Cross Country at the Top Colleges
For both men and women, cross country is one of the most popular sports played in the NCAA at the highly selective colleges. Overall, 56 of the 61 highly selective colleges have men’s cross country teams and 60 of the 61 highly selective colleges have women’s cross country teams with a total of 2,604 cross country runners across both genders.
Of the 56 colleges with men’s cross country, 27 of them belong in Division 1 with 623 runners and 29 of them belong in Division 3 with 713 runners, totaling 1,336 runners altogether in the 2021/2022 season.
Of the 60 colleges with women’s cross country, 30 of them belong in Division 1 with total of 651 runners, and the remaining 30 colleges belong in Division 3 with a total of 617 runners, together making a total of 1,268 runners in the 2021/2022 season.
Cross Country NCAA Rules and Calendar for Athlete Recruitment
How do top colleges in Division 1 select their athlete recruits?
Athlete Recruitment to a Top NCAA Division 3 College
List of Highly Selective Colleges with Cross Country Teams
Below is a list of the top colleges with cross country teams the NCAA Division they belong in.
All data is compiled directly from the colleges’ athletic websites
| Cross Country at Highly Selective Colleges | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's | Women's | ||
| Division | Cross Country | Cross Country | |
| Amherst College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Babson College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Barnard College (comb w/ Columbia University) | I | No | Yes |
| Bates College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Boston College | I | Yes | Yes |
| Boston University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Bowdoin College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Brown University | I | Yes | Yes |
| California Institute of Technology | III | Yes | Yes |
| Carleton College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Carnegie Mellon University | III | Yes | Yes |
| Claremont McKenna College (incl Harvey Mudd) | III | Yes | Yes |
| Colby College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Colgate University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Colorado College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Columbia University (incl Barnard College) | I | Yes | Yes |
| Cornell University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Dartmouth College | I | Yes | Yes |
| Davidson College | I | Yes | Yes |
| Duke University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Emory University | III | Yes | Yes |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | I | Yes | Yes |
| Grinnell College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Hamilton College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Harvard University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Harvey Mudd College (comb w/Claremont McKenna) | III | Yes | Yes |
| Haverford College | III | Yes | Yes |
| John Hopkins University | III | Yes | Yes |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | III | Yes | Yes |
| Middleburry College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Northeastern University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Northwestern University | I | No | Yes |
| New York University | III | Yes | Yes |
| Pitzer College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Pomona College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Princeton University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Rice University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Stanford University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Swarthmore College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Tufts University | III | Yes | Yes |
| Tulane University | I | Yes | Yes |
| University of California Berkeley | I | Yes | Yes |
| University of California Los Angeles | I | Yes | Yes |
| University of Michigan | I | Yes | Yes |
| University of Chicago | III | Yes | Yes |
| University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill | I | Yes | Yes |
| University of Notre Dame | I | Yes | Yes |
| University of Pennsylvania | I | Yes | Yes |
| University of Southern California | I | No | Yes |
| University of Virginia | I | Yes | Yes |
| Vanderbilt University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Vassar College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Villanova University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Wake Forest University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Washington and Lee University | III | Yes | Yes |
| Washington University in St. Louis | III | Yes | Yes |
| Wellesley College | III | No | Yes |
| Wesleyan University | III | Yes | Yes |
| Williams College | III | Yes | Yes |
| Yale University | I | Yes | Yes |
| Total Runners | 1,336 | 1,268 |
Watch out for the latest on
How to get recruited to the cross country team at a top college?
Cross country team profiles at the top colleges