Sport Cross country Most recent
champion(s) North Central (Ill.) | Founded 1973 Official website NCAA.com | |
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The NCAA Men's Division III Cross Country Championship is an annual cross country meet to decide the team and individual national champions of men's NCAA Division III intercollegiate cross country running in the United States. It has been held every fall, usually in November, since the NCAA split into its current three-division format in 1973.
Contents
The current champions are the North Central Cardinals, who won their 17th national title in 2016.
Format
The field for the national championship race varied in the early years, reaching a high of 52 teams in 1977. From 1982 to 1998 the field was fixed at 21 teams. From 1999 to 2005 the field included 24 teams. Beginning in 2006, the national championship race has included 32 teams. Teams compete in one of eight regional championships to qualify. In addition to the 32 teams, 56 individual runners qualify for the national championship.
The race distance from 1973 to 1975 was 5 miles (8.0 km). Since 1976 the race distance has been 8,000 meters (5.0 mi).