UNC Track & Field/Cross Country 2025-2026

[LakeHeel]

Just want to get a thread started on the T&F and XC programs which have quickly risen to national prominence under the guidance of Coach Chris Miltenberg.

We could start with the good news that two of UNC's all-time greats are Patterson award winners this year. Congratulations to Ethan Strand and Parker Wolfe!

Ford, Vázquez Montaño, Strand & Wolfe Are 2024-25 Patterson Medal Recipients - University of North Carolina Athletics

A four-time NCAA champion diver, the National Player of the Year in men's golf who rewrote the Tar Heel record book and a pair of national champion track sta...

goheels.com

 

[Jriv23]

Thanks for posting this.

 

[Lockeitup]

Ethan Strand second in the 1500 meters at the USA championships - will rep the USA at worlds and beat some HUGE names to get there.

 

[Jriv23]

Way to go Ethan. Keep rocking and bringing the heat. Way to represent UNC track and field. Go Heels!

 

[TAHeel]

Watched the replays earlier today, Strand was in the lead coming down the final straight and just got out-legged (Did beat 2 medalists from last year in Paris).

Wolfe was also in the final group of 6 competing on the last kick of the 5000 but didn't have enough in the tank.

 

[3397char]

Watched the replays earlier today, Strand was in the lead coming down the final straight and just got out-legged (Did beat 2 medalists from last year in Paris).

Wolfe was also in the final group of 6 competing on the last kick of the 5000 but didn't have enough in the tank.

It is possible Wolfe is still not quite at 100%. He bowed out of the NCAAs not too long ago, but don't know his reason why.

 

[Jriv23]

He got hurt again before the NCAA's started.

 

[3397char]

He got hurt again before the NCAA's started.

Yes, sorry my post was unclear. I was trying to say I was unsure the level of the injury and if it would still be affecting him now, 2 months later. But top 6 in the USA among pros is still pretty spectacular. I just hope he gets a little higher and will be an Olympian the next Olympiad.

 

[3397char]

The Fall CC schedule is out!

2025 Cross Country Schedule - University of North Carolina Athletics

The official 2025 Cross Country schedule for the North Carolina Heels

goheels.com

Perhaps the shortest season of any UNC sport so don't blink or you will miss it!

I have been to the last two Charlotte Opener's (in my area) and it is a fun meet; UNC always does well. Great way to spend less than an hour on a summer morning if you are interested. The link on the UNC schedule rarely gets you anywhere because UNC Charlotte does a poor job of updating their website on Olympic Sports events they host. But the Men's races starts promptly at 9:30 AM on 8/29. And the Women's race is a half hour later and the whole thing is over by 10:15. It is not on teh Charlotte campus: Frank Liske Park in Concord, N.C. Last season it was only UNC, Charlotte & Queens, so an easy romp. UGA came as well the year before that. The Concord site will actually host the American Conference championship this season, so I would not be surprised if a few of the American conference teams takes this opportunity to try out the course?

The Adidas XC Challenge used to be called the Wolfpack Invitational. I am unclear if NCSU still hosts this event or if Adidas has taken over. Regardless, our rivals will be there, so an early look at how we stack up, especially for the women's team. The race website here: https://thexcchallenge.com/ Sadly, this will be the closest thing we have to a home meet. UNC does not have a cross country course. I hope some day they build one on the Mason Farm, University Lake, or North Campus tract.

UNC gets an invite to the Nuttycombe again in Wisc. This is an elite competition and will have plenty of nationally relevant teams there. This should be the most informative race on how we look for the NCAA's

ACC Championships in Louisville this year on Halloween. They should make it a costumed race. Info should eventually appear here. https://theacc.com/feature/cross-country-championships

 

[3397char]

Go Madison!

 

[Jriv23]

I expect this year to be a down year for both the men's and women's teams. Wolfe, Strand, Brynn, Fatima are gone. I do not know if we have any studs coming in on the men's side. Wolfe was a stud as a freshman. I do not see any Freshman coming in on his level when he was a freshman. His was the number 1 ranked runner in his class coming out of high school.

 

[Jriv23]

I think Wolfe conditioning affected him some. When you have been off from running for awhile, your conditioning and stamina will be infected.

 

[heelsaddiction]

these last couple years of elite distance running at Carolina have been so incredibly fun.

 

[Jriv23]

I agree with you heelsaddiction. It is very intriguing to see who coach can bring in to replace the talent that we just lost. NC State women's team just reloads every year. There is no drop off with them. Does anyone know if we have any studs coming in whether they are transfers or freshmen? If so, can you post this information for us readers.

 

[airball]

Looking at the roster, women’s cross country has one senior (Eva Klingbell) and one red-shirt sophomore (Ciara O’Shea). Beyond that — 8 sophomores and 5 freshmen. Gives the appearance of a rebuilding year, but then … who knows.

 

[Jriv23]

Thanks airball. I hope out of the 8 sophomores and 5 freshmen, someone can rise to the occasion. I hope we can find another Fatima A. and Brynn B. (especially when she was a freshman).

 

[3397char]

The Stride Report is in the middle of their preseason top 25 CC lists in a series of articles.

The UNC Women appear at #17. We finished 11th at the NCAA Championships last season.

I presume there are actual team synopses, but they are behind a paywall.

https://www.thestridereport.com/articles/categories/rankings

The women lost our top 3 NCAA performers this past year (Parks 21st at NCAAs team competition, Brown 30th, Alanis 70th) so we are likely looking at a young team and thus possibly a rebuilding year. We return only two scoring runners from last season: our 4th Klingbeil who finished 93rd in the team competition and O'Shea who finished 96th. Our 6th woman St John-Kletter also returns.

But they did identify the UNC women as a potential dark horse team with enough young/new talent to potentially make a jump.


With transfer Vera Sjoberg as perhaps our top 5K runner in years (finished 2nd in NCAA's). She finished 42nd overall at the CC NCAA's last season and would have been 33rd nationally in the team competition.


They Identify O'Shea one of the potential dark horse emerging talents:

UNC Track & Field • XC on Instagram: "The Stride Report on Ciara O’Shea and the Tar Heels 📰 The women's squad opened the preseason D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings at No. 17! #GoHeels"

395 likes, 6 comments - unctrack_field on August 19, 2025: "The Stride Report on Ciara O’Shea and the Tar Heels 📰 The women's squad opened the preseason D1 XC Top 25 Team Rankings at No. 17! #GoHeels".

www.instagram.com

 

[3397char]

As for the men's CC Team, The Stride Report ranks them #16 in the preseason.

https://www.thestridereport.com/articles/categories/rankings

Again, it is behind a pay wall.

We finished last season ranked 6th, but the drop is no surprise with the loss of All-Americans Wolfe (7th at NCAA XC Championship) and Strand (8th).

We return NCAA scorers Sands (45th in team competition), Coogan (71st) and Anderson 1(15th) plus our 6th finisher Sapone (141st)



The Stride Report predicts that newcomers Tarragano (British university import, 2024 British University Champion), Hunt (NCAA Div3 5K champ) and Barrett (freshman) will slot in 2nd, 3rd and 6th respectively.

I am a little concerned that Tarragano does not yet appear on the UNC roster; hopefully that is an oversight or just a late add that needs to be cleared up.

No idea if The Stride Report is a reputable source, but it is what we have right now. USTFCCCA preseason rankings come out next week.

 

[Jriv23]

Thanks 3397Char for posting this information. I also noticed that Tarragano's name was not on the roster yet. I am assuming that he is in the same situation as Luka and the Russian young lady who just arrived today for our women's basketball team in that it it taking longer to clear all of the huddles to come over as a result of the Trump Administration. I hope this gets cleared up soon. On a side note, I did not realize that Parker Wolfe's little sister Kinley Wolfe will be a freshman on this years' women's XC team. Here is an article about her. I think she might be able to help the women's team this year.

She Is UNC: Track Star Kinley Wolfe Holds Strong North Carolina Legacy

Senior Kinley Wolfe has followed her family’s footsteps into an incredible track and field career, but the opportunity has led her to learn even more about her life as an athlete than she previously thought it could. Wolfe has built her life around being a distance runner at Creek, breaking many...

unionstreetjournal.com

 

[3397char]

UNC men and women both voted 4th in the ACC preseason poll.

NC State, Wake Forest Selected as 2025 ACC Cross Country Favorites

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – The NC State women and Wake Forest men have been selected as the 2025 Atlantic Coast Conference Cross Country preseason favorites, following a vote of the league’s 18 head coaches.

theacc.com

Interesting that ND picked up a 3rd of the women's team's votes. NCSU returns a lot and I assume they would be prohibitive favorites. ND did win the ACC last season, but the rosters for many teams were in flux. They finished in 5th place at the NCAA Championships among ACC teams.

NCSU returns the reigning ACC Champion Grace Hartman, as well as #3 finisher Gapes. they had a little bit of a depth issue that knocked them from their soaring heights in recent years. Clemson had two international ringers that made the race to the podium last year interesting with Jelego and Kosgei finishing 2nd and 4th respectively. Chepngetich (12th in ACCC) is also an elite middle distance runner for the Tigers (ACC freshman of the year in XC, Indoor and Outdoor). The question for Clemson is if they can field somebody, anybody to round out their top 5. I guess the coaches don't think so since they are only ranked 9th.

UNC tied for 2nd last season at the ACC Championships, but lost the tiebreaker to Stanford, finishing 3rd. As previously mentioned, we have a lot to replace: our top 2 finishers in the ACCC graduated, And I just noticed that Klingbeil who was or 3rd place finisher, and should be a senior this season, is not listed on the 2025 roster. Not sure what that is about? A quick Google search does not show her listed elsewhere that I can see.

TIL that SMU has no men's team.

UNC finished 3rd in the ACC Championships last season despite our superstars because of overall team depth issues. But we were the highest placing ACC team in the NCAA championship.

WF won the ACC last season with superior depth, and are the clear choice this season as well. They return 4 of their top 5 runners, who all placed top 20 in the ACC championship last season. UVA returns Gary Martin for his senior year, who had some legendary duels with UNC's Wolfe and Strand the last two season as clearly the best 3 runners in the ACC. Stanford lost their best guy as well. So UVA's Martin stands out as the clear silverback gorilla waiting for any young challengers.

 

[TAHeel]

Klingbeil was tagged on the team's Insta account on the 12th so any changes are fresh.

 

[Jriv23]

Yeah, I don't see her name on the roster either. I wondered what happened. Our women's team is really young with the majority of them being sophomores and freshman. We must have some really good freshmen that we do not know about to be ranked that high. There is no seniors on this team.

 

[3397char]

The men’s team debuts at #18 in the USTFCCA preseason poll:

2025 NCAA DI Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Preseason ::: USTFCCCA

2025 NCAA DI Men’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Preseason

www.ustfccca.org

 

[3397char]

And the women are 13th:

2025 NCAA DI Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Preseason ::: USTFCCCA

2025 NCAA DI Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll – Preseason

www.ustfccca.org

 

[Jriv23]

It is going to be very interesting to see who steps up this season for both the men's and women's team this year. The women's team has only sophomores and freshman. There are no seniors, and I do not recall seeing any juniors. This team is going to be really young with little experience.

 

[3397char]

Here is a pretty good assessment of our rival NCSU's women's team. Looks like they are poised to have another really strong season:

 

[Jriv23]

NC State Women's team is still the team to beat IMO. They just keep reloading every year.

 

[3397char]

The men’s team just got smoked by UNC Charlotte. Not sure who sat this out yet but yikes.

 

[TAHeel]

Of the "Potential Top 7" the Stride Report listed for the men, only #7 Joe Sapone ran today. He finished 4th on the team, a full 1:09 off the 5K time listed on the graphic.

For the women, #3 St. John-Kletter finished 1st for the team, #5 Gardiner finished 4th for the team, #6 Dalton finished 3rd for the team. Castelli was a frosh who finished with the previous 3 as well.

Finally, considering I can see on Klingbeil's instagram she posted a bunch of mountainous nature shots today, think we can confirm she is not rostering this year.

 

[Jriv23]

The men team lost a lot. Does everyone know when they guy from England is coming. From my understanding, he is suppose to be good. The girl's team won yesterday. Three of them who I think will be studs for this team did not run: Ciara O'Shea, Hannah Rae Shaffer, and Vera Sjöberg did not run yesterday. I think these 3 are the best one's on the team. I cannot wait to see them run.

 

[Jriv23]

I am so proud of the women's team. The men's team will be in a rebuilding year. Hopefully, they will get better each meet.