(complete data 1938–2023)
Every autumn, the U.S. collegiate cross country season culminates in the NCAA Division I National Championship meet. Weeks of regular-season, conference and regional meets build to a pinnacle as an elite group vies for national team and individual titles. (Continues below — Click here to skip down to archive links)
The men’s NCAA Division I meet began in 1938, and the women’s meet began in 1981. The race was held on the Monday after Thanksgiving in the years of ‘38, ‘40, ‘41, ‘49, ‘50, ‘51, ‘55, ‘56, ‘57, ‘56, ‘61, ‘62 & ‘67. From 1968 to 2011, the race was held on the Monday preceding Thanksgiving. In 2012 the meet was moved to the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving. Prior to 2012, the race was held on a Saturday only three times: before Thanksgiving in ’42; after in ’44 & ’45. In ’63 the race was delayed a day until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in the wake of the Kennedy Assassination the previous Friday. The 2012 meet was held on November 17, the earliest date the meet had ever been held (it was held on November 19 six times). The COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2020 meet to be postponed to March 15, 2021.
The men’s race was 4M (6.55K) from 1938 through 1964, 6M (9.66K) from 1965 through 1975, and 10K (6.21M) from 1976 to the present. The women’s race was 5K (3.11M) from 1981 through 1999 and 6K (3.73M) from 2000 to the present.
Formal qualification to the NCAA through a series of District (eventually Regional) meets began in 1978.
This archive (follow links below) encompasses the entire spectrum of the Division I meet, including full results of every competition, photo galleries of individual winners, and a collection of statistics.
Kirk Reynolds of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges and T&FN’s Editor Sieg Lindstrom compiled the archive. Questions or corrections may be directed to Kirk Reynolds, who also keeps the Div. III history and archive.
Thanks go to myriad Sports Information/Media Communications departments nationwide for providing results and/or photos.
| Overview of Meet History | |
| Men | Women |
| Meet Results – Year by Year | |
| Men – 1938-2023 | Women – 1981-2023 |
| Statistics | |
| Men | Women |
| Photos of Individual Winners | |
| MEN | WOMEN |
| 1930s-40s | |
| 1950s | |
| 1960s | |
| 1970s | |
| 1980s | 1980s |
| 1990s | 1990s |
| 2000s | 2000s |
| 2010s | 2010s |
| 2020s | 2020s |