Stillwater, Okla.—For the first time ever, both the men’s and women’s cross country teams at the University of North Carolina finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships on Saturday, as the Tar Heels concluded the best overall season in program history with one of their top efforts of the year.
The Carolina women posted their best-ever NCAA finish, taking fifth place on the 6K Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course. Their best previous finish was sixth in 1999. It was the women’s sixth top-10 finish and first since 2004.
The UNC men finished 10th in the 10K men’s race, their second-best finish ever and best since the 1985 team was fifth. Saturday marked the second top-10 finish in UNC men’s annals.
NC State won the women’s championship for the second consecutive year with 114 team points. New Mexico (140) was second, followed by Alabama (166), host Oklahoma State (201) and Carolina (242) in the top five. The rest of the top 10 were No. 6 Northern Arizona (257), No. 7 Notre Dame (261), No. 8 BYU (263), No. 9 Virginia (268) and No. 10 Georgetown (271).
Northern Arizona won its third straight men’s title in a tiebreaker over Oklahoma State after both teams tied with 83 points at the top of the team standings. The rest of the men’s top 10 was No. 3 BYU (132), No. 4 Stanford (195), No. 5 Wake Forest (204), No. 6 Wisconsin (212), No. 7 Air Force (264), No. 8 Colorado (281), No. 9 Tulsa (304) and No. 10 UNC (323).
In the women’s race that opened the day, Kelsey Harrington had the top finish by a Carolina woman since 2011 when she took 17th in 19:58.8 to earn All-America honors. Harrington is only the sixth UNC women to post a top-20 finish at the NCAA Championships. The last Tar Heel female to finish higher was Kendra Schaaf, who finished 15th in 2011.
Three other Tar Heels joined Harrington as top-70 finishers overall. Brynn Brown just missed All-America honors by finishing 42nd in 20:14.8. Sasha Neglia crossed the finish line 62nd in 20:22.5 and Natalie Tyner was 66th in 20:24.1. Eva Kleingbeil was the fifth Tar Heel finisher in 108th place (20:40.5). Fatima Alanis finished 130th in 20:48.0, and Taryn Parks was 153rd in 20:56.9.
For the men, sophomore Parker Wolfe earned All-America honors for the second consecutive season, finishing ninth in 29:00.4 as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s top…
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