Women's 6-kilometer clash features clash of NXN champion Riggs and Champs Sports winner Baloga, plus Macchia, Nechanicky, Shea and Zealand; men's 8-kilometer race highlighted by Mathison, Seymour and Young twins, all pursuing berths for World U20 Championships in Australia

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Three high school individual national winners.

A trio of members from the nation’s top-ranked boys cross country program.

And multiple other prep All-Americans, including a returning champion, are scheduled to compete against several talented college freshmen Saturday at the USATF U20 Cross Country Championships at Pole Green Park in Richmond, Va.

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The women’s 6-kilometer race is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. EST, with the men’s 8-kilometer competition to be held at 1:15 p.m. EST in the first USATF cross country national championship event held in Virginia after the 2020 and 2022 meets were showcased in San Diego.

Champs Sports national champions Karrie Baloga of Cornwall Central High in New York and Kole Mathison of Carmel High in Indiana are entered, along with Nike Cross Nationals winner Irene Riggs of Morgantown High in West Virginia.

Leo Young, Lex Young and Brayden Seymour of NXN champion Newbury Park are also expected to compete in the men’s race.

Champs Sports All-Americans Ellie Shea of Emerging Elites in Massachusetts, Zariel Macchia of William Floyd High in New York and Allie Zealand of Pacers Homeschool in Virginia are also scheduled to participate in the women’s competition, as well as NXN All-American Abbey Nechanicky of Wayzata High in Minnesota.

Macchia won the U20 individual title last year in San Diego, but there is a lot more at stake Saturday, as the top six competitors in both the men’s and women’s races are eligible to represent the United States at the World Athletics U20 Cross Country Championships on Feb. 18 in Bathurst, Australia.

It marks the first time the global cross country event will be held since 2019 in Aarhus, Denmark, and it will be the debut for the meet in Australia.

Madeline Castillo and Lia Castillo of Alamosa High in Colorado, who both placed in the top 10 of the women’s race at last year’s event, are returning, with Champs Sports national finalist Thais Rolly of McLean High in Virginia also scheduled to compete.

NCAA Division 1 finalists Eva Klingbeil of North Carolina and Elia Ton-That of Columbia are among the leading college entries in the women’s competition, in addition to Minnesota’s Ali Weimer and Oklahoma State’s Cameron McConnell.

The men’s race will showcase Mathison and the Newbury Park trio of Seymour and the Young twins stepping up in distance against an impressive group of college freshmen including Michigan’s Luke Venhuizen and Caleb Jarema, Villanova’s Marco Langon, Air Force’s Max Sannes, Wisconsin’s Micah Wilson, Utah State’s Eli Gregory, Iowa State’s Alex McKane and Toledo’s Joshuah Taylor.

Micah Slivers of Ganado High in Arizona, who finished 10th in the men’s race last year, is also expected to compete, along with Virginia prep standouts Berkley Nance of Mills Godwin and Isaac Lamprecht of New Kent.

Conner Mantz, now a Nike professional athlete, was the last male prep competitor to win the U20 title in 2015 in Colorado during his senior year at Sky View High in Utah.

Kathy Butler of the Run Boulder Athletic Club in Colorado has been named the U.S. women’s U20 coach, with former Spanish River High of Florida coach Rick Rothman announced to lead the American men’s U20 team.