Cross Country | 10/31/2025 9:30:00 AM

TRAFFORD, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - The 2025 Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships are slated for Saturday, Nov. 1st, in Meadville, Pa., on the campus of Allegheny College.

The men's eight-kilometer (8K) race will go off at 11 a.m., with the women's six-kilometer (6K) race to begin at noon. A brief awards ceremony will take place after the conclusion of the women's race. 

This year’s championship race will be the 68th for the men, while the women will be competing in the conference's 42nd championship race.

This will be the initial time the PAC women's championship meet will be held at Allegheny and the first time the Gators will serve as the host for the men's championship since 1978.

The top seven finishers in both the men’s and women’s races receive All-PAC First Team recognition, while runners finishing eighth through 14th will earn All-PAC Second Team honors. Runners finishing 15th through 21st receive All-PAC Honorable Mention recognition. The league will also recognize its PAC Newcomers of the Year and PAC Coaches of the Year, along with the PAC Sportsmanship Teams. Starting this year, the PAC Men's and Women's Runners of the Year will be voted on following the NCAA Championships.

Wolf Creek Race Management (Mars, Pa.) will be on-site to provide event management and timing services for the two championship races. 

The Division III regional championships are scheduled for Saturday, November 15th. Bethany, Chatham, Geneva, Grove City, Saint Vincent, Thiel, W&J, Waynesburg and Westminster will compete in the Mid-Atlantic region, while Allegheny, Franciscan and Hiram will compete in the Great Lakes region. The Division III Mid-Atlantic Championships will be hosted by Dickinson College in Newville, Pa., while the Division III Great Lakes Championships will be held in Louisville, Kentucky at E.P. Sawyer State Park. 

The 2025 Division III Championships are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 22nd and hosted by Converse University and OneSpartanburg, Inc., in Spartanburg, S.C. 

Women
Behind six all-conference runners, Allegheny scored 45 points to outdistance the field, including 2023 champion Grove City College, who scored 64, and third place Saint Vincent College, who totaled 75, as the Gators won their second PAC title in three years in 2024.

A competitive field will hit the course Saturday, featuring four runners with NCAA Championship experience. W&J senior Claire Anderson (Jamestown, Pa./Jamestown) won the 2023 PAC title, finished second in the conference a year ago, but went on to win the Mid-Atlantic Regional championship before running to All-American honors last fall. Her senior season has been another strong one, earning PAC Runner of the Week four times. Anderson's season has been highlighted by winning the Dickinson Invitational and Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble and placing sixth at the Louisville Cross Country Classic.

With Anderson leading a deep W&J side, the Presidents finished fourth out of 25 teams at the Oberlin meet. That performance vaulted W&J to third place in the last USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Regional rankings.

When Anderson wasn't earning conference Runner of the Week accolades, it was going to Saint Vincent sophomore Grace Neubert (St. Mary's, Pa./Elk County Catholic), who won it the other three weeks this fall. She won early-season races at Westminster and Bethany before placing seventh at the NCAA Division III Pre-Championship race at Spartanburg, S.C., in late September. Her success this year comes on the heels of an outstanding freshman campaign when she earned PAC Newcomer of the Year after finishing third at Championships and then Neubert earned All-Mid-Atlantic Region by placing seventh and qualifying for NCAA Championships.

Others to watch this weekend include two runners from Geneva College who look to be back in 2023 form when they both qualified for NCAAs. Seniors Carmen Medvit (New Castle, Pa./Shenango) and Hailey Carroll (Bremerton, Wash./Central Kitsap), who finished second and third, respectively, at the 2023 PAC Championships before qualifying for the national meet, were hampered by injuries last year. They have bounced back with big seasons, with one highlight being a second place showing behind only Anderson at Oberlin by Carroll, while Medvit was the winner at the Allegheny Classic Sept. 20th on the same course PAC Championships will be on Saturday.

One of Allegheny's all-conference runners from a year ago is back and has been one of their top performers this season. Junior Shyann Rulander (Warren, Pa./Warren), who was 20th a year ago to earn Honorable Mention All-PAC, comes into this year's Championships off a 38th-place finish out of 308 runners at Gettysburg's Aubrey Shenk Invitational Oct. 18th.

There are also first-year runners looking to make an impact at their initial PAC Championship meet. Franciscan University freshman Mary Worden (Fort Atkinson, Wis./Fort Atkinson) is a four-time PAC Newcomer of the Week this season, one of which came after she finished third out of 82 runners at the Bethany Invitational, finishing as the fastest freshman in the field by more than a minute.

In addition to Worden, Waynesburg University freshman  Erin Belveal (Bay Village, Ohio/Bay) has come on strong late in her first collegiate season. She's gathered two conference newcomer of the week honors, most recently after she finished 45th at the Gettysburg meet.

Men
In a remarkably close race that saw the top five teams separated by a mere 10 points, Franciscan edged out the pack to claim the 2024 PAC Men's Cross Country Championship, the fourth title in the last five championships for the Barons.

Franciscan totaled 67 points, just one point in front of runner-up Geneva with 68 and three points ahead of 2023 champion Saint Vincent (70). Rounding out the tightly-packed top five was W&J with 75 points and Grove City with 77 points.

The Barons lost three of their four All-PAC runners from last year. Their top runners through multiple meets this season include junior Seamus Summers (Muskego. Wis./Trinity Academy), who set a new PR when he placed 39th out of 227 runners at Oberlin, and freshman Maxwell Bruns (Gilbert, Ariz./Arete Preparatory), a three-time PAC Newcomer of the Week.

The top runner back from last year's Championship race is W&J junior Dominic Flitcraft (Aliquippa, Pa./Hopewell), who has finished second and third in his two appearances at PACs. He followed his third place last year by taking 10th at the Mid-Atlantic Regional to qualify for NCAA Championships. Flitcraft has continued building on that success as a junior this year, collecting four PAC Runner of the Week laurels, including the last three following 11th-place finishes at Oberlin and Louisville and a sixth place at Dickinson.

A deep team that will push to win the team title and numerous All-PAC awards is Geneva. Last year's team runner-up returned four all-conference runners from their best PAC finish in program history. The Golden Tornadoes bring momentum into Saturday's PAC Championships, as they placed ninth out of 26 teams at the Oberlin meet Oct. 18th and first among the six PAC schools at the meet. The balanced GT squad was led that day by a 16th-place finish from senior Eli Eisenberger (York, Pa./Central York), who was Honorable Mention All-PAC in 2024 after he took 19th overall. 

The last two PAC Newcomers of the Week look to be factors as they run at the conference championship for the first time. Allegheny freshman Tyler Biss (Beaver, Pa./Beaver) had a PR time at Gettysburg to cross in 24th place out of 316 competitors to earn the PAC honor for Oct. 21st, while Grove City freshman Colsen Frank (Grove City, Pa./Grove City) was the conference's top newcomer for Oct. 8th after placing 82nd overall out of 407 total runners and fifth among all freshmen at Lehigh's Paul Short Invitational.