Columbia News

The Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB)/Sports Commission and the University of Missouri will host the 2025 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships. This event, announced by the NCAA on Wednesday, will be the first NCAA championship held in Columbia.

A press conference is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15 at 8:30 a.m. CT at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course to provide more details. Representatives from Mizzou Athletics and city officials will attend to discuss the event and answer questions from media.

The Gans Creek Cross Country Course, which opened last season through a partnership between the City of Columbia and Mizzou Athletics, will serve as the championship venue. The course includes a permanent finish line structure, timing tower, spectator-friendly viewing areas, and loops designed for multiple race distances.

The NCAA selected championship sites after receiving over 3,000 bid submissions from member schools, conferences, sports commissions, and cities. These selections were made by NCAA sports committees and approved by divisional oversight groups. Other upcoming cross country championship locations include Stillwater, Oklahoma (2022), Charlottesville, Virginia (2023), and Madison, Wisconsin (2024).

Besides hosting the NCAA championships in 2025, Gans Creek Cross Country Course will also be used for the 2021 SEC Cross Country Championships as well as various Missouri State High School Activities Association events.

Mizzou Director of Athletics Jim Sterk stated: "The University of Missouri and Mizzou Athletics are thrilled to partner with the City of Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Columbia Sports Commission to bring the 2025 NCAA Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships to our community and the world-class Gans Creek Cross Country Course. While Mizzou has successfully hosted several NCAA Regional championship events over the years, this marks the first time Columbia has been selected to host an NCAA Championship, and I know that we will work with the city officials to make it a special event for all of the participants.

"When we came together with the City to build Gans Creek, our vision was to host the NCAA Championships as well as other events of this stature, and we are thrilled that it has happened so quickly. We enjoy a great relationship with the City, and look forward to working with it to bring more events like this to Columbia for our community."

Mizzou Cross Country Head Coach Marc Burns said: "We are thrilled to be hosting the NCAA Cross Country Championships here in Columbia at Gans Creek in 2025. We appreciate the confidence the NCAA has in us to host this great championship event. Thanks to the Columbia CVB/Sports Commission and Zach Franklin for all of their work throughout the bid process. Mike Griggs and his staff have done an amazing job helping us develop Gans Creek into one of the premier cross country courses in the world. Thanks to MU Health Care for their support to help us add the infrastructure that makes our course so unique and on the cutting edge of technology. Finally, this course would not have happened without the support of Jim Sterk, Coach Halter and our senior administration here at Mizzou Athletics. This has been truly a team effort between Mizzou and our community, and we are very proud to be hosting the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships."