An already-historic 2025 season for Florida cross country is set to reach its crescendo Saturday afternoon. For the third time this fall, the Gators will take to the grass of the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Missouri — this time with national titles on the line.
At the SEC Championships on Oct. 31, the women’s team won the eighth conference title in program history. Freshman Kelvin Cheruiyot won the fourth men’s individual title in program history and the first since 1983.
At the NCAA South Regional on Nov. 14, the women’s team won the fourth regional title in program history and the first since 2009. Cheruiyot won the third men’s individual title in program history and the first since 2013.
So many lines of the Florida record book have been rewritten this fall, but there are two final high-water marks still well within reach: program-best finishes at the national meet for the women’s team and continued dominance from Cheruiyot.
Women’s race
The Gators’ early-season victory at the Gans Creek Classic on Sept. 26 showed promise, but it wasn’t until the postseason rolled around that associate head coach Will Palmer’s squad began to show just how good it could be. If Florida’s scores from both SEC Championships (45) and the South Regional (52) had been combined, it still would have finished ahead of any team from either race.
The national stage is a different beast, however. To this point, the highest-ranked team the Gators have beaten in the postseason is No. 15 South Carolina. In Columbia, they’ll be faced with the year’s steepest competition in a long-awaited matchup up with No. 1 North Carolina State, No. 2 BYU and No. 6 Oregon.
“It’s been circled on our calendar for a while,” Palmer said. “The thing I keep coming back to as a coach is that it doesn’t matter how good any of these other teams are, that shouldn’t change how we’re going to race.”
A finish inside the top four, where they’ve been ranked since mid-September, would mark the best placement at this meet in school history, but the Gators have their sights set on more.
Sophomore Judy Chepkoech has been Florida’s best runner all season, finishing seventh, second and fifth in her three races this fall. While at Arizona State last season, she placed 30th at the national meet. Chepkoech has showcased an elevated level of fitness each time she’s laced up her spikes this season, and it’s critical for the Gators’ title chances that she translates that into this race.
“Pretty early on, I thought she was capable of some pretty special things,” Palmer said. “I kind of hinted at that to her… ‘Judy, I think if you’re trying to be 30th again you’re selling yourself short.’”
Depth is one of Florida’s biggest strengths, as the path is clear for the first four Gators across the line to earn All-American honors — which is earned by a placement within the top-40 runners — with a strong trio of athletes positioned to produce a very respectable fifth scorer. However, depth can only get a team so far in a field like this. For Florida to truly threaten the high-powered Wolfpack and Ducks, Hilda Olemomoi will need to come through in a big way.
The junior placed third on this stage last November and started her track season with a bang on the strength of a 14:52.84 indoor 5,000-meter performance, one of the fastest times in NCAA history. An unlucky string of injuries derailed what looked to be a promising spring, however, and she hasn’t quite managed to find the form on the grass that has helped her finish no worse than sixth at the national championships each of the last three years.
At both the Gans Creek Classic and SEC Championships, Olemomoi was contending for the win through about four kilometers before dropping to ninth and seventh, respectively, by the time she reached the finish. The regional race looked to be her most evenly paced effort of the season, and Olemomoi was rewarded with a strong fourth-place finish.
“I think a lot of our emphasis with Hilda is trying to remove focus from, ‘You have to finish in this place,’ and more running a team-oriented race,” Palmer said. “I think if she can do that, she’s probably going to be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.”
Senior Tia Wilson and freshman Desma Chepkoech round out what has been Florida’s star quartet all season. While this will be Chepkoech’s first taste of the national scene, Wilson returns to this stage after finishing 63rd last year. Her improvement this fall – up 21 spots from her 2024 finish at SECs and up six spots at South Regionals – has been one of the biggest factors in Florida’s historic campaign.
Reagan Gilmore finished 179th at the national meet as a freshman and could be a candidate to improve by over 100 spots as a sophomore if her 18th-place finish at the conference meet was a sign of things to come. Freshman Claire Stegall is also a strong candidate to finish as the Gators’ fifth scorer, recently placing 15th at the South Regional. Should either of the young stars falter, senior Beth Morley has impressed ever since a frustrating opener at Gans Creek, and the 108th finisher from last year’s national meet could bring some stability to the bottom of Florida’s lineup if needed.
In a race that could very well be decided by whose fifth runner comes through the line first, Palmer’s squad finds itself in a fortunate spot.
“They have to just try to be the best versions of themselves,” Palmer said. “We don’t look for any heroics in this environment… We just want them to try and be the best version of themselves and not change the way they’ve been racing just because it appears to be a bigger moment.”
Men’s race
In Cheruiyot’s first collegiate race, he found himself in 92nd place a quarter of the way through. Since that moment, he’s been essentially flawless. At the Gans Creek Classic, he moved up 76 spots over the final six kilometers to finish 16th. In his three races since then, Cheruiyot hasn’t found himself outside of the lead pack and pulled away in the final kilometer for the win in each.
“He’s exceeded expectations,” Palmer said. “Far, far above… He’s kind of playing with house money at this point.”
While his conference and regional titles came against impressive teams and individual competitors, this race pits Cheruiyot against his stiffest competition by a significant margin.
Staring down the barrel of the most challenging race of his life, Palmer sees Cheruiyot’s adaptability and awareness as his biggest strength.
“The thing that will continue to benefit Kelvin is that he seems to have a really high racing IQ,” Palmer said. “Some of that is innate, he reads situations well and makes good decisions. Hopefully he can continue that streak.”
A late surge to the front has become Cheruiyot’s signature move in recent races, but that will be made difficult by the strength of the field and the muddy conditions in Columbia. However, Palmer feels that Cheruiyot will be able to run well no matter the style or execution of the race. He also believes that Cheruiyot has yet to go “all out” in a race this fall.
To add to the excitement of Cheruiyot’s appearance on the national stage, he’ll be matching up with two of his friends and former training partners from his hometown in Kenya for the first time in the NCAA. Oklahoma State juniors Brian Musau and Denis Kipngetich are among the top individual contenders in the country and the Cowboys are the favorites in the team race.
“It’s been my wish to race them again,” Cheruiyot said. “I’m not saying that I’ll beat them, but I have some confidence… When we meet, may the best team win.”
The women’s race will start at 10:20 a.m. ET with the men’s race to follow at 11:10 a.m. ET on Nov. 22.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at phof-mahoney@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @phofmahoney.
Paul is a senior sports journalism student and is the cross country/track and field reporter in his third semester with The Alligator. In his free time, you can catch him scrolling Twitter to keep up with an endless flood of track results and training for the media 800-meter race at the World Athletics Championships.
