Healthy This Season, Wake Forest's Hansen Is A Title Threat, Joining Two-Time Runner-Up Samuel And Several Kenyan Standouts

By David Woods for DyeStat

Tavan Smith and Donal Pearce Photos

In another cross country autumn dominated by Kenyan runners, it’s plausible an American man could win the NCAA individual title for a fifth time in six years.

That champion could be Wake Forest junior Rocky Hansen.

He would have to beat a formidable field, led by New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel, an Eritrean who finished second in each of the past two years.

Kenyan contenders include Brian Masau and Denis Kipngetich, both of top-ranked Oklahoma State, Solomon Kipchoge of Washington State and Florida freshman Kelvin Cheruiyot.

The NCAA Cross County Championships will be Saturday on the Gans Creek Course at Columbia, Mo. Start times are 9:20 CT (10:20 ET) for the women’s 6,000 meters and 10:10 CT (11:10 ET) for the men’s 10,000 meters. 

Races will be televised live on ESPNU.

No Kenyan has won the race since Iowa State’s Edwin Kurgat in 2019. BYU’s Conner Mantz won both titles in 2021 (March and November), and Harvard’s Graham Blanks did so in 2023 and 2024. The 2022 champion was Stanford’s British-born, American-raised Charles Hicks.

Hansen finished 100th last year, 78 seconds behind Blanks, after recovering from heat stroke. But he is coming off two emphatic victories, winning by 21 seconds in the ACC and nine seconds in the South Region.

“I’m just super confident with where I’m at fitness-wise,” Hansen said. “I’ve been extremely grateful for health this year. In past years, that has not been the case.”

In 2025 NCAA Championships, Hansen was less than one second behind Samuel in the indoor 5,000, less than two seconds behind in the outdoor 5,000. Outdoors, Musau was first (13:20.59), Samuel second (13:20.89) and Hansen fifth (13:22.47).

“The whole mentality this year is, ‘Hey, you’ve shown it on the track, Let’s show it on the course. That’s the one piece that’s missing for you, dude,’ “ Hansen said.

Out of nine regions, foreign men took 54 of the top-10 individual finishes (60 percent). Of those 54, there were 31 Kenyans (34 percent).

Musau, fifth in NCAA cross country in 2024, won his third straight Big 12 title. He won the 10,000 at July’s World University Games, too. Kipngetich, fourth in the NCAAs in 2023 and 11th in 2024, won his third straight Midwest Region.

Kipchoge and Cheruiyot won the West and South regions, respectively. Cheruiyot also won pre-nationals on this course Oct. 17.

The team race inevitably will reprise duels between Oklahoma State and No. 2 Iowa State. The Cowboys won 38-41 in the Midwest Region and 20-43 in the Big 12.

 In the Big 12, Oklahoma State dominated with a 1-2-4-6-7 finish.

On Oct. 27, Iowa State announced some runners were suspended for violating team rules. The runners’ names and specifics of the infractions were undisclosed.

Oklahoma State is seeking a second NCAA title in three years and sixth overall. The Cowboys emphatically won the Midwest Region last year, then inexplicably dropped to eighth at NCAAs.

No. 3 New Mexico has never finished higher than eighth on the men’s side. The Lobos placed four in the top seven of the Mountain Region.

No. 4 Syracuse is seeking a return to the podium (top four) for the first time since 2016. In the Northeast Region, the Orange placed all five scorers in the top 10.

Rest of the top 10 teams: No. 5 Virginia, No. 6 Oregon, No. 7 Colorado, No. 8 BYU, No. 9 (tie) Northern Arizona and Alabama. Thus the Mountain Region has four of the top 10: New Mexico, Colorado, BYU and Northern Arizona.

Virginia, which beat Syracuse to win the ACC, was third in the Southeast Region behind champion Wake Forest and Eastern Kentucky.

The once-strong Great Lakes Region has no team ranked higher than No. 13 Notre Dame.

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.