CROSS COUNTRY 2025 championships season news and results (Big 12's Friday, 10/31; NCAA Regionals Fri. 11/14 and Championships Sat. 11/22)

[AztecBuff]

It's that time of year where the rubber hits the road (and trails) for the cross country teams, as the team begins the championships season this Friday with the Big 12 Championships, followed a couple weeks later with NCAA regionals and, approximately 2 weeks after that, the NCAA Championships (if the team(s) qualify).

As noted in the title, this year's post-season schedule is:

Big 12 Championships - Friday, October 31st (Hosted by Kansas in Lawrence, KS),

NCAA (Mountain) regional - Friday, November 14th (In Salt Lake City, Utah), and

NCAA Championships - Saturday, November 22rd (In Columbia, Missouri)
CU is heading into the post-season with the men ranked #5 and women #16 nationally, and #'s 2 and 4, respectively, in the Mountain Region ranking. (Links to all rankings can always be found at https://www.ustfccca.org/team-rankings-polls-central/division-i-rankings.)

Brief notes on the various championships:

• As I believe I've mentioned in the regular season thread, those outside all the programs can never know for sure what the priorities are for teams, even in this championship season, with some teams each year not prioritizing conference championships and, in the case of the top teams, sometimes even NCAA Regionals. It's only in the NCAA Championships one can be sure that all the teams competing are bringing their all.
• For Big 12's, the conference is, as has been the case both years since CU re-joined it, stacked. In the rankings I noted above, the men have the 3rd highest ranking in the conference (behind #1 Iowa State and #2 Oklahoma State. (Although "only" ranked 8th, I assume all teams will also be wary of defending NCAA champion BYU.) The women are the 5th highest ranked, behind #1 and defending NCAA champion BYU, #6 Iowa State, #7 West Virginia and #11 Oklahoma State.
• For the NCAA Regionals, as I noted above the men are the #2 ranked Mountain Region team, behind only BYU. The women at #4 are behind BYU, New Mexico and Utah.
• It's too early to worry about specifics of the NCAA Championships, but did want to paste below what I know about qualifying for them.

***Copying from what I wrote in a thread from last year re how teams and individuals qualify for the NCAA Championships -
"

• 9 regional races will determine which 31 teams for each gender get selected for the Championships.
  • The top 2 finishing teams in each of the regions are the 18 auto-qualifiers.
  • The remaining 13 teams are "At-large" selections. Unlike the team sport selection process most of us are familiar with (with their selection committees), the at-large teams in cross country are selected almost totally on a mathematical calculation based on how many wins the next highest regional finishers have accumulated over the 18 auto-qualifiers, and any other teams that have earned at-large berths earlier in the process (with a few exceptions). (The wins over other all ready selected teams are called "Kolas points".)
  • The at-large calculation has quite a few rules. For those interested, here's what looks to me like a couple decent descriptions of the process and rules - https://www.thestridereport.com/understanding-kolas . (The link to the left was the most succinct and isolated explanation I could find. The full explanation can also be found starting on page #14 at https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ch...crosscountry/2023-24D1XCC_PreChampsManual.pdf .)

In addition to teams qualifying for the Championships at regionals, "The first four regional finishers not from an automatic qualifying or at-large team also secure an auto-bid to the championships.: (This is copied from https://www.ncaa.com/news/cross-cou...viduals will be,auto-bid to the championships.)
"
________________________________________________________________________________________________

This section is where I'll be listing more info and links about the various Championships.

(1) Big 12's (As also noted above, being hosted by Kansas (KU) in Lawrence (at their "Rim Rock Farm Cross Country Course") this Friday):

KU's home meet homepage - https://kuathletics.com/sports/2024/4/10/2023-home-meet-central

Big 12's Championship homepage - https://big12sports.com/tournaments/?id=1048&path=cross#:~:text=The awards ceremony will be,Additional Tournament Information

KU's Visitor's Info document - https://kuathletics.com/documents/2...oss_Country_Championship_Meet_Information.pdf
(From that, the men's 8Km race is scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM MT (10:00 in Kansas time) and the women's 6Km at 10:00 AM MT.)

Video stream - Per the Big 12 page linked to above, there will be a stream available on ESPN+. As I type this, I'm not seeing a specific link available, but assume one will be available at https://www.espn.com/watch/schedule/ before race-time. Edit - Direct link is now available; it is https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/dcc421f3-e3c9-4b5f-9a76-e280969116e9 .

Live Results - https://pttiming.com/event.php?mid=2537&pt=schedule and / or https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=8256
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2) NCAA Regionals (Being raced this year in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the Utes hosting, on Friday, November 14th)

Utah's Regionals' homepage - https://utahutes.com/sports/2025/9/19/2025-ncaa-cross-country-mountain-regional

I will fill in more info later.
_______________________________________________________________

2) NCAA Championships (Being raced this year in Columbia, Missouri, with the Missouri Tigers hosting, on Saturday, November 29th)

Missouri's Championships' homepage - https://mutigers.com/feature/25_XC_NationalChampionship_Info

I will fill in more info later.

 

[AztecBuff]

 

[AztecBuff]

(Copied from the regular season thread I accidentally posted this to originally.)

I also added the link to the live results line in the original post, but did want to note here the initial list of entries for CU (and all the other Big 12 schools) is now available by selecting the men's or women's races in the drop down menu at https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=8256 .

Wanted to note that this is the initial list from which coaches will choose their actual racers; not all listed in the initial lists will actually run.
In CU's case, there are 11 men and 12 women in the initial entries, but I believe the conference may limit racers to 10 per team (per gender). This is still more than the 7 maximum that will be allowed to run per team at NCAA regionals and Championships.
I actually like the expanded 10 racers allowed per team at Conference, as it allows a few more racers per gender to impress their coaches and teammates for consideration to be on the NCAA race rosters, as well as get to race in maybe the biggest races in their career. It's also valuable if they're earlier in their college careers, as they can also get valuable experience for later years. (And, again, 10 is the maximum. For example, 9 CU women ran last year, while some other schools only ran 5 or 6 in the men's race.)
Also wanted to note that, even though 10 may compete for each team, only 7 have ANY influence in the team competition. Like with NCAA's, it's only the top 5 finishers for each team that equals their score, and only the top 7 whose finish affects other teams' scores.

 

[AztecBuff]

The preview article is now available - https://cubuffs.com/news/2025/10/30/cross-country-poised-for-big-12-battle-in-lawrence
(Wanted to mention that, as has been the case in the past, cross country seems to be the only CU sport I've noticed where they seem to note starting times in the preview article in race local (in this case Central) times rather than converting to Mountain (or at minimum put a CT or MT after the listed times). In this case, as I mentioned in the OP, in MOUNTAIN time the men's race is scheduled to start at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning and the women's at 10:00 AM.)

Go Buffs!

"

Cross Country Poised for Big 12 Battle in Lawrence​

By: Herman Shelton, Associate Director/Athletic Communications

LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Colorado Buffaloes return to the site of their final Big 12 Cross Country Championships to compete in the 2025 Allstate Big 12 Cross Country Championship, hosted by the University of Kansas at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, Kansas, on Friday, October 31.

The men's 8K championship race is scheduled for 10 a.m., followed by the women's 6K at 11 a.m. The Rim Rock Farm course features rolling hills, wooded trails, and long grass straights.

Colorado's men enter the meet ranked fifth nationally following a runner-up finish at the Nuttycombe Invitational, while the women are No. 16 after placing 12th in Madison.

The Buffs will face a highly competitive field featuring the nation's top-ranked teams. Four USTFCCCA nationally ranked men's teams are set to compete: No. 1 Iowa State, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 5 Colorado, and No. 8 BYU. On the women's side, six ranked teams will line up: No. 1 BYU, No. 6 Iowa State, No. 7 West Virginia, No. 11 Oklahoma State, No. 16 Colorado, and No. 18 Utah.

Women: Holly Barker, Jessie Secor, Juliette Forstrom, Ella Hagen, Mia Larochelle, Louise Lounes, Abbey Nechanicky, Hannah Prosser, Pippa Roessler, Linda Weigang

Men:Dean Casey, Wilson Georges, Isaiah Givens, Lukas Haug, Jake Liebert, Kole Mathison, Tanner Newkirk, James Overberg, Grady Rauba, Charles Robertson, Dominic Serem

Colorado will field a strong lineup led by sophomore transfer Dominic Serem, who ranks fourth in the Big 12 with a time of 22:45.2. Isaiah Givens, showing steady improvement from mid-distance, ranks ninth at 23:01.9. James Overberg sits 13th (23:06.8) and Dean Casey follows at 15th (23:12.6).

On the women's side, Jessie Secor ranks sixth in the Big 12 with a time of 19:41.8, followed closely by Mia Larochelle (11th, 19:46.8) and Hannah Prosser (12th, 19:47.8).

Each team will run seven athletes, with the top five finishers scoring. The team with the lowest combined score will be crowned champion.

The last time Colorado raced at Rim Rock Farm, the Buffs swept both titles, capturing their 11th consecutive men's championship and eighth straight women's crown in 2006. The women's program has claimed 10 of the 11 Big 12 team championships in history at that time, while the men have won every title since joining the conference. Former Buff Jennifer Barringer led the way that year, finishing second overall.

How to Follow
The races will stream live on ESPN+, and live results will be available through PrimeTime Timing.

Up Next:
Championship season continues as the Buffs will compete in the NCAA Mountain Regional Championship on November 14, before heading to the NCAA Championships on November 22.
"

 

[AztecBuff]

Conference Championships Day, with the men's race start just an hour away.!
(Note - It will be interesting to see if this is true- I have seen a report that a couple of the top 5 (at least so far this season) Buff men will not be racing today. During a season it can be frustrating for XC fans that often the ONLY time you can be sure teams in cross country go all out for team results is once a year, at the NCAA Championships. Of course, after the season the main result I remember is how the teams did in the NCAA Championships, so can understand moderating efforts for those runners who it's felt will most benefit from either resting a bit, and/ or getting to keep their training going uninterrupted through these "prelim" races.

Edit - Final entries are out for the men, and the report looks to be accurate. (The 2 I've noted not racing today finished 2nd and 5th in the 1st 2 big races of the season, so their absence will obviously affect CU team scoring a lot.))

 

[AztecBuff]

The men's race has begun.

 

[AztecBuff]

I'd say a VERY nice race for the Buff men, as they finish in 3rd behind only nationally #2 ranked OSU and #1 ISU, and ahead of defending NCAA champion BYU. (OSU made a BIG statement with all of their scorers finishing in the top 7 and their leaders finishing 1-2.)

OSU finished with 20 points, ISU 43, CU 87 and BYU 102.

CU's leader all season Serem was in the lead pack for most of the race and earns a nice 9th place finish, the next 3 Buffs finished within 18 seconds of him, and the 5th within 35 seconds. Also a nice show of depth as the 6th and 7th finishers were within 12 seconds of the 5th.

 

[AztecBuff]

And the women's race has begun.

 

[AztecBuff]

And a solid race for the women as they came into the race with the 5th highest national ranking in the conference and that's where the team finishes.
(I don't know if I've ever seen of a steadier race from a team, at least from available results, as they were in 5th place at all 4 of the timing points and their point range varied only 7 points (between 124 and 131) at all 4 of those points.)

Top 6 teams were #1 ranked and defending NCAA champ BYU with 38 points, then ISU (71) , WVU (86), OSU (86) , CU (128) and Utah (134).

 

[AztecBuff]

Article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2025/10/31...to-third-in-big-12-mens-race-women-take-fifth

"
Serem Leads Buffs to Third in Big 12 Men’s Race, Women Take Fifth

Serem finish ninth, named All-Big 12 team

By: Herman Shelton, Associate Director/Athletic Communications

LAWRENCE, Kan. — The University of Colorado men's and women's cross country teams turned in strong performances Friday morning at the 2025 Allstate Big 12 Cross Country Championships at Rim Rock Farm. The Buffaloes placed third in the men's race and fifth in the women's, both competing in one of the deepest conference fields in the nation.

Sophomore Dominic Serem was the top finisher for the Buffs, earning All-Big 12 honors with a ninth-place finish

Men
Facing a field that included four nationally ranked programs, Colorado scored 87 points to place third behind No. 2 Oklahoma State (20 points) and No. 1 Iowa State (43 points).

Serem paced the lead pack through the opening mile and the 3,000-meter split, running shoulder to shoulder with the front group. He remained just one-tenth of a second behind the leader at the 5K mark before slipping to 10th at 7K. Serem closed hard over the final kilometer to finish ninth overall in 23 minutes, 6.2 seconds, his third consecutive top-10 performance of the season.

Serem once again led the Buffs, followed by junior Dean Casey, who placed 16th in 23:19.7, a season best. Senior James Overberg was 18th in 23:22.3, just six seconds off his season best. Sophomore Jake Liebert ran 23:24.2 for 20th, just shy of his season best of 23:20.2, and junior Tanner Newkirk rounded out the scoring lineup in 24th with a personal best of 23:41.1. Seniors Grady Rauba (33rd) and sophomore Kole Mathison (36th) served as displacers.

Oklahoma State, the nation's top-ranked team, dominated the race with five runners in the top seven to total 20 points. Iowa State, led by sophomore Robin Kwemoi Bera, placed second with 43 points. The Buffaloes were third with 87 points, placing all five scorers inside the top 25 and recording their tightest spread of the season at 35 seconds.

Oklahoma State's Brian Musau captured the individual title in 22:53.7, leading a pack of Cowboys who swept four of the top six spots. Serem was the top finisher among Big 12 newcomers and the first non-Oklahoma State or Iowa State athlete across the line.

Men's Team Top 5​

1. No. 2 Oklahoma State – 20 points (1, 2, 4, 6, 7)​
2. No. 1 Iowa State – 43 points (3, 5, 10, 12, 13)​
3. No. 5 Colorado – 87 points (9, 16, 18, 20, 24)​
4. No. 8 BYU – 102 points (15, 17, 19, 22, 29)​
5. Kansas – 171 points (25, 26, 33, 40, 47)​

Men – 8,000 Meters
Team Finish: 3rd place – 87 points | USTFCCCA National Rank: No. 5
...



Women
The Colorado women's team earned fifth place with 128 points, competing against four nationally ranked opponents, including No. 1 BYU, No. 6 Oklahoma State, No. 7 West Virginia, and No. 11 Iowa State. The Buffaloes packed tightly throughout the 6K race, placing five runners inside the top 35 and recording a 28-second spread among scorers.

Junior Jessie Secor led the Buffs with a 22nd-place finish in 20:07.9. Sophomore Abbey Nechanicky followed closely in 23rd (20:09.2), marking her fourth straight finish inside CU's top two. Freshman Mia Larochelle continued her breakout season, finishing 28th (20:27.5) in her first collegiate postseason race. Sophomore Hannah Prosser placed 30th (20:29.8), just three seconds off her season best, while sophomore Juliette Forstrom completed the scoring five in 33rd (20:36.2), a season best.

Freshman Holly Barker (35th, 20:39.0) and freshman Ella Hagen (42nd, 20:57.2). both running season bests.

BYU swept both the individual and team titles. BYU freshman Jane Hedengren captured the individual crown in 18:29.6, setting a course and Big 12 record with a 41-second margin of victory. The top five included three freshmen (Hedengren, Chelangat, Kirwa), highlighting a talented youth movement across the conference.

Women's Team Top 5​

1. No. 1 BYU – 38 points​
2. No. 11 Iowa State – 71 points​
3. No. 7 West Virginia – 86 points​
4. No. 6 Oklahoma State – 86 points​
5. No. 16 Colorado – 128 points​

Women – 6,000 Meters
Team Finish: 5th place – 128 points | USTFCCCA National Rank: No. 16​

...

From Coach Sean Carlson
"Both the men and women had good days and are coming out of this healthy and ready to go for regionals and nationals," head coach Sean Carlson said. "Regionals are about taking care of business and not doing anything fancy to get there. The Big 12 on both the men's and women's sides is the best cross country conference in the NCAA right now, and this was a great measuring stick for what's ahead at the national meet."

Up Next
Colorado will return to action at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships on Nov. 14 in Salt Lake City, Utah, with hopes of qualifying both teams for the NCAA Championships.​

"

 

[AztecBuff]

There was another set of Coaches' polls released over the last couple days:

• In the National rankings, both the men's and women's teams dropped one spot, with them now ranked #6 and 17, respectively.
• In the Regional rankings, the men remain #2 (behind only New Mexico), while the women moved up 1 spot from #4 to #3 (behind only BYU and New Mexico). They moved ahead of now #4 Utah after finishing ahead of them at the Big 12 Championships.

(All polls can be found through links at https://www.ustfccca.org/team-rankings-polls-central .)