The best junior college cross country teams and individuals will make way to Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Nov. 8 for the 2025 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Cross Country Championships.

 

Six races, across three divisions, will be contested at Lakeside Golf Course, beginning at 9:30 a.m. CT.

 

 

Division 1 programs Iowa Western and Hutchinson (Kansas) will be vying for their program’s first national title in the men’s race following top-three finishes at last year’s national meet.

 

No. 1 Iowa Western will feature Barnabas Ndiwa and Geofrey Ronoh, fourth and fifth at last year’s national meet, respectively, who are ranked top three among individuals this season. At the Fort Hays State Tiger Open on Oct. 11, Ronoh and Ndiwa both posted 8-kilometer times of 23 minutes, 32 seconds.

 

No. 2 Hutchinson counters Iowa Western’s duo with Titus Kiprotich and Cornelius Kogo. Kiprotich, ninth at nationals last fall, and Kogo are among top 10 individuals this season. Dennis Cheruiyot is another key contributor to Hutchinson’s team, finishing 10th at nationals last fall, but has had an up and down season.

 

No. 3 Iowa Central, winners of five national titles in the last 11 national meets, aim to redeem last year’s 19th-place finish. Led by Chakib Cherkaoui Rhazouni, 10th in the country this fall, the Tritons will go for the program’s first team title since winning the program’s fifth in 2021.

 

Amantle Modingwane of Ranger (Texas) figures to be the individual favorite, posting the fastest 8k time this fall in 23:21. Emmanuel Otim of No. 5 Butler, third at last year’s national meet, expects to challenge Modingwane for the national title with championship experience.

 

The No. 1 Odessa (Texas) women are a heavy favorite to win the Division 1 title, which would be a first in program history. Five of the top 20 runners in the country hail from Odessa, including low stick Milicent Wafula, who’s fourth in the country with a 5k time of 17:14.5. Kaydeen Johnson, this year’s No. 5 for Odessa, finished ninth at nationals last fall.

 

No. 2 Iowa Western, led by the nation’s top runner in Juliana Sakat, is another program seeking its first national title.

 

Sakat is undefeated in junior college races and posted a strong time of 20:21.5 for 6k at the Gans Creek Classic to finish fourth amongst NCAA Division 1 schools. Sakat’s chances of an individual title give Iowa Western glimmers of hope of claiming a spot on the podium after failing to qualify for last year’s national meet.

 

Standing in Sakat’s way of an individual title is three-time NJCAA Athlete of the Week, Mildred Rono of Hutchinson. Sakat holds an advantage over Rono in their one meet up this season, winning the Fort Hays State Tiger Open by a second. Sakat’s 16:40 and Rono’s 16:41.1 are the two-fastest times in the country this fall by a substantial amount.

 

No. 3 El Paso, seventh at nationals last fall, will be racing for its first podium since 2021, finishing third in that meet. El Paso’s highest finish came at the 2014 meet, winning the program’s only national title that season.

 

In Division 2, the No. 1 Lansing men will go for a third consecutive team title and ninth title in program history. Four individuals from last year’s national’s line up that sparked a 66-point outing to complete back-to-back titles will be back this weekend to race. In addition, Nate Carmody and Evan Suydam, top 10 individuals in Division 2, add more depth to this year’s team that poses as an overwhelming favorite again.

 

Esteban Boisseau of Cowley (Kansas) made big improvements this fall, taking off 90 seconds on his best 8k time from last fall to 24:15.7 as the fastest time in Divisions 2. Boiiseau, 11th in last year’s national meet, is among this year’s individual favorites.

 

Brady Egar and Alexavier Martinez of Paradise Valley (Arizona) can expect to challenge Boisseau for the individual title, posting times of 24:24.4 and 24:45.6, respectively, this fall.

 

A clash of last year’s top two teams on the women’s side – defending champion Mesa and runner-up Paradise Valley – will renew its close battle the national meet. Mesa, finishing with five individuals in the top 20, scored 51 points to win the program’s first title, beating Paradise Valley, four individuals in the top 20, by 16 points.

 

No. 1 Mesa has remained atop the national rankings in part to returning four individuals from last year’s national championship team. The Thunderbirds also welcomed freshman Olivia Baker, who is fifth in Division 2 this fall.

 

No. 2 Paradise Valley features the top two individuals in Division 2 in Laynee Hollech and Audrey Encinas. Hollech, seventh at nationals last fall, and Encinas will work together to score the lowest number of points possible to lead Paradise Valley to its first Division 2 team title in over two decades.

 

The Division 3 men’s team race circles around the last two national champions in Illinois schools Harper and DuPage.

 

No. 1 Harper, led by Ryan Golden and three other top 10 nationally ranked individuals, are eyeing the program’s 10th title in 14 years after finishing second to DuPage last season by six points.

 

No. 2 DuPage, defending champions led by Jack Schultz, are looking to become the first team to win back-to-back Division 3 national titles since Mineral Area (Missouri) in 2019-20.

 

Defending individual champion, Nathan Ciarlette of Joliet (Illinois), will not only look to regain his title, but lead his team to another podium finish and perhaps the program’s first national title since 2021. Ciarlette could become the first back-to-back individual champion since Chris Mason in 2007-08.

 

No. 1 Mineral Area (Missouri) women are another team vying to defend its national. Led by its trio of Clay Whittenburg, Emily Marriott and Alyson Skiles. Mineral Area would be the second team in the past four championships to go back-to-back, joining Harper in 2022-23.

 

Both Whittenburg and Marriott and Tyliah Diaz-Cruz of Thaddeus Stevens Tech (Pennsylvania) are in the individual title hunt.