NCAA cross country championships: Colorado, Northern Arizona claim team titles

The 2018 DI and DIII men’s and women’s cross country championships were held in Wisconsin on November 17. DI teams raced in Madison while DIII squads traveled to Winneconne. You can see the final results here. The DII men and women will race as a part of the DII Festival on Saturday, December 1 in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.

The action started with the DI women at 11:45 a.m. ET. Colorado took the team title with 65 points. They went into the championships ranked No. 3 and were able to hold off No. 1 New Mexico for the title. New Mexico came in second with 103 points, followed by No Oregon and No. 6 Michigan.

Colorado wins the 2018 DI women's cross country championship

Individually, Colorado's Dani Jones took first place to help the Buffaloes win their first national championship since 2014.

CONGRATULATIONS COLORADO BUFFALOES!
2018 WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! pic.twitter.com/iqBKuUm2D2

— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) November 17, 2018

DIII women ran at 12:15 p.m. ET just north of the DI races in Winneconne. No. 2 Washington (Mo.) took the team title, with No. Johns Hopkins, No. 4 MIT and No. 7 Wisconsin Eau-Claire finishing out the top four.

Paige Lawler came in first place with a final time of 20:55.0, helping her team to the one-point win over Johns Hopkins for the team title.

Paige Lawler of @WASHU_XCTF is the women’s individual champion in @NCAADIII Cross Country. pic.twitter.com/iTO58cT7un

— USTFCCCA (@USTFCCCA) November 17, 2018

The DI men's race was next,  with a start time of 12:45 p.m. No. 1 Northern Arizona went for its third consecutive team title with 33 less points than the next finisher. No. 2 BYU took second with 116 points, followed by No. 4 Portland and No. 8 Colorado.

CONGRATULATIONS NAU LUMBERJACKS!
2018 MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! pic.twitter.com/BShfTu8eT7

— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) November 17, 2018

Individually, Wisconsin's Morgan McDonald took the DI men's title. MdDonald won in front of the home crowd with a final time of 29:08:22.

WE HAVE AN NCAA CHAMPION 🥇 pic.twitter.com/WdJPB8djE0

— Wisconsin Track & Field and Cross Country (@BadgerTrackXC) November 17, 2018

The DIII men closed out the day with their 1:15 p.m. race. No. 1 North Central took the team lead with the top two individual finishers in the race. No. 2 Washington (Mo.), No. 4 Wisconsin LaCrosse and No. 7 Haverford rounded out the top teams.

North Central's Dhruval Patel was the men's DIII individual winner. His teammate Al Baldonado came in just behind Patel, helping North Central to the title.

North Central wins the 2018 DIII cross country championship