No. 4 Men's XC Heads To NCAA Championship

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The 2023 cross country season draws to a close this weekend as UNC's fourth-ranked men and junior Fatima Alanis travel across state lines to Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, Nov. 18, for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. The UNC men are making their third consecutive appearance at the national championship meet after putting four runners in the top 10 en route to capturing their second straight NCAA Southeast Regional title less than a week ago. Alanis received an at-large bid to the championship meet following a ninth-place women's regional championship finish.

A year ago, the Carolina men finished 10^th at the NCAA championships and recorded their second-best finish in program history, topped only by a fifth-place finish in 1985.

Prior to the arrival of head coach Chris Miltenberg in 2019, the Tar Heels had made just seven trips to the NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship, which was first held in 1938.

"We removed the ceiling that had been in place here for so long," Miltenberg explained. "I learned quickly when I got here that we just saw ourselves as taking a backseat to our competitors in the ACC let alone national-caliber programs.

"We brought in guys that believed we could get to that level, and we've steadily and methodically worked our way up over time."

The Tar Heels finished 10^th at the 2019 ACC Championships in Miltenberg's first season but gradually climbed the ladder, culminating with their first ACC title in nearly 40 years this season and earning the highest ranking in program history.

"We were really honest with ourselves year one and year two, and these were the incremental steps we were going to have to take," Miltenberg explained. "You can't skip steps. We had to be really clear about what was the next logical step.

"We also brought in guys that had run at that level in the graduate transfer program, who showed our younger guys the way to do it and how hard the work is, and they have bought into it."

Thirteen athletes have earned all-region honors under Miltenberg's tutelage at UNC, including five this season.

Junior All-America Parker Wolfe and graduate transfer Alex Phillip, two-time NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Champion, finished second and third at the 2023 NCAA Southeast Regional championship meet. Junior Ethan Strand placed sixth, Indiana transfer Jake Gebhardt finished 10^th and sophomore Colton Sands came in 18^th to earn post-meet accolades.

Top-ranked Northern Arizona has won the past three NCAA men's cross country championships and six of the last seven.

The Lumberjacks will be challenged by No. 2 Oklahoma State, which is seeking its first title since 2012 and fourth since 2009, as well as third-ranked BYU, which interrupted NAU's title reign in 2019.

The Cougars have made the podium in four of the past six years, never finishing worse than third when they do.

"It's just fun for us to think we can come in and disrupt the party," Miltenberg said. "We're not one of those teams that everyone expects to be there, but if we do our job well the next couple of years that will change.

"Right now, we're in an exciting place where we just go do what we do and see how many of these teams we can beat."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Fatima Alanis

Jake Gebhardt

Alex Phillip

Colton Sands

Ethan Strand

Parker Wolfe

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