance, Anna Oeser won the Philadelphia Marathon in an Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying time of 2:34:56. Òrla (O’Connor) Rocha took second in the pro race in 2:36:45. She ran faster than the OTQ standard of 2:37:00, but World Athletics has her listed as representing Ireland, so unless I hear otherwise, I will assume that’s the case. The mass race had a separate start and in her debut at the distance, Michka-May Hyde was impressive, running a pending Jamaican record of 2:35:28. Hyde ran for George Mason until 2024, but the longest event she raced was 800m. So to run 2:35 18 months later is incredible. Kenya’s Everlyn Kemboi won the half marathon in 1:10:45, and Jessica Gockley-Day won the 8K in 26:16. (Results)

• Italy’s Nadia Battocletti won Spain’s Cross Internacional de Atapuerca, running 22:21 for 6.8K. (Race report)

• Ethiopia’s Melknat Wudu won the Great Ethiopian Run 10K, which took place in Addis Ababa, about 7,500 feet above sea level, in 32:11. (Results)

• Canada’s Jade Belzberg won the JFK 50 Mile in 6:07:53. (Results)

Podcast Highlights

• I had a lot of questions about Elise Cranny’s move to the M11 Track Club so I appreciated her newsy update on Fast People. I was a little surprised how quickly it all came together, but it makes sense that she didn’t want to miss the start of the season.

• I appreciated hearing more about Makena Morley’s decision to dip her toe (or whole leg?) into trail running on The Steep Stuff Podcast. Her take on running a VK (vertical kilometer) race: “It was, like, terrible, but so fun.” It was interesting to hear that she’s planning to run OCC next year, but the USATF Cross Country Championships are next on her schedule. She talked about winning the Kodiak 50K despite going the wrong way early in the race, and much more.

• I appreciated the chance to learn more about world 800m champion Lilian Odira of Kenya on Podium Athletics. She said she believes winning a medal outdoors was a direct result of her fall in the semifinals at the World Indoor Championships, because it left her so frustrated.

• Kristin Dailey didn’t run her first marathon until she was 40, but at October’s Chicago Marathon, a few weeks before she turned 44, she ran 2:36:08 and qualified for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. She discusses some of her story on Road to the Trials.

Additional Episodes: Australia’s Sinead Diver opened up about suffering from hyponatremia leading up to the Olympic marathon on Run With It | Laura Thweatt discussed coaching the On Athletics Club on Citius Mag | Molly Seidel on The Buzz | If you’re interested in exercise and pregnancy, I thought Dr. Margie Davenport was good on Trail Society. She joined the episode around the 22:30 mark | I doubt this is the thing she would want me to highlight, but I appreciated 2:41 marathoner Megan Connelly being open about suffering from bowel incontinence during her marathons on Getting Chicked, because I’m sure it’s going to help others feel less alone.

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I am so thankful to Bakline for their support these past three months. Remember to take advantage of their 30 percent off offer while you can.

I hope you all have a good, and restful, week.

Alison