Both the Texas men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Stillwater, Oklahoma on Saturday to compete in the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Both teams qualified last week by finishing second in the south central region of the NCAA Regional Championships, making them one of 18 teams to automatically qualify.

Northern Arizona won the men’s cross country team final with a tally of 83 points to bring home their third straight NCAA championship. To do so, the Lumberjacks won a tiebreaker over Oklahoma State, the first time in NCAA cross country history that a tiebreaker was used to determine the national champion.

In its sixth consecutive NCAA championship appearance, the Texas men’s team finished in 18th place out of 31 schools with a total of 506 points in the 10K. Texas runners finished in 27th, 95th, 138th, 145th, 189th, 228th and 237th place across the 255-runner field. 

All-conference senior Haftu Knight started the day off for the Longhorns, finishing in a time of 29:27.9 to place 27th and earn 26 points. All-conference sophomore Isaac Alonzo was the only other runner to finish in the Top 100 for the Longhorns. Alonzo finished with a personal record for the second straight week, timing in at 30:11.0 to place 95th and earn 83 points.

The remaining Longhorns — senior Cruz Gomez, junior Rodger Rivera, junior Abraham Avila-Martinez, freshman Nathanael Berhane and freshman Emmanuel Sgouros — finished with times ranging from 30:30:6 to 31:58.2, respectively.

North Carolina State won the women’s cross country team final with a total of 114 points. The Wolfpack also featured the first place individual athlete in junior Katelyn Tuohy, who finished with a time of 19:27.7. This is the second straight year that NC State has won the NCAA Women’s Cross Country National Championship.

In their first NCAA championship appearance since 2019, the Texas women finished with a total of 983 points, placing them last out of 31 schools in the 6K. 

The women’s team did not have a finisher in the top 200, with all-conference graduate student Beth Ramos finishing first for the Longhorns in 212th place and a time of 21:29.8.

The remaining Longhorns — graduate student Valery Tobias, sophomore Eva Jess, junior Kelsie Vicknair, graduate student Isabel Hebner, senior Alyssa Duhart and graduate student Monica Hebner — finished in 230th, 241st, 242nd, 243rd, 245th and 249th place, respectively. 

The championships marked the end of the 2022 season for both the men’s and women’s cross country teams. Head coach Edrick Floréal will now turn his focus to track and field, as Texas opens up its season Dec. 3 at the Commonwealth College Opener in Louisville, Kentucky.