Nico Young, Graham Blanks Lead Talented Field Of Men; Shelby Houlihan, Weini Kelati, Parker Valby Lead Women's Entries

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

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With the United States set to host the World Athletics Cross Country Championships for the first time in 34 years, Saturday's USATF Cross Country Championships are taking on added signficance and drawing some, but not all, of the country's top talents.

Glendoveer Golf Course in Northeast Portland is double-booked on Saturday. Nike Cross Nationals will inhabit the space in the morning, and the USATF meet schedule will roll out afterward, making it one of the most exciting days of the year for racing on grass.

American athletes who still have goals in the indoor season don't have to give them up in order to run Saturday's qualifying meet and then the Jan. 10 World Championships in Tallahassee, Fla. 

Saturday USATF Cross Country Schedule

Men's 2k Championship - 12:30 p.m. Pacific

Women's 2k Championship - 12:40 p.m. Pacific

Men's 10k Championship - 12:55 p.m. Pacific

Women's 10k Championship - 1:50 p.m. Pacific

Men's U20 8k Championship - 2:50 p.m. Pacific

Women's U20 8k Championship - 3:30 p.m. Pacific

Stars Aligned For Men's 10K

The lure of competing at the World Championships on home turf is clearly an exciting one for the fastest Americans. This year’s field is stacked, and the men’s 10k could be the race of the day. The top six will qualify for the World Championships.

Four Americans broke 13 minutes in the 5,000 meters in 2025 and three of them will be on the starting line: Graham Blanks, Nico Young and Cooper Teare.

There U.S. team candidates such as Woody Kincaid, Wesley Kiptoo, Rocky Hansen, Parker Wolfe, Drew Hunter, Liam Murphy… the list goes on. The point is, this won’t resemble the national championship meets we’ve seen on the grass in recent years. This is a true collection of the nation’s best, with a few exceptions.

Blanks and Young, both of whom competed for the U.S. at the World Athletics Track And Field Championships in Tokyo, are th biggest names in the meet. Young has consistently beaten Blanks this year and yet Blanks, the 2023 and 2024 NCAA champion, is arguably the favorite.

The former Harvard standout only lost one race over his last two collegiate cross country seasons. He was also a force on the track, to be sure — he was at one point the NCAA record holder in the indoor 5,000 meters — but he clearly has something figured out in cross country. 

Young, meanwhile, solidified himself as one of the next great American distance runners this outdoor season. He broke Grant Fisher’s American record in the 5,000 meters in June, running 12:45.27 at the Oslo Diamond League, and he recorded top-10 finishes in the 5,000 and 10,000 in Tokyo. In college, he competed four times at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, and his highest finish was second in 2022.

Young will also be returning to the place where he won Nike Cross Nationals in 2019 as a junior at Newbury Park CA. 

Teare, Kiptoo, Hunter and Wolfe seem like the next guys up. All of them have impressive resumes, but with a likely torn-up course (more on that later), this race will test more than fitness. Guys with a proven cross country history like Blanks and Kiptoo will likely be at an advantage. 

Talented Field In Women's 10K

The women’s 10k is also star-studded. Off the bat, names like Shelby Houlihan and Weini Kelati stand out, but it goes so much deeper. Parker Valby, who recently returned from injury, is in the field. So are mid-distance stars like Olivia Markezich and Katelyn Tuohy. Without multiple events to separate the talent, this team will be one of the toughest to make, regardless of season, in 2025.

Houlihan has enjoyed a remarkable return to competition in 2025 after serving a four-year ban from 2021 to 2024. She took second in the 3,000 meters at the World Indoor Championships and fourth in the 5,000 at the World Outdoor Championships.

Kelati, meanwhile, had a strong presence on the roads this year, breaking the American record in the half marathon in January with a 1:06:09 performance at the Houston Half Marathon. She also finished fourth at the USATF Championships in the 5,000 and 10,000, barely missing qualifying for the World Athletics Championships in both. 

Valby is a proven threat in cross country — she won an NCAA title in 2023 and took second the year prior — but she’s only competed twice in 2025 due to injury. She returned last month with a 15:37 performance in the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k, which earned her fourth place, but whether she can compete on the national stage remains a question.

Tuohy will be returning to a place that holds incredible memories and yet had no reason to expect to ever see it again. She won three NXN titles at Glendoveer Golf Course in high school, an unprecedented feat. 

Rocky Hansen's Extended Season

Wake Forest’s Rocky Hansen finally discovered this fall what a healthy cross country season looks like. After being forced to miss significant time in both his freshman and sophomore seasons, Hansen made it through his 2025 campaign unscathed and put together a string of dominant performances. He didn’t finish lower than second in any of his five races, and he came within five seconds of an NCAA title, taking second to New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel at the NCAA Championships on Nov. 22.

That’s a 98-spot improvement from his performance in 2024. 

On a recent episode of DyeStat Discussions, Hansen said that going into the year, he wasn’t even thinking about running at this meet, but his coach, John Hayes, presented him with the opportunity in mid-October.

At the time, he still wasn’t fully on board, but after winning an ACC title, he realized that he might have a shot to contend with the best of the best. 

“The more and more I thought about it,” Hansen said, “the idea sat in my mind, the more and more it just became obvious to me that I absolutely wanted to do it.”

Hansen said he knows he’s in shape to run fast right now, and while most of his fellow collegians will be competing in Boston at the BU Sharon Colyear Season Opener, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to represent his country.

Strand, Gilman, Ciattei Leads Men's 2K Field

In 2017, the IAAF introduced the 4x2km mixed relay to the World Cross Country Championships, featuring two athletes from each gender on a relay team. This year, for the first time, the USATF Championships will feature a 2-kilometer race to serve as a selection process. The top two male and female runners will comprise the four-person squad. 

The entry lists are relatively small — 40 male competitors and just 16 women — but there’s top talent on each side. On the men’s side, Ethan Strand should be the favorite; the newly minted pro for Nike took second in the 1,500 meters at both the NCAA Championships and the USATF Outdoor Championships, and he’s run 3:48.32 in the mile. 

The other favorite to make the team is likely Sam Gilman, a member of the Air Force World Class Athlete Program. Gilman broke out this year, setting personal bests of 3:51.49 in the mile, 7:34.69 in the 3,000, and 13:15.58 in the 5,000. With a relatively thinned-out field (most of the stars are in the 10k), Gilman is in a good spot to make his second world team.

Vincent Ciattei is also one to watch; he was seventh in the 1,500 at the U.S. Championships, the second-highest finish of anyone in the field. The 30-year-old broke 3:50 in the mile for the first time in his career this season, running 3:49.37 at the Oslo Diamond League in June, and he claimed his third national title in the road mile in April.

Ciattei has never run at a world championship, but January could be his chance. He was never stellar on the grass during his collegiate career at Virginia Tech — he only ran at the NCAA Championships once, and he finished 190th — but he’s proven over the last several years that he’s one of the best mid-distance runners in the country.

Craig Engels, a fan favorite, will also toe the line in the 2k. Engels, like Ciattei, is a mid-distance specialist, but he’s had a slightly more productive cross country career. In his last season for Ole Miss, he was 11th at the SEC Championships and 90th at the NCAA Championships.

Again, that was 10k. On Saturday, it's five minutes of all-out running.

One notable wild card is Brandon Miller of the Brooks Beasts. Miller is an 800-meter specialist who hasn’t raced cross country since he was a junior in high school in 2018. Miller did break four minutes in the mile for the first time in his career this year, running 3:57.81 at the HOKA Festival of Miles, but whether his talent will translate to the grass is a big question to be answered.

Small But Mighty Field In Women's 2K

There are only 16 women entered in the women’s 2k on Saturday, but with names like Sage Hurta-Klecker, Emily Mackay and Gracie Morris in the field, making the team will be no small feat. 

Hurta-Klecker is primarily an 800-meter runner — she was fifth in the event at the World Athletics Championships in September — but she boasts a 1,500 PB of 4:01.79 and some strong cross country performances from her collegiate career at Colorado. In her four NCAA Cross Country championship races, she finished 40th, 35th, 22nd and 38th, albeit in longer races.

Mackay, meanwhile, has shown her strength in the longer events; in addition to winning bronze in the 1,500 at the USATF Outdoor Championships this year, she also set personal bests of 8:35.35 in the 3,000 meters and 14:45.81 in the 5,000, both well faster than Hurta-Klecker’s PBs. However, her cross country resume isn’t as strong. She qualified for the NCAA Championships twice while she was at Binghamton, and she finished 14th and 52nd in those races — the former was at the delayed 2020 championships (held in March 2021).

Morris is a relativel new contender. The 23-year-old came onto the scene in a big way this year with a four-second PB in the 1,500 and an 11-second PB in the mile, running 4:04.05 and 4:23.74, respectively. She finished ninth at the USATF Championships and then went on a hot streak in August and September, winning the Sir Walter Miler, Guardian Mile and Fifth Avenue Mile in the span of a month. Morris also doesn’t have much of a cross country resume — she posted a 142nd-place finish and a DNF in her two NCAA championship races — but she certainly has momentum. It wouldn’t be surprising to see her qualify for Worlds.

Those three aren’t the only contenders; Addy Wiley, Dani Jones and Kayley DeLay could also find themselves in the top two. With a small, tight pack, this race could belong to anyone.

High School And College Standouts Collide In Men's U20 8k

The timing of this year’s meet made it somewhat difficult to attract top high school and college talent. Many of the best high schoolers will be running on the same course on the same day at Nike Cross Nationals, and many of the best collegians will be on the other side of the country at BU. 

However, there are still some familiar names in this year’s U20 races. On the men’s side, Juan Gonzalez looks like a clear contender. The Oregon freshman redshirted this fall, but he ran unattached at the Dellinger Invitational in October and finished seventh, running 23:27.8. Gonzalez was a standout in high school, too; last fall, he finished 13th at NXN and second at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships.

Texas freshman Aidan Torres is another contender. Torres finished 22nd at the Missouri Pre-National Invitational, 28th at the SEC Championships and 15th at the NCAA South Central Regional, coming within a few spots of qualifying for the NCAA Championships. His fastest 8k of the season came at Pre-Nationals, where he ran 23:46.2.

On the high school side, Daniel Skandera could make his way onto the podium. The unattached senior from Alabama only ran one cross country race this fall, but that was enough to solidify himself as one of the top high schoolers in the country; he ran 14:43.88 to win the Run the Hunt meet in Huntsville, Alabama in October. He also got a head start on his track season, running an 8:51.07 at the Hoka Toad Two Mile on Nov. 15.

The team selection will include a top finisher from NXN. The situation is further complicated by the age issue. Some athletes who qualify as Under-20 in 2025 will not qualify for U20 in January of 2026.

Zariel Macchia Looks To Win Another U20 Women's Title

BYU freshman Zariel Macchia has been a fixture at the USATF Cross Country Championships in the first half of this decade. She made her first U20 team in 2022 at the age of 15 when she took third, and she’s won each of the last two years. She’s once again back in the field on Saturday, looking for her third straight U20 title. 

Macchia posted four top-20 finishes in her first four collegiate meets and was 82nd at the NCAA Championships, where she ran her personal best of 19:50.3. 

Last year’s runner-up, Liliah Gordon, is also back in the field. Gordon is a freshman at Penn State, and she ran four races this fall; her best performance was a 78th place finish at the Big Ten Cross Country Championships on Oct. 31, where she ran 21:35.3. 

Another freshman to look out for is Duke’s Victoria Garces. Last fall, Garces dominated her high school competition, going undefeated until NXN and the Foot Locker Championships, and she finished second at both of those races. This year, she ran in four races for the Blue Devils, and she set a PB of 20:14.3 at the NCAA Southeast Regional.

Course Characteristics

USATF made a bold move by hosting this meet concurrently with NXN. Putting it in Portland in early December means one thing for sure: rain. The city is supposed to see light to moderate showers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and that steady stream of precipitation is going to make for a muddy course.

Of course, that’s been a common theme at NXN for years, but with six extra races on the day, heavy-trafficked areas on Glendoveer Golf Course's fairways will be well-chewed by the end of the afternoon.

The conditions will likely have major implications on these races. While most major cross country courses in the U.S. look and feel hardly different from a track, the grass (or mud) at Glendoveer is going to be one of the least responsive surfaces these athletes have ever run on.

Track stars who coasted through NCAA XC meets on pure fitness might have a tough time when their spike gets stuck in the mud.

It’s going to take strength, experience and pure grit to make it to Tallahassee.

A notable change to the selection procedure: because of the death of the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, the six Team USA qualifying spots will be offered to the top five from the U20 races and one eligible athlete from the top three NXN finishers. 

If none of the top three from NXN accept the spot, the sixth spot will go to the next eligible runner from the U20 race.

The full qualifying procedures can be found here.