No. 12 Wake Forest Primed For NCAA Championship

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The 12th-ranked Wake Forest men’s cross country program will make its third-consecutive and 12th all-time NCAA Championship appearance Saturday, Nov. 19 as the Demon Deacons will travel to Stillwater, Okla., to compete in the NCAA DI Cross Country Championship hosted by Oklahoma State at The Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course.
 
Saturday’s meet can be viewed live on ESPNU and the ESPN App beginning at 11:10 a.m. ET.

NCAA Championship Appearances (Team)

1988 (14th), 1989 (3rd), 1990 (18th), 1992 (9th), 1993 (20th), 1995 (20th), 1996 (11th), 2000 (18th), 2001 (19th), 2021 Spring (15th), 2021 Fall (10th)

Participating Teams

Thirty-one teams were selected to participate in the championship. The top two, seven-person teams automatically qualified from each of the nine regions, for a total of 18 teams. Thirteen additional teams were selected at-large.

Although Wake Forest won the ACC Championship this season, the Demon Deacons qualified for the NCAA Championship at-large due finishing third at the NCAA Southeast Regional.

• Automatic Bids
  

  • Arkansas
  • BYU
  • Georgetown
  • Gonzaga
  • Harvard
  • North Carolina
  • Northern Arizona
  • Notre Dame
  • Oklahoma State
  • Ole Miss
  • Stanford
  • Syracuse
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Tulsa
  • Villanova
  • Virginia
  • Wisconsin

• At-large Teams

  • Air Force
  • Alabama
  • Butler
  • Colorado
  • Colorado State
  • Michigan
  • Montana State
  • NC State
  • Oregon
  • Princeton
  • Utah State
  • Wake Forest
  • Washington

Season Highlights

• The Wake Forest men’s cross country team is currently ranked seventh nationally.
• The Demon Deacons won the ACC Cross Country Championship this season for the first time since 1994.

  • This year’s title marked the fifth in program history.

    • Wake Forest had its best performance of the 2022 campaign as the Deacs finished 42 points ahead of second-place Syracuse to secure the league title.

• At the ACC Championships, Aaron Las Heras (third), Luke Tewalt (fourth), Thomas Vanoppen (fifth) and Zach Facioni (eighth) all garnered All-ACC honors and finished in the top eight.
  
• Despite coasting to a third place finish at the NCAA Southeast Regional, the Demon Deacons still had four runners earn All-Region honors (Tewalt, Facioni, Las Heras and Vanoppen).
• This season, the Deacs have finished no lower than sixth…