NCAA Division III men's cross country championships

The NCAA Division III men's cross country championships are contested at an annual meet hosted by the NCAA to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate cross country running among its Division III members in the United States.^[1] It has been held every fall, usually in November, since the NCAA split into its current three-division format in 1973.

NCAA Division III men's cross country championships

Association	NCAA
Sport	Cross country
Founded	1973; 52 years ago (1973)
Division	Division III
Country	United States
Most recent champion(s)	Wisconsin-La Crosse (4th)
Most titles	North Central (IL) (19)
Official website	NCAA.com

North Central (IL) have been the most successful program, with 19 national titles.

The current champions are Wisconsin-La Crosse, who won their fourth national title in 2024.

Format

The field for the national championship race varied in the early years, reaching a high of 52 teams in 1977. From 1982 to 1998 the field was fixed at 21 teams. From 1999 to 2005 the field included 24 teams. Beginning in 2006, the national championship race has included 32 teams. Teams compete in one of ten regional championships to qualify. In addition to the 32 teams, 70 individual runners qualify for the national championship.

The race distance from 1973 to 1975 was 5 miles (8,046 meters). Since 1976 the race distance has been 8,000 meters (4.97 miles).

Results

NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Championship
Year	Site (Host Team)		Championship Results					Individual Championship
			Champion	Points	Runner-Up	Points		Winner (Team)	Time
1973	Wheaton, IL (Wheaton)		Ashland	66	Albany (NY)	172		Steve Foster (Ashland)	24:27
1974			Mount Union	105	Occidental	148		David Moller (Rochester–NY)	24:39.
1975	Waltham, MA (Brandeis)		North Central (IL)	91	Occidental	111		Vin Fleming (Lowell)	24:27
The race distance changes from 5 miles to 8,000 meters
1976	Cleveland, OH (Case)		North Central (IL) (2)	109	Humboldt State	132		Dale Kramer (Carleton)	24:56†
1977			Occidental	149	Humboldt State	152			25:44
1978	Rock Island, IL (Augustana–IL)		North Central (IL) (3)	60	Luther	151		Dan Henderson (Wheaton–IL)	23:54†
1979			North Central (IL) (4)	85	Humboldt State	93		Steve Hunt (UMass Boston)	24:12.1
1980	Rochester, NY (Rochester)		Carleton	121	Augustana (IL)	125		Jeff Milliman (North Central–IL)	25:20.2
1981	Kenosha, WI (Carthage)		North Central (IL) (5)	89	Brandeis	107		Mark Whalley (Principia)	25:25
1982	Fredonia, NY (Fredonia)		North Central (IL) (6)	51	Brandeis	89		Nicholas Manciu (St. Thomas–MN)	26:06
1983	Newport News, VA (Christopher Newport)		Brandeis	52	North Central (IL)	89		Tony Bluell (North Central–IL)	23:46†
1984	Delaware, OH (Ohio Wesleyan)		St. Thomas (MN)	52	North Central (IL)	89		Mark Beeman (Brandeis)	24:44.71
1985	Atlanta, GA (Emory)		Luther	98	North Central (IL)	150		James White (UMass Dartmouth)	25:35
1986	Fredonia, NY (Fredonia)		St. Thomas (MN) (2)	51	UW–La Crosse	72		Arnie Schraeder (UW–Stevens Point)	26:47
1987	Holland, MI (Hope)		North Central (IL) (7)	67	UW–La Crosse	78		Jukka Tammisuo (St. Lawrence)	24:19.3
1988	St. Louis, MO (Washington)		UW–Oshkosh	66	North Central (IL)	75		David Terronez (Augustana–IL)	24:43.2
1989	Rock Island, IL (Augustana–IL)		UW–Oshkosh (2)	55	North Central (IL)	118			23:58
1990	Grinnell, IA (Grinnell)		UW–Oshkosh (3)	87	North Central (IL)	100		Seamus McElligott (Haverford)	24:46.61
1991	Newport News, VA (Christopher Newport)		Rochester (NY)	139	North Central (IL)	147		Sandu Rebenciuc (Augustana–IL)	24:26
1992	Schenectady, NY (Union)		North Central (IL) (8)	107	Rochester (NY)	114		Gary Wasserman (Nebraska Wesleyan)	24:50.4
1993	Grinnell, IA (Grinnell)		North Central (IL) (9)	32	UW–La Crosse	123		Dan Mayer (North Central–IL)	24:29.8
1994	Bethlehem, PA (Moravian)		Williams	98	North Central (IL)	110		Jeremie Perry (Williams)	24:41.8
1995	La Crosse, WI (UW–La Crosse)		Williams (2)	83	North Central (IL)	91		John Weigel (North Central–IL)	23:57.5
1996	Rock Island, IL (Augustana–IL)		UW–La Crosse	86	North Central (IL)	94		Matt Brill (North Central–IL)	23:57
1997	Cambridge, MA (MIT)		North Central (IL) (10)	94	Mount Union	96		Brett Altergott (UW–La Crosse)	25:06
1998	Carlisle, PA (Dickinson)		North Central (IL) (11)	106	Calvin	122		Erik Dieckman (North Central–IL)	24:58.27
1999	Oshkosh, WI (UW–Oshkosh)		North Central (IL) (12)	84	Keene State	100		Dave Davis (Puget Sound)	23:42.3†
2000	Spokane, WA (Whitworth)		Calvin	65	Keene State	87		Tim McCoskey (North Central–IL)	24:47.8
2001	Rock Island, IL (Augustana–IL)		UW–La Crosse (2)	80	Calvin	140		J.B. Haglund (Haverford)	24:16
2002	Northfield, MN (St. Olaf)		UW–Oshkosh (4)	66	Calvin	122		Ryan Bak (Trinity–CT)	25:01.1
2003	Hanover, IN (Hanover)		Calvin (2)	48	UW–Stevens Point	128		Josh Moen (Wartburg)	24:34.4
2004	Eau Claire, WI (UW–Eau Claire)		Calvin (3)	107	North Central (IL)	137			24:28.7
2005	Delaware, OH (Ohio Wesleyan)		UW–La Crosse (3)	94	Calvin	117		Neal Holtschulte (Williams)	25:13.8
2006	Wilmington, OH (Wilmington)		Calvin (4)	37	NYU	92		Macharia Yuot (Widener)	26:31
2007	Northfield, MN (St. Olaf)		NYU	128	Haverford	150		Tyler Sigl (UW–Platteville)	24:24
2008	Hanover, IN (Hanover)		SUNY Cortland	80	North Central (IL)	115		Peter Kosgei (Hamilton)	24:22.03
2009	Berea, OH (Baldwin Wallace)		North Central (IL) (13)	50	Williams	181		Ricky Flynn (Lynchburg)	25:09.8
2010	Waverly, IA (Wartburg)		Haverford	87	North Central (IL)	104		Anders Hulleberg (Haverford)	24:22.2
2011	Winneconne, WI (UW–Oshkosh)		North Central (IL) (14)	110	Haverford	172		Ben Sathre (St. Thomas–MN)	23:44.27
2012	Terre Haute, IN (Rose-Hulman)		North Central (IL) (15)	167	Calvin Haverford	188		Tim Nelson (UW–Stout)	24:26.8
2013	Hanover, IN (Hanover)		St. Olaf	84	North Central (IL)	86		Michael LeDuc (Connecticut College)	24:29.3
2014[2][3]	Wilmington, OH (Wilmington)		North Central (IL) (16)	130	St. Olaf	143		Grant Wintheiser (St. Olaf)	23:44.9
2015[4][5]	Winneconne, WI (UW-Oshkosh)		UW–Eau Claire	135	Williams	144		Ian LaMere (UW–Platteville)	23:35.4
2016[6]	Louisville, KY		North Central (IL) (17)	60	SUNY Geneseo	204		Ian LeMere (UW–Platteville)	23:40.4
2017[7] Details	Elsah, IL (Principia)		North Central (IL) (18)	57	UW–La Crosse	196		Darin Lau (UW–Eau Claire)	24:03.59
2018[8] Details	Winneconne, WI (UW-Oshkosh)		North Central (IL) (19)	43	Washington (MO)	110		Dhruvil Patel (North Central-IL)	24:24.5
2019[9] Details	Louisville, KY		Pomona-Pitzer	164	North Central (IL)	182		Patrick Watson (Stevenson)	24:13.9
2020	Terre Haute, IN (Rose-Hulman)		Not held because of the COVID-19 pandemic[10]
2021[11][12] Details	Louisville, KY		Pomona-Pitzer (2)	80	MIT	112		Alex Phillip (John Carroll)	23:27.6
2022	Lansing, MI (Olivet)		MIT	82	Wartburg	129			24:37.6
2023	Carlisle, PA (Dickinson)		Pomona-Pitzer (3)	158	UW–La Crosse	159		Ethan Gregg (UW–La Crosse)	24:02.4
2024	Terre Haute, IN (Rose-Hulman)		UW-La Crosse (4)	77	Wartburg	173		Christian Patzka (UW–Whitewater)	24:01.6
2025	Spartanburg, SC (Converse)
2026	Northfield, MN (Carleton)

† indicates a then-NCAA record-setting time for that particular distance.

A time highlighted in ██ indicates the all-time NCAA championship record for that distance.

Source: ^[13]

Champions

Active programs

Team	Titles	Years
North Central (IL)	19	1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018
Calvin	4	2000, 2003, 2004, 2006
Wisconsin–Oshkosh	4	1988, 1989, 1990, 2002
Wisconsin–La Crosse	4	1996, 2001, 2005, 2024
Pomona-Pitzer	3	2019, 2021, 2023
Williams	2	1994, 1995
MIT	1	2022
Wisconsin–Eau Claire	1	2015
St. Olaf	1	2013
Haverford	1	2010
Cortland	1	2008
NYU	1	2007
Rochester	1	1991
Luther	1	1985
Brandeis	1	1983
Carleton	1	1980
Occidental	1	1977
Mount Union	1	1974

• Source: ^[14]

Former programs

Team	Titles	Years
St. Thomas (MN)	2	1984, 1986
Ashland	1	1973

See also

• NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships (Division I, Division II)
• NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships (Division I, Division II, Division III)
• Pre-NCAA Cross Country Champions
• NAIA Cross Country Championships (Men, Women)