Colorado men’s cross country team crowned 2026 Big 12 champions, women take fourth
On Friday, Oct. 30th, the Colorado Buffaloes competed at the 2026 Big 12 Cross Country Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The No. 3-ranked men’s team won the championship with five top-12 finishes, including Dominic Sterem who finished in second overall. The No. 10-ranked women’s squad battled with Oklahoma State, Utah and BYU but ultimately finished in fourth place with 117 points, just one point shy of third.
The Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course, where the championships took place, is regarded by many to be one of the hardest and most brutal championship courses in the country. The course features five distinct elevation climbs, one of which includes the “The Bee Hill,” which is a sudden wall runners must summit multiple times. The newly-renovated course also features bermuda grass (often found at luxury golf courses) which acts as a mattress-like surface for runners and puts extreme pressure on the calves and hamstrings.
To finish the race, runners must conquer the last 800 meters, which begins with a 600-meter uphill climb into a straight 200-meter finish which is designed to mentally break runners as they finish.
The men’s squad started the competition by using a “packrunning” technique, which allowed seven Buffs to be in the same relative position through the first 2 kilometers of the race. Meshack Kipruto, Lukas Huang and Isaiah Givens positioned themselves as the Colorado front-runners and battled BYU and Oklahoma State for a podium position.
At the 3-kilometer mark, Kipruto positioned himself between two BYU runners for a spot in the top three. At the 6-kilometer mark, Kipruto fell behind and Serem replaced him in second place during the last uphill stretch of the race. Kipruto and Serem would maintain these positions in a tough battle against Oklahoma State during the last stride through the chute, which led Colorado to victory as three other Buffs would follow them into the top 12 with seven total in the top 20.
The women took a different approach than the men, sending just a couple runners to the front early. Sheylah Kurgrat and Abbey Mathinson jumped into an early lead for the Buffs, hanging with a few BYU runners at the front of the pack. Kurgrat pushed this pace and found herself with Adrianna Buitelaar and Holly Barker who both made large jumps in the second half of competition.
During the last stretch of competition, Colorado’s position switched between Utah and Oklahoma State, but the Buffs ultimately fell to OSU and finished in fourth place. The squad was led by Kurgrat who finished first for the Buffs and eighth overall, and Mathinson who finished 18th overall.
Mens 8k results:
Dominic Sterem (2nd - 23:06.9)
Meshack Kipruto (4th - 23:10.3)
Jack Graffero (9th - 23:24.0)
Isaiah Givens (10th - 23:24.6)
Jake Liebert (11th - 23:26.4)
Women’s 6k results:
Sheylah Kurgrat (8th - 19:46.7)
Abbey Mathinson (18th - 20:13.8)
Adrianna Buitelaar (25th - 20:34.8)
Holly Barker (30th - 20:45.8)
Bella Jacobsen (45th 21:06.8)
In his third year at the helm, Colorado head coach Sean Carlson led the Buffs to their 13th Big-12 title and the first since 2007. They last won the Pac-12 conference title in 2021.
“Really proud of our guys. They ran a great team race,” Carlson said. “They did a really good job of being disciplined throughout the race and running in their positions that we talked about.”
The Buffs have their next competition on Friday, Nov. 13 at the NCAA Mountain Regionals hosted by the University of New Mexico.
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