MADISON, Wis. – Harvard's Graham Blanks repeated as the NCAA men's cross country champion and he earned his title on Saturday by again defeating New Mexico's Habtom Samuel. And Blanks did it in record-breaking time on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course.
The pair also went 1-2 a year ago in Charlottesville, Va.
"It was a great way to finish out my collegiate career," Blanks said. "I would have never thought I'd be able to be here. I've made it this far, it's unbelievable. I wanted to make sure I'm a better athlete."
BYU won the team championship to complete a sweep of those titles for the Cougars after their women's team beat the field in that race less than an hour earlier.
"I'm super happy and pleased with the way they controlled the race," BYU coach Ed Eyestone said. "We had a whiteboard showing how many points we were ahead or behind. We assumed we'd be trailing early on, hoping to move into the positive later. But when they saw we had 65 points early on, they just said, 'Okay, when it gets tough, let's hold on now.'"
Blanks got a late start in his cross country training after finishing ninth in the 5000 at the Paris Olympics, but he had himself ready at the right time. He ran in a lead pack of a dozen runners before opening up a comfortable lead heading into the final stretch, finishing his 10,000-meter run in 28:37.2 to shatter the course record of 29:08.3 set by Wisconsin's Morgan McDonald in 2018.
The Harvard standout felt so comfortable at the end that he pumped his fist and waved to the crowd as he approached the finish. He's the first repeat champion since BYU's Connor Mantz won in 2020 and 2021.
"I was just trying to enjoy it," Blanks said. "To be honest, I wish I could have enjoyed it a little bit more, but I was in a lot of pain. Going into that last turn I wasn't sure if I had. It was cool, the crowd was great, the course was amazing and the competition was unbelievable. They guys are so talented."
Samuel, who won the Pre-Nationals race on this course in October, lost his left shoe during the race but maintained his stride and finished in 28:38.9, also well under the previous record. In all, 14 runners went faster than McDonald's old mark in pleasant racing conditions – a temperature in the mid-30s, cloudy skies and little wind.
Dylan Schubert of Furman was third in 28:39.6, Yaseen Abdalla of Arkansas took fourth in 28:41.5 and Oklahoma State's Brian Masau finished fifth in 28:44.9.
Casey Clinger's sixth-place finish led BYU's charge to the team title, with Iowa State a close second. It was the fifth top 25 finish for Clinger, whose previous best had been seventh in 2022.
After Clinger, BYU went 12-28-35-43 in the team race to finish with 124 points/Iowa State, led by Said Mechaal's 10th-place finish, had 137 points. The Cyclones' other runners went 21-31-33-42.
It's the fifth time one program has swept both team titles. Colorado had been the last to do it, in 2004. BYU's top four runners all earned All-America honors.
"At the beginning of the season, we felt like we had seven guys who could do that," Eyestone said. "On the right day, we could have had all seven guys perform, but we also had a pretty senior-heavy team, so this was the year for us to do it. The guys realized it was now or possibly a long wait, especially with so many people graduating.
I'm super happy and pleased with the way they controlled the race. We had a whiteboard showing how many points we were ahead or behind. We assumed we'd be trailing early on, hoping to move into the positive later. But when they saw we had 65 points early on, they just said, 'Okay, when it gets tough, let's hold on now.'"
Arkansas claimed third in the team race with 202 points and Wisconsin, running on its home course, made the podium with 212 points to finish fourth.
