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Production via Wyatt Barnsley On this week’s episode of The Stride Report Podcast, Ben and Garrett dive into a busy recap of coaching moves and transfer portal news that could have major influence on the NCAA landscape heading into cross country season. The guys break down Chris Solinsky taking over as the new Director of Wisconsin’s cross country and track & field programs before discussing the blockbuster transfer of NCAA 1500m champion Rosemary Longisa to Iowa State. They also analyze Carmen Cernjul’s commitment to Northern Arizona, Rachel Forsyth’s move to NC State, Valentin Soca joining Georgia and Aniya Mosley heading to Virginia Tech. From coaching hires to championship-caliber transfers, Ben and Garrett discuss the biggest moves and what they mean for the upcoming NCAA season. Be sure to listen, subscribe and review! (2:33) Wisconsin hires Chris Solinsky as Director of Cross Country and Track & Field (12:03) Rosemary Longisa Transfers to Iowa State (20:27) Northern Arizona Signs Swedish Distance Star Carmen Cernjul (25:33) Rachel Forsyth Transfers to NC State (33:33) Valentin Soca Signs as Graduate Transfer with Georgia (41:59) Aniya Mosley Signs as Graduate Transfer with Virginia Tech 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.

Written by Aimee Morganti, edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin Earlier today, the NCAA Division One Cabinet unanimously voted to approve an age-based eligibility model, starting this fall. The new eligibility model will be based around a "five-in-five" rule where an NCAA athlete has a five-year window to use five years of athletic eligibility at the collegiate level. The start of a student-athlete’s five-year eligibility clock would begin during the first regular academic year after the athlete has graduated from high school OR at the start of the academic calendar year after an athlete has turned 19 years old. The NCAA would use the earliest of those two time points to determine when an athlete’s five-year eligibility window starts. The vote is not expected to be official until the conclusion of the meeting on Wednesday. In an announcement from last month that encouraged the NCAA Division One Cabinet to adopt the new eligibility model, Tim Sands, the Division One Chair of the Board, stated... “The time is now to reform the period of eligibility rules to provide Division I student-athletes and our schools clear and consistent standards that align with current college athletes’ experiences.” Athletes whose fourth season of athletic eligibility was completed at the conclusion of the 2026 academic year will NOT be granted an additional year of eligibility. Lawsuits are expected to stem from the NCAA choosing not to give an additional year of eligibility to athletes who just completed their four years of competition. There are also guidelines in place for athletes with eligibility still remaining. Schools will have the flexibility to apply the new age-based model or continue with the previous eligibility rules (four seasons to compete with five total years of eligibility). Whichever option is most beneficial to that individual can be applied. The NCAA's newest "five-in-five" eligibility model means that an athlete will not be limited to four seasons of competition in their five-year window. As such, the concept of "redshirting" has effectively been removed, entirely. The adoption of this new eligibility model will also eliminate waivers, including those that restored used seasons such as medical hardship and other types of waivers that extended certain periods of eligibility. However, the NCAA has said that it will accept waiver requests from current student-athletes who may be eligible for hardship waivers or extensions of eligibility until July 31st of this year. Last month, the NCAA stated that this would provide tighter and clearer defined exceptions to eligibility. Allowances are expected to be made for pregnancy, active-duty military service and religious missions. Implementation of the "five-in-five" eligibility model includes removing the current delayed enrollment rules, which is intended to simplify the eligibility process. The phrase "delayed enrollment" is defined as, "After your expected date of high school graduation or actual date of high school graduation, you have a certain amount of time (grace period) to continue sports participation before initially enrolling full time at any two- or four-year college or university," per the NCAA.

Editorial Disclaimer: Much of the content in this site update has been recycled and slightly altered from last year's 2025 Summer Syllabus. NCAA competition for the 2025-2026 academic calendar year has officially concluded! Naturally, with an entire summer ahead of us, and very few collegiate performances to talk about, many of our newest TSR readers may wonder, "Why would I even keep my subscription during the quietest time of the year for the NCAA?" Well, believe it or not, the summer and fall months are actually the most exciting time of the year for The Stride Report. Not only is our traffic the highest during these months, but this is also the time where we publish our most entertaining and most exciting content. "But how, Garrett? What content could you guys possibly produce during the summer that makes your traffic spike?" Well, it's a combination of things. People love to discuss transfers -- and there are always A LOT of them in the summer. This is an area that we lean into heavily and something that we pride ourselves on when it comes to content differentiation. Big names being on the move means that the competitive landscape within the NCAA could shift fairly dramatically -- especially for the upcoming cross country season. In fact, we have already covered a large handful of on-the-move names (including two major ones) in recent weeks! If you have any transfer updates that we have not yet listed on our TRANSFERS page, then be sure to send us an email at contact@thestridereport.com and let us know! We know there are still a large handful of names that we have to update. It's a similar story when it comes to coaching changes. A coach leaving one school for another could create a massive ripple effect, both in terms of the coaching carousel around the country and athletes transferring to follow their coaches. Of course, transfers and coaching changes aren't the only pieces of content that carry us throughout the summer. In fact, it's our cross country summer rankings for individuals and teams that have allowed us to stand apart from other platforms. I can say this with confidence: You will not find another outlet in this space who puts more research and analysis into their preseason cross country rankings than The Stride Report. Each NCAA team that is ranked will get an extensive, in-depth article written about them and every ranked individual will also get a large handful of paragraphs of analysis as well. And yes, we do this for Division One, Division Two and Division Three, albeit the number of teams and individuals ranked for those divisions will vary. NAIA will even be getting their own rankings as well, although those rankings will look a bit different in terms of how we construct and publish them. You can expect our NCAA summer preseason rankings (for cross country individuals) to begin in the latter portion of July. Our team rankings will then begin in early-ish August and then carry over to the first-half of September. In the meantime, our writers will be doing some deep research (and sending out emails to coaches) in preparation for our rankings. Meanwhile, our Class of 2026 Top-50 Distance Recruits Rankings will be wrapping up at the end of this month. Separately, the first edition of our Class of 2027 Top-50 Distance Recruit Rankings also be coming at some point in August or September as well! And again, we'll still have plenty of content on the site while that research is happening! For the most part, you should still expect original daily content over the next few months. We feel pretty confident that you're gonna like what we're able to produce and I'll be making a greater effort over the next few months to craft more interesting and engaging content on our YouTube channel as well! Also, if you have any interest in contributing to The Stride Report, please read over our interested contributors page! We're looking to add contributors in the following areas... High School NAIA Division Two Finally, I want to thank everyone who has supported our website, both recently and throughout the past. Thanks to your willingness to stay with us throughout our journey, we have been able to (very, very slowly) scale this operation. So stayed tuned, ladies and gents. Our best content is still to come. You loyal admin, Garrett Zatlin

Nike Outdoor Nationals takes place this weekend and we are pumped! Despite being relatively young among the onslaught of high school national meets, Nike Outdoor Nationals has quickly become home to many elite performances, fantastic matchups and all-time marks. Just as we did for New Balance Outdoor Nationals, we have offered our All-American picks for the distance events (800 meters and up) for Nike Outdoor Nationals! You can find entries for the meet by clicking here. On the site, The Stride Report had three different writers offer national meet predictions for this weekend. In their lists, our writers predicted the top-eight finishers (which are deemed as All-American spots) for the 800 meters, the mile, the two-mile, the 5000 meters, the DMR, the 4x800-meter relay and the 4xMile relay. Go check out our PREDICTIONS page and peruse through the never-ending picks that we have for one of the most exciting times of the year!

Production via Wyatt Barnsley On this week’s episode of The Stride Report Podcast, Ben and Garrett recap a thrilling 2026 NCAA Outdoor Championships headlined by Sanu Jallow-Lockhart’s historic 1:56.85 (800) NCAA record in what may have been the greatest collegiate women’s 800m race ever. The guys dive into the controversy surrounding Doris Lemngole’s disqualification that opened the door for Marion Jepngetich to claim 5k gold, along with victories from Mercyline Kirwa in the 10k and Taylor Lovell in the steeplechase. They also break down Colin Sahlman’s electrifying kick to win the men’s 800m title, Simeon Birnbaum conquering the NCAA’s 1500m curse, and Habtom Samuel’s incredible distance double with victories in both the 10k and 5k. The episode wraps with championship performances from Geoffrey Kirwa and Rosemary Longisa, as Ben and Garrett unpack one of the most memorable NCAA meets in recent memory. Be sure to listen, subscribe and review! (3:44) Jallow Runs NCAA Record of 1:56.85 in Fastest Collegiate 800m Race Ever (11:33) Jepngetich Wins 5k Gold After Lemngole is DQ’d (21:09) Mercyline Kirwa Upsets Field to Win NCAA 10k Title (29:23) Colin Sahlman Wins NCAA 800m Title With Massive Kick (37:45 Birnbaum Breaks NCAA 1500m “Curse”, Wins National Title (43:16) Habtom Samuel Runs 27:51 to Win Second Career NCAA 10k Title (49:41) Habtom Samuel Rides 55-Second Final Lap to Earn NCAA 5k Title (55:06) Taylor Lovell Rides Huge Kick to NCAA Steeple Title (1:00:34) Geoffrey Kirwa Holds Off Kiptanui to Win Steeple Title (1:03:47) Rosemary Longisa Goes Wire-to-Wire to Win NCAA 1500m Title 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.