2025 D3 XC Nationals by the Numbers

On paper, when the day ends, the NCAA meet becomes nothing more than a series of statistics and bragging rights. There may be some (many) boneheads still awake after midnight, still riding the highs and up to ostensibly innocuous debauchery, while their coach can only pray for no phone calls from their athletic director the following day. But eventually it does end. 24 hours later they’re back home after a mind-numbing travel day, probably working on late semester homework. And wondering what exactly to make of the weekend.

Who can be proud of what they accomplished? Most of you, hopefully. What makes the national meet special is all the little stories that come of it: the triumphs and even the defeats, the camaraderie exuded by all those who played a role. From the front runners bringing home a trophy to the 7th men, to the coaches and volunteer assistants, to the non-varsity numskulls ardently agreeing to drive hundreds of miles cross-country, watch a 30 minute race, and turn right back around. It’s a spirit that simply isn’t found in most other aspects of life. In the words of my college coach, regardless of the result: “That’s sport! Now let’s go home.”

Here are some noteworthy numbers from the D3 NCAA meet.

Moving Up

-269 - The finish place differential for Isaac vanWestrienen (Sr. / Cornell College) from his 2024 nationals race to 2025: 272nd in 2024, 3rd in 2025. -269?? This is a guy who ran 10:01 and 4:37 in high school. His 2024 place is certainly more believable based on his rough talent echelon out of high school. How exactly he pulled off this season ending in 3rd in the nation should be investigated. (You may or may not get an email from me.) There are seldom better examples of D3 perseverance and self-belief than IVW.

-153 - The 2024-2025 place differential for Chloe Bonson (Sr. / Carnegie Mellon). In 2024 she was 159th: a solid performance, but in no way a signal that she was destined to improve so much from her junior to senior year. Whether she consciously aspired to it or not, placing 6th overall in the following year indicates a special level of focus and determination to level up.

137th - Mo Bati’s (Sr. / Augsburg) place at the 1K mark. After a hard fall in the first minutes of the race, Mo rocketed past 87 people from 1K to 2K, 36 more from 2K to 3K, and by 4K he was right with the leaders, until the coal he threw in to make up all that ground finally stopped combusting in the last kilometer. Mo’s performance took heaps of guts. (Addendum: 20 - the number of miles Mo ran the next day after landing back in Minnesota - at a 5:54 average.)

↑2 - The CMS women’s team’s movement from 5K to 6K, which landed them 3rd overall. Why is this cool? Because 4 minutes prior to the finish, CMS was off the podium. Team movements are usually macro over the course of the race, not in the last K. CMS turned on the lawnmower at the last possible moment. Every single Athena moved up in the last K, and the mean of their collective 5 to 6K movement was ↑11.5 places.

Split/Seconds

2:37.9 - Jacob Curulewski’s (Sr. / Carthage) final kilometer - the fastest in the entire meet - to place 8th overall. That’s national-caliber closing speed regardless of division, and he should feel supremely confident about his chances in the 10K next spring. (A very misleading stat: this appears to be across all divisions as well. No D1 All-Americans appear to have closed their last kilometer faster than Jacob. The D1 champion Habtom Samuel, as one example, closed his final K in a 2:44. Of course, D1 runs 10K in XC and it was a different course.)

49 - The seconds Audrey MacLean (Jr. / Middlebury) put on Jules Bleskoski (Jr. / RPI). Both of these performances were excellent. In predicting the champion, the discourse was pretty dead even between Audrey and Jules. Such is the nature of competition: it can ebb and flow. (Jules beat Audrey handily as soon as a month and a half prior at Paul Short, and smacked her by one second last year at nationals.) Lucky for fans of the sport, both runners are juniors and this is not the last time they will fight for the crown. (Although they will have to not be so focused on each other as to forget Olivia Warr (Jr. / Washington and Lee) or Grace Rowley (So. / NYU) - the 3rd and 4th returners not too far behind….)

2 - The seconds separating senior twins Grant Matthai and Aidan Matthai (UW-La Crosse) at nationals. As good as Grant is, this statistic is more of a reflection of Aidan. This season, that split was as wide as 22 seconds at WIACs. Aidan was 8th at conference then - and then clutched back up to be 7th at nationals.

.3 - The seconds separating the final All-American on the women’s side, Kate Tuttle (So. / Williams) from 41st place, Molly Liston (Sr. / Gustavus Adolphus). .3 seconds was all it took to be handed an individual trophy to forever perch on a bookshelf or desk, versus a heartfelt pat on the back. Again - “that’s sport.”

Teams

-14 - the team that most outperformed D3GD’s final rankings by a long shot was the Vassar Women: we ranked them 24th and they were 10th at nationals. It helps to have a frontrunner like Haley Schoenegge (Jr. / 14th), but Anika Mueller-Hickler (Sr. / 95th) and Chloe Bibula (So. / 97th) squeaking under the top 100 really helped their cause.

-10 - A three-way tie on the men’s side between Amherst, St. Olaf, and Wash U for outperforming D3GD’s final rankings. We ranked Amherst 21st and they placed 11; St. Olaf 23rd and they placed 13th; Wash U 26th and they placed 16th. (Ignatius Fitzgerald (Sr. / St. Olaf) gave me a ring right after the race to trash our rankings. Funny guy eh? The Oles didn’t do anything all season to warrant being ranked under 20, let alone 13th. Until you did, when it mattered. It’s fun to prove people wrong. Good work!)

1 - The points separating the 2nd place men’s team SUNY Geneseo from 3rd place Wartburg. A matter of fractions of a second, and the accrual of miniscule decisions each and every runner on both teams made throughout the race. Thrilling for one side - searing for the other.

1 - Signifying the one member of D3GD who had NYU winning for the women and/or SUNY Geneseo on the podium at all for the men - Emily Richards. Based out of New York herself, she must have seen something firsthand that the rest of the team’s Midwest brains couldn’t fathom.

52 - the number of years that the North Central College men have consecutively qualified for nationals. Nothing but business as usual for the Cardinals. With 5 of their top 7 returning next year, you’d be a maroon to bet against 53.

First Time for Everything

19th - The top freshman’s place on the men’s side, Anthony Clark (Johns Hopkins). Whatever they put in the D3 water in Baltimore is working; to have the individual champion and the top freshman in the country indicates a program that recruits as well as it develops. Although Anthony didn’t win this honor by much - Theo Udelson-Nee (Fr. / NYU) was not far back in 31st, 6 seconds away. Let’s circle back 3 years from now in 2028 when they both just finished their senior campaign…)

14th - The top freshman’s place on the women’s side, Mia Kotler (Johns Hopkins). Did I say JHU does a good job of recruiting? (Mia will have her own rival for years to come - Madison Hedglin (Fr. / Misericordia) - 19th place, only 3 seconds behind Mia….)

31st - the place for first time All-American Cullen McCaleb (Jr. / Tufts). I wrote about him in the East Regional preview and I’m not done. Cullen never ran regionals, let alone nationals, before this season. He never placed higher than 61st at XC NESCACs before 2025. And now he’s 31st in the country.

23rd/26th - The men/women’s team places for Hope College. Head Coach Mark Northuis has been at the helm for Hope College for 38 years - since 1988. And it was in his 38th year that Hope, for the first time, qualified both the men and the women in the same year. Carston Cole (Sr.) and Molly Durow (Sr.) kept the faith and led their teams in tandem.

3 - The number of programs that successfully competed at NCAAs for the first time in their program’s history. These accolades belong to Lebanon Valley (22nd) on the men’s side, Suffolk (30th) on the women’s side, and Swarthmore (32nd) on the women’s side. All three programs only had one senior in their scoring 5 last weekend. If they don’t rest on their laurels, it’s fair to expect them again next year.

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Great job to everyone who competed last weekend. Whether you succeeded or fell short, take 24 hours, and start thinking about how to be better next season.