Before the United States hosts the World Cross Country Championships next month for the first time in 34 years, the U.S.’s own national team will need to be set for the Tallahassee affair. That’s happening this weekend at the USATF Cross Country Championships in Portland on December 6th.

The top six finishers in Saturday’s race will qualify for Team USA at the World Cross Country Championships.

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How To Watch: The USATF Cross Country Championships will stream live on NikeCrossNationals.com for free.

Schedule:

• 3:30 PM: Men’s 2K Championship
• 3:40 PM: Women’s 2K Championship
• 3:55 PM: Men’s 10K Championship
• 4:50 PM: Women’s 10K Championship
• 5:50 PM: U20 Men’s 6K Championship
• 6:30 PM: U20 Women’s 6K Championship

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WOMEN

Six of the seven American women who have won NCAA Cross Country Championship titles since 2016 will be competing.

TOP CONTENDERS

Weini Kelati

The U.S. half marathon record holder and coach Stephen Haas were still weighing whether to race cross country or focus on running the Houston Half Marathon last month, before she finished second at the Dash To The Finish Line 5K. Training must have progressed well in recent weeks for her to solidify her plans to race cross country. On Thanksgiving, she won the Manchester Road Race (23:18 for 7.62K / 4.73 miles) for the fifth consecutive time in her career.

Kelati’s schedule for the next few months is a bit clearer as she’ll race in Portland before a trip to Hawaii for the Merrie Mile on Dec. 13th and then potentially Tallahassee in January. This moves her half marathon run to possibly lower her record to Feb. 15th’s Barcelona Half. Kelati is a strong contender to make the team, considering her history as an NCAA champion and the fact that she’s made the last two U.S. cross country national teams and finished 15th in last year’s World Cross Country Championships.

Parker Valby

It hasn’t been the dream first pro season for the six-time NCAA champion, but she has a chance to end 2025 on a high note by qualifying for her second U.S. team at a global championship. Her outdoor season on the track was wiped out due to a broken navicular in her left foot. After months of cross-training (more than her usual ArcTraining sessions and more time on the bike), she returned to action with a fourth-place finish in 15:37 at the Dash To the Finish Line 5K, where she was in contention to win until the final 200 meters. Not the fastest result but an encouraging start to the comeback before now returning to the side of the sport that catapulted her to stardom with an NCAA Championship runner-up run in 2022 and then the victory in 2023.

The biggest question will be how her preparation in Florida will hold up when it’s chillier and sloppier, since there’s rain in the forecast on Friday and Saturday and the kiddos will be taking to a good chunk of the course beforehand with the Nike Cross Country Nationals races.

Shelby Houlihan

Houlihan is two-for-two in making U.S. teams since coming back from her four-year ban following a positive test for Nandrolone in 2021. She claimed the World Indoor Championships silver medal in the 3000m and then finished fourth in the 5000m at the World Championships in Tokyo. Of her 14 national titles, you may not remember that she claimed the 2019 U.S. Cross Country Championships win in 32:47 in Tallahassee and now wants to secure a return to that course. As we head into an “off-year,” we’ll also get a glimpse of Houlihan’s potential, if she moves more toward the 10,000m in 2027.

Karissa Schweizer

If you’ve won an NCAA Cross Country National title within the past decade, you get thrown into the Top Contenders section and the 2016 champion out of Missouri just makes that cut-off. It also helps that she put together an outdoor campaign where she made the 10,000m team in Tokyo and finished 6th in 32:10.82 there. She’s looking to make her second World Cross Country team after finishing 7th at the 2019 U.S. Cross Country Championships (three of the women ahead of her passed on their spots) and then being the final scorer for the team (56th overall) on a BRUTAL course in Aarhus, Denmark.

Grace Hartman

While several of the top collegians look to recycle their cross country fitness by nabbing an early fast time for their NCAA Indoor Championship hopes, you have to applaud the Wolfpack star for opting to extend her cross country season a few more weeks for a spot on the World team. Hartman was sixth overall (third American) at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. There was excitement around how she would fare against the pros at the U.S. Outdoor Championships following her gutsy runner-up finish in the 10,000m at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, but she withdrew due to injury. Now, we’ll get to see her against pros.

Katelyn Tuohy

Tuohy will make a return to cross country two years after gritting out a fifth-place finish at the 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championships that led her team to their third consecutive title. It was her final race as a collegian, and her professional career hasn’t been without some injury hiccups in the past two seasons. It’s prevented her from living up to that same level of stardom that she had in the NCAA.

Dani Jones

Her “Back on grass” reel on Instagram brought some excitement to this race since it adds the 2018 NCAA Cross Country champion into the mix. It will be a test as she’s stepping up to 10K for the first time. She put together a good first season under coach Sierra Willis, taking fifth in the 1500m at the U.S. Outdoor Championships and then a silver medal at the NACAC Championships.

Ednah Kurgat

The 2017 NCAA Cross Country champion switched allegiances from Kenya to the U.S. via the U.S. Army in 2021 and won her first national title in 2023 with a win at the U.S. Cross Country Championships in Richmond. She went on to be the top American woman (18th overall) at the 2023 World Cross Country Championships. This was the first year that she passed on the track season to mark a bit of a transition to the roads. Her most recent result was an 8th place finish in 31:56 at the Rockin’ Rib Run 10k in Miramar, Florida on Nov. 15th.

Others To Watch For:

– Emma Grace Hurley: She was the 2024 U.S. Cross Country Championships runner-up and finished 32nd at the World Cross Country Championships. In 2025, she also qualified for Team USA at the World Road Running Championships in the half marathon, before they were cancelled.

– Elise Stearns: The three-time NCAA Cross Country All-American out of NAU is now training as a professional on Nike Swoosh TC with coach Mike Smith.

– Taylor Werner: She just finished 3rd at the Manchester Road Race, and spent the past year training with the Melbourne Track Club.

– Katie Izzo: No one in this field has more cross country experience as a professional than Izzo, after a solid 2023 where he finished sixth at the U.S. Cross Country Championships and then was 31st at the World Cross Country Championships. Later that fall, she went to Spain and raced in three of their true cross country races.

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MEN

There was a ton of hype and hope around the potential U.S. men’s team for Tallahassee, centered on double Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher, U.S. marathon and half-marathon record holder Conner Mantz, U.S. Olympian and 5000m outdoor record holder Nico Young, and two-time NCAA Cross Country Champion Graham Blanks. Half of that group will be cheering and watching from the sidelines since Mantz is out due to an injury and Fisher told The CITIUS MAG Podcast that the turnaround following a post-World Championships injury is a bit too tight to race.

TOP CONTENDERS

Nico Young

In four attempts, Nico Young never finished higher than second in NCAA XC… but he also never finished lower than 11th, an impressive run of consistency from the former NAU Lumberjack. Since turning pro, Young has taken a huge jump forward on the track, winning his first national title over 10,000m and setting the American record over 5000m outdoors this summer. Given his 2025 season and strong cross country pedigree, Young has to be considered at least a co-favorite for the win.

Graham Blanks

The only reason why Young isn’t the top dog by consensus is because his fellow 2x teammate on Team USA, Graham Blanks, is an absolute stud on the grass. Blanks won NCAA titles in both 2023 and 2024, the latter of which involved outkicking this year’s champ, Habtom Samuel, who himself is a sub-27 guy on the track. Blanks notched PBs over 1500m, 3000m, 5000m, and 10,000m in 2025, so there’s no reason to believe he won’t be better than ever before on a surface he’s already cemented his bonafides.

Parker Wolfe

Wolfe’s transition to the pros hasn’t yet hit the high highs of UNC teammate Ethan Strand’s—but that’s a pretty high bar to clear, and Wolfe hasn’t exactly disappointed since donning a Nike kit full-time. He finished sixth in the 5000m at USAs and second at the Fifth Avenue Mile, and while 10,000m may be closer to the upper limit of his range than Young and Blanks, Wolfe is a two-time ACC 10,000m champ on the track and twice finished in the top ten of NCAA XC.

Cooper Teare

Despite being the 2024 U.S. XC champion, Teare is technically not the defending champ because there was a second national cross country championship already this year, in January. The winner of that race, Benard Keter, isn’t entered here, so Teare is the most recent U.S. XC champ in the mix. Teare had a good run on the track at USAs, finishing fifth in the 5000m, but a second World team has eluded him after qualifying in the 1500m in 2022. This could be the time—particularly if the race stays packed up until the final kilometer or two.