BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's and women's cross country programs are set to compete in the National Championship Saturday afternoon at Big Spring High School in Newville, PA. This will be the 16^th consecutive season the women have made it to the Championship meet, while the men will be making their 12^th overall appearance and seventh straight dating back to 2016.
 
"The energy levels are just through the roof," Head Coach Bobby Van Allen said ahead of Saturday's Championship. "It's fun to just sit back and watch and see it all in action at practice [and] on bus trips… Those moments are honestly just as important as the race itself." 
 
This will be the first time in over 20 years that the Championship is on the east coast with the race set to take place at nearby Dickinson College, and whereas the programs have had to make trips to the likes of Michigan and Louisville in recent years, having the race less than two hours away presents a different opportunity for both the student-athletes and the fanbase.
 
"I'm so ecstatic that we finally get to have an NCAA Championship closer to home…" Van Allen said. "To be able to have more alumni, parents and Hopkins students there is just so incredibly exciting. A lot of our upper classman have raced on this course before, and we also were able to take a trip up here in the preseason to preview it, so I do feel we are very familiar with it."
 
The women are likely to be led by graduate student Sara Stephenson, who has paced the Jays in every race she competed in this season, including a pair of individual titles at both the Conference Championship and NCAA Regional en route to being named the Centennial and Region Runner of the Year.
 
On the men's side, Emmanuel Leblond will look to build on his impressive sophomore campaign that has seen him finish in the top 10 in four of the five races he has competed in, including a first-place finish at the Centennial Conference Championship.
 
Ranked ninth and 19^th in the country respectively, the women will enter Saturday's Championship having won three consecutive National titles, while the men improved 12 spots between 2021 and 2022 to finish 12^th last season. Regardless of results, however, Van Allen hopes to see his teams compete above all else.
 
"Our biggest focus will be running our best race of the year," Van Allen said. "We certainly want to be in contention with the top teams in the race for both programs, and I'm very optimistic we will do just that, but at the end of the day, it's going to be about celebrating each other and all the work that goes into building these relationships that will truly last forever."
 
The men will race first in the 8K beginning at 11 a.m. with the women's 6K scheduled to start at noon.