By David Melly
December 10, 2025
A marathoner, an NCAA All-American, and a middle-distance pro walk into a bar…
…okay, maybe not a bar – at least not before the race. But last weekend, an impressively wide range of runners from different backgrounds, levels, and skillsets descended on Portland, Oregon, for the U.S. Cross Country Championships, and as a result, the results themselves were a little unexpected. On first blush, Weini Kelati and Parker Wolfe aren’t the craziest names to pick up a national XC championship over 10 kilometers, nor are Ethan Strand or Gracie Morris over 2km. But look at the athletes that followed them through the chute and things get a lot less predictable.
On paper, you wouldn’t expect two Olympians with sub-27 10,000m PBs to finish fifth and sixth, just one spot ahead of the reigning Big East 1500m champion (who in turn beat a two-time Olympic medalist). Or maybe you picked Shelby Houlihan, the reigning U.S. 5000m champion who won this race in 2019, to finish higher than 20th.
But that’s cross country for ya, baby. The addition of a few rolling hills and a little mud can throw the form charts into disarray, which makes it very fun to watch. This year was even more of a show than usual thanks to the looming World XC championships in Tallahassee and the co-location with Nike Cross Nationals, meaning everyone from eighth-grader Brianna Reilly (ninth in the NXN girls’ championship) to 45-year-old trail runner Max King (the men’s 40+ champion) were tackling the same grassy loops. The addition of a specific trial for World XC’s mixed-gender 4x2km relay attracted the likes of Craig Engels, Sage Hurta-Klecker, and more.
Usually, the U.S. XC championships are a bit of an afterthought, confusingly scheduled apart from the similarly-named club cross country champs and often skipped by top pros in favor of a BU time trial or heavy training block. But the opportunity to represent Team USA on home soil was too enticing for many to leave alone, and its placement in early December, rather than January or February, lowered the number of potential conflicts.
The timing also meant that there was a wide range in “most recent races” on the start line in Portland: for Kelati, it was the Manchester Road Race; for fourth placer Karissa Schweizer, it was the Fifth Avenue Mile; for fifth Emily Venters, it was the Chicago Marathon; for sixth-placer Grace Hartman, it was NCAAs.
Yes, you read that final part correctly. Rather than kicking back into an offseason or booking a flight to Boston, NC State junior Grace Hartman tacked on four more kilometers of distance and added one more cross-country race to her schedule. Over on the men’s side, Wake Forest junior Rocky Hansen led the whole damn thing for over nine kilometers, dropping a who’s-who of American distance greatness in the process until only Wolfe could hang with his pace. It’s impressive that he was able to run so fast with a pair of basketballs in his short-shorts. Racing one more long, grueling race at the end of an already long, grueling season is certainly a gamble. Especially when the alternative is bouncing your way to a safe NCAA qualifier on the track. But for Hartman and Hansen, it paid off: they get to represent Team USA in an honest-to-goodness global championship while still in college.
Hansen in particular added some impressive head-to-heads to his resume, as Nico Young and Graham Blanks both made the team but needed the last two automatic spots to do it. Surely, the more experienced pros (wild that the 23-year-olds are now in the “veterans” category) are probably at the front end of a training cycle rather than riding out a championship peak, but a win is a win. And assuming everyone accepts their spots, a group that includes Paul Chelimo, Sean McGorty, and Woody Kincaid will be staying home. Talk about an embarrassment of riches.
Over in the 2km, the main takeaway was that the rising talents are, in fact, on the rise. Gracie Morris seems to have found every possible way this fall to send warning shots to the competition that she’ll be a force to reckon with in 2026, following up her Fifth Ave win with a sixth-place finish in Manchester and now a victory over 2km on the grass leaving sub-four 1500m runners Addy Wiley and Emily MacKay in her dust. Ethan Strand already sent a pretty clear message this summer with his surprise finish in the 1500m at USAs, but the fact that he and Wolfe are hitting the professional scene at full-tilt is a promising sign of a successful transition.
While we’re poring through the cross country results and trying to read the tea leaves of future potential, two names in particular stand out. The first is Elise Stearns, the NAU grad who finished seventh in the women’s race. Now with Swoosh TC, she’s got the tools (and a 15:08.07 5000m PB) to be a real factor on the next level, but in college her best NCAA finish was fourth. Even more comparatively unknown is men’s 11th-placer Camren Todd, who was “only” a 13:53/28:10 man at Utah State but finished ahead of guys like Drew Hunter and Cooper Teare. Some athletes are disproportionately good at cross country and that remains true throughout their careers. But others could be flashing signs of greatness as they transition to the pros that will show up big-time on the track or roads in the seasons to come.
The smorgasbord of new and familiar names, guys moving up and gals dropping down, all in pursuit of a U.S. team made this particular USAs a weird and wonderful delight. This kind of thing could and should be replicated more, especially on the roads where there was a good-faith effort to create a series of selection events for the now-delayed Road Running Championship in San Diego (R.I.P.). Having something to run for not only attracts better talent, but a wider range of it, and that in turn makes the races themselves far more interesting.
David Melly
David began contributing to CITIUS in 2018, and quickly cemented himself as an integral part of the team thanks to his quick wit, hot takes, undying love for the sport and willingness to get yelled at online.
