NCAA Cross Country Preview — Overview/Schedule

Snow blanketed Wisconsin’s Zimmer Championship Course during its previous NCAA XC hosting in ’18. (MIKE SCOTT)

WHEN ASSESSING NCAA Cross Country possibilities in September, hard data is relatively scarce. Evidence in the form of major meet results doesn’t pour in copiously until late October. Individual stars and full-strength squads more often that not race infrequently before then, and after that it’s off to the races over 3 weeks in November.

For the third time in NCAA XC history, Wisconsin will host the Nationals, which will be run on November 23 over 6K for the women and 10K for the men. The Zimmer Championship Course, laid out in ’09 and used previously  for the Nationals in ’18, is a spectator-friendly rolling route on grass, if the weather is warm and dry — by no means a given in late fall in the heartland.

At past major competitions over the Zimmer route, packs have tended to stay large late into the running, and a salient feature of the course is its uphill approach to the finish.

Follow the links below to the 4 detailed sections of our Div. I-based NCAA Cross Country Preview:

Men’s Teams Women’s Teams
Men’s Individuals Women’s Individuals
2024 Collegiate Cross Country Schedule
Major Invitationals
September
13 Fighting Illini/Big 10 Preview Savoy, Illinois
Spiked Shoe Invitational University Park, Pennsylvania
Texas A&M Invitational College Station, Texas
14 Virginia Invitational Charlottesville, Virginia
20 Griak Invitational Falcon Heights, Minnesota
21 McNichols Invitational Terre Haute, Indiana
27 FSU Pre-Regional Tallahassee, Florida
Gans Creek Invitational Columbia, Missouri
Nuttycombe Invitational Verona, Wisconsin
28 Cowboy Jamboree Stillwater, Oklahoma
October
04 Piane Invitational Notre Dame, Indiana
05 Short Invitational Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
11 FSU Invite Tallahassee, Florida
18 Barrios Invitational College Station, Texas
Bradley Pink Classic Peoria, Illinois
Crimson Classic Tuscaloosa, Alabama
19 Panorama Farms Invitational Charlottesville, Virginia
Pre-Nationals Verona, Wisconsin
Weis-Crockett Invitational Stillwater, Oklahoma
Div. I Conferences
October
18 IC4A/ECAC Bronx, New York
21 SWAC Tallahassee, Florida
November
01 ACC Raleigh, North Carolina
Big 10 Savoy, Illinois
Big 12 Waco, Texas
Big East Leesburg, Virginia
Big Sky Pocatello, Idaho
Big South Charleston, South Carolina
Colonial Elon, North Carolina
Missouri Valley Cedar Falls, Iowa
Mountain West Air Force Academy, Colorado
Ohio Valley Union City, Tennessee
SEC College Station, Texas
Southland New Orleans, Louisiana
Sun Belt Foley, Alabama
WAC Orem, Utah
02 America East St. Albans, Vermont
American Athletic Wichita, Kansas
Atlantic 10 Mechanicsville, Virginia
Atlantic Sun DeLand, Florida
Big West Riverside, California
Conference USA Oxford, Alabama
Heps / Ivy League Princeton, New Jersey
Horizon League Green Bay, Wisconsin
Metro Atlantic Montgomery, New York
Mid-American Muncie, Indiana
Patriot League Easton, Pennsylvania
Southern Greenville, South Carolina
Summit League Vermillion, South Dakota
West Coast Stockton, California
Collegiate Nationals
November
09 JUCO Championships Richmond, Virginia
NCAA Div. II Regionals 8 sites
15 NCAA Div. I Regionals 9 sites
—Great Lakes Norton, Ohio
—Mid-Atlantic University Park, Pennsylvania
—Midwest Peoria, Illinois
—Mountain Reno, Nevada
—Northeast Hopkinton, New Hampshire
—South Tallahassee, Florida
—South Central College Station, Texas
—Southeast Rock Hill, South Carolina
—West Colfax, Washington
16 NCAA Div. III Regionals 10 sites
22 NAIA Championships Columbia, Missouri
23 NCAA Championships Verona, Wisconsin
NCAA II Championships Sacramento, California
NCAA III Championships Terre Haute, Indiana