STANFORD, Calif. — On the heels of a 13th NCAA DI Cross Country West Regional Women’s title, Stanford cross country is back in action to conclude the 2025 slate, competing in the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday, November 22.
The Stanford women hit the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo., at 9:20 a.m. CT / 7:20 a.m. PT while Stanford’s lone male individual, Leo Young, hits the course at 10:10 a.m. CT / 8:10 a.m. PT.
Live results for Saturday’s championship races can be found here.
Stanford heads into Saturday’s race fresh off of a stellar outing at last week’s NCAA DI XC West Regional as the Cardinal earned its 13th women’s regional crown. Four Cardinal earned All-Region honors with top-25 finishes headlined by the season debut of Amy Bunnage who led the way for Stanford, finishing fourth overall with a time of 19:19.4. In lock step with Bunnage, junior Sophia Kennedy shattered her personal-best time by nearly 12 seconds, finishing fifth overall with a time of 19:23.9 to put Stanford in solid stead toward the team title.
Following Stanford’s top-five duo, Mena Scatchard kept the Cardinal in contention with a 10th-place finish, earning a career-best time of 19:50.3 having improved position throughout the entirety of the race. Riley Stewart and Julia Flynn placed as the final scoring harriers for the Cardinal with Stewart earning the final All-Region honor with an 18th place finish as the Cardinal secured the win with 55 points, edging out Oregon by eight points.
On the men’s side, Stanford showed well during Friday’s meet, earning a sixth place finish headlined by the strong running of Leo Young. Young ran himself into an automatic individual berth in the NCAA Championships with a third-place finish at last week’s meet, earning a time of 29:25.3 in his first timed 10K of the season. James Dargan also nabbed an All-Region honor for the Cardinal, grabbing 12th overall with a time of 29:35.4 after spending a majority of the race side-by-side with Young.
Stanford’s final scoring harriers did well to make things interesting in the final team score scenario, but the final gap was too much to overcome as the Cardinal men did not earn an at-large bid as a team, finishing in sixth overall.
Following his top-three finish with a final 1000m sprint at the West Regionals, Leo Young suits up as Stanford’s lone entry in the Men’s 10K Championship race on Saturday. For the Women’s 6K Championship, Stanford enters the same nine harriers from a week ago, headlined by Amy Bunnage. Sophia Kennedy will look to replicate or better her time from a week ago alongside Maya De Brouwer, Julia Flynn, Mena Scatchard, Riley Stewart, Hillary Studdert, Hanne Thomsen and Juliette Whittaker as the final entries for the Cardinal.
Stanford returns six harriers who raced at Gans Creek Cross Country Course earlier this season at Missouri’s Gans Creek Classic. Leo Young paced the Men’s 8K Championship in the Gold bracket, finishing 27th overall. Meanwhile, on the women’s side, Stanford won the 6K Black bracket earlier this season with Hanne Thomsen finishing atop the Stanford leaderboard at third overall.
LAST TIME AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Amy Bunnage led the way for Stanford at last season’s meet, leading the Cardinal with the highest placement by a Stanford runner since 2013 with a fourth place finish and a time of 19:31.1. Following Bunnage was Sophia Kennedy who earned All-America honors alongside Bunnage having placed inside the top-40 at 33rd overall. Riley Stewart and Julia Flynn also raced for Stanford at last season’s NCAA Championships, placing 58th and 119th overall, respectively, as the Cardinal women took sixth place overall with 213 points. Stanford was only three points behind Oregon and seven points behind Northern Arizona who finished fifth and fourth, respectively.
On the men’s side, Leo Young returns to the NCAA Championship having raced last season for the Cardinal which finished 12th overall as a team. Lex Young paced the Cardinal at last season’s outing with a 63rd place finish while Leo nabbed a top-100 outing at 92nd overall.
THE FIELD
On the women’s side, No. 9 Stanford enters the NCAA Championship week having moved up five spots from its previous rank following its West Region title. The Cardinal joins the list of every top 30 team in the latest USTFCCCA Coaches’ Poll rankings including Wake Forest and Providence who are outside of the rankings but receiving votes.