Earlier today, the NCAA announced that the Division One men's and women's 2025 NCAA XC Championships will feature 32 teams (each) in an effort to, " elevate the championship competition and student-athlete experience." The press release did not, however, specify whether or not the number of accepted teams to the cross country national meet will remain at 32 teams in the future. Since the most recent expansion from 22 teams in 1998, 31 teams per gender have qualified for the national meet on an annual basis. Two teams per region will continue to qualify automatically for the national meet, with the at-large field expanding from 13 to 14 teams. The criteria for individual qualification will remain as it has been, with 38 athletes receiving individual bids to the national meet. That, in turn, will bring the field size to 262 athletes in total. If the 32-team format had been implemented last fall, the Michigan State men and Princeton women would have been the last two cross country teams to qualify for the national meet, per our 2024 Kolas projections .

Rankings construction & analysis by Abby Waddington, Joiner Evans, Jonas Price, Ethan Moore & Garrett Zatlin Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! Every year, we craft rankings for the top-50 distance recruits from the senior class across the United States. Then, at the end of every season, we update our lists to include any new names who have suddenly risen to national prominence. Remember, these lists are for current high school seniors who specialize in the 800 meters and/or higher. Don't see yourself or a certain individual during this update? Don't worry, everyone will have another chance to crack our top-50 rankings via multiple updates throughout the academic year. As always, our rankings take a wholistic approach. We look at results across all three seasons of competition and also evaluate a multitude of intangibles such as consistency, experience, progression, momentum, range, etc. Oh, and fast times help...a lot. CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR FULL RANKINGS

Yesterday, the University of Virginia announced the promotion of Assistant Distance Coach, Trevor Dunbar, to Associate Head Coach of Cross Country and Track and Field. Dunbar, who was initially hired by Virginia in the spring of 2021, will continue to work under the highly-decorated Director of Track and Field and Cross Country, Vin Lananna. Over the last four years that Dunbar has assisted with the men's distance program, the Cavaliers have enjoyed plenty of success, especially in the middle distances, with a DMR national title in 2025 and an individual title from Shane Cohen over 800 meters in the spring of 2024. The UVA men have also been plenty effective on the grass, earning three-straight cross country national meet appearances as a team from 2022 to 2024. However, they have not finished within the top-20 of the team standings during that time. Prior to arriving at Virginia, Dunbar was also part of coaching staffs at California, Florida State, Boston University and Oregon. Dunbar competed collegiately at Portland from 2009 to 2011 and at Oregon from 2012 to 2014 shortly after Lananna stepped away from the Eugene-based program. He was a five-time All-American during his time with the Ducks, including relays. Dunbar also competed at multiple USATF Outdoor Championships with Nike and Boston Athletic Association between 2014 and 2018, finishing as high as 6th place over 5000 meters. Following an offseason with several major transfer portal additions, along with excellent returning talents such as Gary Martin and Will Anthony, the Cavalier men enter this fall listed at TSR #6 in our preseason team rankings . Despite the UVA men having not finished in the top-10 at a cross country national meet since 1984, the ingredients are there for a historic season if everything comes together. The women's team lose several key contributors, most notably Margot Appleton and Jenny Schilling, but open the season listed at TSR #25 . The Cavalier women will have a great opportunity to return to their fourth-consecutive cross country national meet as a team under the direction of Coach Joelle Amaral, the now-wife of Dunbar.

Production via Wyatt Barnsley On this week’s episode of The Stride Report Podcast, Ben and Garrett open with their first reactions to results from World Championships, including the debate around whether Cole Hocker should have been disqualified from the 1500m! Then, it’s time for the first-ever edition of The Stride Report NCAA XC Fantasy Draft as the guys go head-to-head, first building out their men’s squads before moving on to the women’s teams. Expect bold picks, surprising strategies and plenty of banter as they try to out-draft each other heading into the 2025 cross country season. Be sure to listen, subscribe and review! (3:47) World Championships - First Thoughts (11:11) NCAA XC Fantasy Draft (Men)  (29:56) NCAA XC Fantasy Draft (Women) You can listen to that episode (and others) on our PODCASTS  page! You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Soundcloud. If you like it, be sure to leave us a rating  and a review ! Note: If you're having issues loading the episode on the site via mobile, try refreshing  the episode page. We will look into this issue for future episodes.