by Larry Eder
WOLFE, KELATI TAKE USATF SENIOR CROSS COUNTRY TITLES
By Rich Sands, @thatrichsands.bsky.social
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
NOTE: This story was written remotely –Ed.
(06-Dec) — Parker Wolfe and Weini Kelati won USATF cross country titles over 10-K on Saturday in Portland, Ore., and will lead Team USATF to the 2026 World Athletics Cross Country Championships to be held in Tallahassee, Fla., on January 10. Ethan Strand and Gracie Morris won the 2-K races and will run on the mixed relay squad at Worlds.
The first six finishers in the 10-K races earned spots on the team, while the top two men and top two women in the 2-K races qualified for the mixed relay. This will be the first time the United States has hosted the world championships since 1992, when the meet was held at Boston’s Franklin Park.
Portions of the Glendoveer Golf Course were muddy and chewed up after heavy rain in the days leading up to the meet as well as the Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) high school championships races held earlier in the day. “When I saw the mud, the hills, I said this is real cross country,” said Kelati.
In the men’s 10-K, Rocky Hansen went right to the front. Two weeks after finishing second at the NCAA championships, the Wake Forest junior seemed determined to push the pace. By 3-K, he led a group of six that had separated from the field, including pre-race favorites Nico Young and Graham Blanks as well as Wesley Kiptoo, Ahmed Muhumed and Wolfe. Kiptoo, a former Kenyan, became eligible to represent the United States in October.
Hansen passed 5K in 14:27.5 to lead the pack, and he opened a slight gap by 6-K. “It was the plan to string it out and make it hurt,” Hansen told LetsRun.com. “The pros were actually in my wheelhouse now, because I’ve run four cross country races before this… The pros, a lot of them, haven’t raced it in a year-plus, so it’s a unique situation where I was the one who had the advantage.”
Kiptoo, Muhumed and Wolfe kept up the chase while Young and Blanks started to fall behind. Kiptoo slipped and lost his momentum climbing a muddy hill just before 8-K and briefly lost momentum. With less than a kilometer to go it was a two-man race with Wolfe shadowing Hansen. Wolfe finally began to accelerate and quickly opened up a comfortable margin over the final half mile. He broke the tape in 29:16.4, ahead of Hansen (29:24.8), Kiptoo (29:27.7) and Muhumed (29:33.7). Young (29:41.6) passed Blanks (29:45.0) in the final stretch for fifth. Seventh-place finisher Liam Murphy (29:59.4) will be the first alternate for the team.
“I was just trying to stay in contact with him,” Wolfe said on the Runnerspace.com broadcast of the race of his pursuit of Hansen. “He was ready for this, he’s been racing all season, so I was just trying to plug away. And when we got to 800 left, I just felt like I had a little more in the tank going up those hills.”
For Wolfe, this victory offered some redemption after he finished third in the 5000 meters at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials but lacked the qualifying standard for the Summer Games. “After missing out on Paris I’ve been looking to make a team since, so this is a fun experience and I’m ready to represent USA,” said the recent North Carolina grad, who missed this year’s track and field championship season with injury.
In the women’s 10-K, Emma Grace Hurley went to the front on the first lap with 2023 NCAA champion Parker Valby and Kelati leading the chase group, followed by two other past NCAA winners, Karissa Schweizer and Ednah Kurgat.
Shortly after 4-K, Kelati, Katie Izzo and Kurgat began to create separation from the pack. Izzo led the trio through halfway in 16:43.9, with Hurley, Valby, Schweizer, Grace Hartman and Emily Venters trailing.
In the sixth kilometer Kelati and Izzo broke away from Kurgat and a few minutes later Kelati used a surge to take sole possession of the lead. Kurgat ran alone in third, while a group of four battled for the last three team spots: Hurley, Venters, Schweizer and Hartman.
Kelati, a 2024 Olympian in the 10,000 meters and the American record holder in the half-marathon, continued to build her lead in the closing stages and won convincingly in 33:45.5 for her second national cross country title. Izzo (34:00.9) held the runner-up spot, while Kurgat (34:09.9), Schweizer (34:16.2), Venters (34:20.7) and Hartman (34:25.7) locked up the remaining team spots. Elise Stearn (34:33.1) finished seventh and will be the first alternate for Tallahassee. Hurley (34:40.9), who had pushed the pace early, and Valby (34:48.9) faded to ninth and 10th.
“I’m over the moon because I thought last year was going to be my last cross country race, but when I heard it was going to be in the U.S. I was like why not lead Team USA, go there and show them that we can do it?” said Kelati, who finished 14th at the 2024 world championships in 2024 after winning the U.S. title that year.
In the men’s 2-K, Strand moved to the front early, followed by Wes Porter, Craig Engels and Vincent Ciattei. After a brief challenge from Liam Meirow, Strand and Porter pulled away and dueled over the final 400 meters, with Strand getting the win, 5:25.8 to 5:26.5. “Today wasn’t necessarily about making the world team, it was about coming out, giving my best effort, trying to run hard and if I make the world team it’s a bonus,” said Strand, the runner-up at both the NCAA and USATF championships 1500 meters this season. “NCAA Cross has prepared me to keep my foot on the gas the whole time. And if you can keep your foot on the gas the whole time for a 10-K, you can definitely do it for a 2K, so that was my plan.”
Porter, who ran on Virginia’s NCAA Indoor championship distance medley team in March, will join Strand on the men’’ legs of the mixed relay at Worlds. Garrett MacQuiddy (5:33.6) took 3rd, followed by Sam Gilman (5:34.5) and Ciattei (5:35.5).
Just before halfway in the women’s 2-K, Morris began to pull away from the field, with Emily Mackay and Annika Reiss trying to hang on and Sage Hurta-Klecker, a finalist in the 800 meters at September’s World Athletics Championships, a few strides back.
Mackay started to struggle (she would finish seventh) and Hurta-Klecker moved into second. Morris extended her lead on the final uphill and won in 6:19.4, while Hurta-Klecker held off the fast-closing Reiss, 6:22.9 to 6:23.1, and took the second women’s spot on the mixed relay. Gracie Hyde (6:28.4) and Kaley Delay (6:29.0) rounded out the top five.
“I’ve been working so hard and I feel like I’ve always just been on the outside of the success,” said Morris, who finished ninth in the 1500 at the USATF Championships this summer then won the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile in September. “So for it to finally come together my first year as a pro is really exciting.”
Races were also held for the U-20 age group, with Aidan Torres of the University of Texas taking the men’s 8-K in 25:10.8 and Duke’s Victoria Garcia winning the women’s 6-K in 21:07.0.
