North Carolina State Wins Fourth National Title In Five Years With Hannah Gapes And Grace Hartman Placing 5th And 6th To Lead Wolfpack; Lemngole Runs Fastest 6K Time In Meet History

By David Woods for DyeStat

PHOTOS by Kylie Graham | RESULTS

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Doris Lemngole, 23, will learn in a few weeks if she wins the Bowerman Award, presented annually to collegiate track and field’s athlete of the year. Jane Hedengren, 19, was 2025 high school athlete of the year.

They matched up Saturday morning on the squishy grass of a Gans Creek Course that should not have produced fast times -- but did anyway. These NCAA Cross Country Championships will be remembered not for times, however, but for the drama at the front.

It became a race that should be revisited if Lemngole or Hedengren, or both, ever climb onto an Olympic podium.

It was maturity vs. precociousness. Maturity won, perhaps because Lemngole knew who and what she was dealing with.

“Running with her, I knew that’s going to be competitive,” Lemngole said. “I was just going with her.”

Lemngole, an Alabama junior, repeated as women’s champion by going with and then past Hedengren. Lemngole’s time for 6,000 meters was 18 minutes, 25.4 seconds, or 13 seconds ahead of the BYU freshman.

Florida’s Hilda Olemomoi was third in 18:46.4. Riley Chamberlain, also of BYU, was fourth in 18:47.0. 

Hannah Gapes and Grace Hartman were fifth and sixth, leading No. 1 North Carolina State to a fourth team title in five years.

All six women were under the NCAA record of 18:55.2 set by Florida’s Parker Valby at Charlottesville, Va, in 2023.

Fifteen of the top 20 were foreign runners, 11 of them Kenyans. New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei, second in cross country last year before sweeping NCAA titles at 5,000 and 10,000 meters, finished 17th.

After Hedengren, Chamberlain and Hartman, the fourth American in the top 10 was Notre Dame sophomore Mary Bonner Dalton in 18:58.0 for 10th.

“The NCAA has significantly leveled up in just the past 12 months,” Hartman said. “This championship is a lot different from last year.”

Soon after 3 kilometers, Lemngole and Hedengren broke away. Both were timed in 12:20.9 at 4K, 15:24+ at 5K.

So Lemnogle essentially built all of her lead in the closing kilometer. It was, Hedengren said, an “awesome fight out there.”

Lemngole had set a collegiate record of 8:58 in the steeplechase and was fifth in the World Championships at Tokyo two months ago. She is the NCAA’s first back-to-back winner since Villanova’s Sheila Reid in 2010-11.

Asked whether it was harder than a year ago to win this NCAA race, Lemngole replied:

“Absolutely.”

Hedengren ran 18:42 on this course Oct. 17 (with firmer footing), and 18:38.9 Saturday. Here she was, in her first NCAAs, pushing the pace against . . . well, against one of the world’s top distance runners.

“It’s OK to relentlessly chase what you want and to go after it, and to hold your head high even if it doesn’t work out,” she said. “Because that’s what it’s about, man. That is the fun part.

“It was a great opportunity to be out there competing. I just want to put myself out there every time and line up with the best. Because it can show yourself that self-discovery process.”

She said she would not try to make Team USA for the World Cross Country Championships, set for Jan. 10 at Tallahassee, Fla. Instead, Hedengren plans to race in the Boston indoor track meet Dec. 6, the same day as cross country nationals.

North Carolina State, ahead by 48 points through 5K, beat No. 2 BYU 114-130. BYU was defending champion.

Oregon scored 153 for third, its first podium finish since 2018. New Mexico was fourth with 216 and Florida fifth with 225.

Other N.C. State scorers were Bethany Michalak, 29th; Angelina Napoleon, 40th; Sadie Engelhardt, 51st.

Michalak was 160th last year. Napoleon, the ACC champion, dropped 21 spots in the last kilometer.

Engelhardt, a freshman, held steady after crossing the first kilometer in 65th. She “never really went backward,” N.C. State coach Laurie Henes said. “That was huge for us.”

Oregon led N.C. State 113-136 at 1K and 123-126 at 2K. The Wolfpack led Oregon 114-144 by 3K.

Henes said most team champions start conservatively and move up. Hartman and Gapes were “lights out,” the coach said.

Hartman led most of the ACC race before fading to fourth. She said she has been coping with plantar fasciitis and other health issues.

“Mentally, it’s been super challenging dealing with it,” she said. “Coming into this race, it was like, ‘Do everything I can for the team.’ And that’s all I can ask for.”

Winning the team championship “was no sure-fire thing,” Hartman said. N.C. State was coming off an eighth-place finish from 2024.

“We always say it’s not just the seven people lining up that day. The program is a lot bigger than that,” Henes said. “It is the people that came before you and the people who come after you.

“And this group is doing a fantastic job with being the leaders we want to attract the people we want.”

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