After finishing eighth in the 2024 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, No. 1 NC State women’s cross country earned its fourth title in five years on Saturday morning, beating defending champion Brigham Young by 16 points.

Through this season, as mentioned by an ESPN announcer, NC State has had different top runners at almost every meet. The finishing order for this race was led by senior Hannah Gapes, who strongly paced the pack of runners, coming in fifth place in 18:51.5. Senior Grace Hartman followed only 1.1 seconds later, claiming sixth at 18:52.6.

The duo helped extend NC State’s top-10 finish streak at the championships, the longest in the country. Gapes and Hartman finished eighth and fifth in 2024, respectively.

Sophomore Bethany Michalak was the next in for the Pack, coming in at 19:14.9, with junior Angelina Napoleon coming close behind at 19:22.7. Freshman Sadie Englehardt held her own, running with the top 50 throughout the race and finishing as the team’s fifth racer, in 51st place with a time of 19:32.4.

The Wolfpack was represented by sophomore Noah Valyo on the men’s side, who placed 175th at 30:14.7.

The meet in Columbia, Missouri, marked a milestone after an expansion to 32 teams per gender, making it the first time all the top teams were on the line together. According to the NCAA, there can now be as many as 262 athletes racing the event, which equates to seven runners per team and 38 individual qualifiers.

The NC State women’s squad concludes an excellent season in which it won every meet it competed in as a group, including its ninth ACC Championship in 10 years and ninth consecutive Southeast Regional Championship.

With the win, the Wolfpack has climbed back up the proverbial mountain’s peak of collegiate cross country.