WHEELING, W.Va. — The 2025 Mountain East Conference Cross Country Championships will take place Saturday morning at Oglebay Resort. The MEC Women’s Championship 6K is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on the Crispin Golf Course, with the MEC Men’s Championship 8K to follow at 10:30 a.m.
The award’s ceremony, which includes a presentation to the Team Champion, Runner of the Year, Freshman of the Year, and Coach of the Year, is tentatively scheduled for 11:30 a.m. after the conclusion of both races.
The MEC all-conference teams, which will consistent of 10 first team members and 10 second team honorees, will also be announced.
The price of admission is $10 per car (cash only).
Both races will be streamed live on MountainEast.tv with Ales Wieserspiel and Mark Siegel providing coverage of the 2025 MEC Cross Country Championships.
WOMEN’S PREVIEW
The 2025 MEC Women’s Cross Country Championships will feature the top two individual finishers from a year ago: Davis & Elkins’ Lauren Twyman and Point Park’s Cassondra O’Connor.
Twyman defeated O’Connor in last year’s race, but O’Connor swept the MEC Runner of the Year, which is via a vote of the league’s head coaches, and Freshman of the Year, which goes to the top rookie finisher in the event. This season, O’Connor captured a pair of MEC Cross Country Runner of the Week awards to open the season (Sept. 8 and Sept. 15), and Twyman picked up the honor on Sept. 29.
Twyman, a junior from Vinton, Ohio, placed second in the 6,000-meter race at the Lock Haven Invitational — the top MEC finisher and one spot ahead of O’Connor. The reigning MEC Runner of the Year, O’Connor, won the West Liberty Invitational 5K, beating the entire field by 15 seconds. A week later, O’Connor finished seventh at the Robert Morris Invitational with a personal best time of 21:21.5 in the 6K.
Other contenders will be Glenville State’s Natalie Barr, who closed the season with a pair of MEC Cross Country Runner of the Week awards. She finished sixth at the 2024 MEC Cross Country Championships, less than a minute off the pace set by Twyman and O’Connor.
West Virginia Wesleyan’s Lindsey Dillon also returns to Oglebay Resort after finished 13th at the MEC Cross Country Championships last season, which earned her second team All-MEC recognition.
Other All-MEC second teamers back this season are Fairmont State’s Megan Mitchell, who finished 18th a season ago, and Davis & Elkins’ Rebecca Tellez, who finished 19th last season.
The Davis & Elkins women captured the team title last year, ending the University of Charleston’s four-year run. Twyman led a trio of Senators runners on the All-MEC first team to beat the Golden Eagles. UC finished second in team points, with Point Park coming in third in its MEC debut.
MEN’S PREVIEW
Davis & Elkins is defending its team championship at the event after ending Charleston’s six-year run as the MEC’s title-holders. At last year’s event, the Senators had seven of the top 12 finishers to take home the team title, plus the Runner of the Year and Coach of the Year honors.
The key to Davis & Elkins’ title defense will be Jordan Thomas, an All-MEC first team performer at last year’s championship meet. Thomas finished 10th a year ago, and twice this season was named the MEC Cross Country Runner of the Week.
Thomas, who is from Morgantown, West Virginia, finished 24th overall in a field of 326 runners at the Louisville Cross Country Classic earlier this month, helping the Senators beat a dozen Division I programs. In September, Thomas placed second out of 120 competitors at the Robert Morris Invitational as Davis & Elkins beat No. 21-ranked Walsh and a pair of Division I programs.
The University of Charleston is often formidable at the year-end event. Coach Nick Bias has guided the Golden Eagles program since 2014, and in that span the men’s program has qualified for six NCAA championships, highlighted by an eighth-place national finish in 2022.
In 2025, UC will be led by Hugo Hewitt and Harry Witt. Hewitt, a junior from England, finished second in the 1,500-meter run at the MEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the spring, and this season was the MEC Runner of the Week on Sept. 29 after he finished sixth at the Lock Haven Invitational as the top MEC runner in the event. Witt is a freshman from New Zealand who will be competing at the MEC Cross Country Championships for the first time, and Jules Geoffrey-Remot gives Bias depth as a second team All-MEC performer in 2024.
Concord finished third in team points behind Davis & Elkins and UC at last year’s event, and this year the Mountain Lions return Braden Ward, who finished 17th in 2024 and earned All-MEC second team recognition.
Other names to watch in Saturday’s men’s race: Davis & Elkins’ Chris Lucas; Fairmont State’s Bailey DeMoss; Glenville State’s Nick Pitchford; Point Park teammates Elijah Bechdel and Luke McKenna; and West Virginia Wesleyan’s Kent Niland, the MEC Runner of the Week for Oct. 13.