University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
NCAA Championships
Cross Country Teams Both Finish Top 10 At NCAA Championships
November 19, 2022 | Cross Country
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 individual finisher.
Wolfe's ninth-place finish was the best by a UNC men's individual since 1956, when Jim Beatty was second. He is the third top-10 individual finisher in men's program history, joining Jack Milne (individual champion in 1947) and Beatty (second in 1956).
Wolfe is just the second two-time All-America in UNC men's cross country history, joining Beatty (1954, 1956), and is the seventh All-America overall.
The rest of Carolina's top-five scoring finishers were Ethan Strand (62nd in 29:51.8), John Tatter (72nd in 29:58.2), Will Coogan (106th in 30:16.5) and Patrick Anderson (113th in 30:21.10). Marshall Williamson was 135th in 30:28.5, and Ben Fleming took 194th in 30:58.6.
Harrington and Wolfe both earned All-America honors, marking just the second time in UNC history (and first since 1985) a man and woman posted All-America finishes in the same year. In 1985, George Nicholas finished 12th for the men while Holly Murray was 18th for the women.
With her first career All-America effort, and the highest finish by at Tar Heel since 2011, Kelsey Harrington leads the Carolina effort in 17th! #GoHeels 🐏 pic.twitter.com/dLURdeAnFv
— UNC Track & Field • XC (@UNCTrack_Field) November 19, 2022
Just the third Tar Heel to finish in the Top 10 at NCAA XC, and the highest Carolina finisher since 1956, Parker Wolfe earns his second-career All-America standing in 9️⃣th overall! #GoHeels 🐏 pic.twitter.com/MfFWzEvxXk
— UNC Track & Field • XC (@UNCTrack_Field) November 19, 2022
Historic day Stillwater! Heel women go 15-35-50-54-88-(106)-(125) in team scoring to total 242 pts for 5⃣th place - the highest finish in program history!
— UNC Track & Field • XC (@UNCTrack_Field) November 20, 2022
UNC has posted just six Top 10 finishes since 1981:
2022, 5th
1999, 6th
2001, 7th
1983 & 2003, 8th
2004, 10th#GoHeels 🐏 pic.twitter.com/ryfilDx9Z5
Also from Stillwater: Tar Heel men crack the NCAA Top 10 for the first time in almost four decades!
— UNC Track & Field • XC (@UNCTrack_Field) November 20, 2022
UNC goes 9-59-68-91-96-(113)-(163) in team scoring for 323 pts! The performance is the second best in school history behind the Heels' fifth-place showing in 1985.#GoHeels 🐏 pic.twitter.com/7P02CvJYte
Players Mentioned
