MEET NOTES
MEET HISTORY
- The Princeton Meadows Challenge, previously known as the Princeton Fall Classic, was first held on the newly opened Princeton Meadows Campus course on October 18, 2024.
- The event was created as a high-level national showcase to celebrate and debut Princeton University’s newly redesigned, state-of-the-art Meadows Campus cross country course.
- Twenty-two collegiate teams competed in the first-ever race in 2024.
2026 EDITION
- The women will compete in a 6k beginning at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26.
- Featured institutions are Princeton, Alabama, North Carolina, Wake Forest, La Salle, Iona, Fordham, Providence, Boston, Georgetown, Texas A&M
- Live results will be available and PDF results will be available on Penn State’s schedule following the meets.
2024 REWIND
- The 2024 edition of the Princeton Fall Classic saw the Penn State women finish fourth in a field of 22 teams (the Nittany Lions did not compete at the event in 2025).
- The Nittany Lions’ highest finisher was Florence Caron ’25, who placed third in a then-personal-best time of 19:25.1, a 30-second improvement that put her just nine seconds behind first-place finisher Kimberley May.
LAST TIME OUT
- On Friday, Sept. 11, Penn State hosted the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational.
- The women’s team finished with 36 points, placing all five scorers in the top 11 and finishing just four points behind first-place Syracuse (32).
- First-year Vivian Kipruto earned Big Ten Women’s Freshman of the Week as she led the Nittany Lions with a fourth-place finish in 20:45.4.
- Graduate student Katie Dallas followed closely behind, placing fifth in 20:47.8. Sophomore Caroline Tribett crossed the line in seventh at 20:57.0, while first-year Bailey Espinosa placed ninth in 20:59.1 in her collegiate cross country debut. First-year Reese Miller rounded out Penn State’s five scorers with an 11th-place finish in 21:05.0.
FRESH FACES
- The women’s team welcomes seven newcomers to the roster: Ana Bondy (Carlisle, Pa.), Fancy Chepkoech (Kenya), Bailey Espinosa (Lewisburg, Pa.), Grace Fritzman (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Vivian Kipruto (Kenya), Reese Miller (Gwynedd Valley, Pa.) and Ella White (Wake Forest, N.C./UNC Charlotte).
THE RETURNERS
- Women’s cross country welcomes back 11 returners including graduate students Charlotte Costich (Buffalo, N.Y.), Katie Dallas (West Lawn, Pa.) and Lea Hatcher (Morgantown, W. Va.,); senior Claire Zubey (Spring City, Pa.); and sophomores Liliah Gordon (Chesterfield, N.J.), Jane Kratz (Pottstown, Pa.), Wren Kucler (Wexford, Pa.), Eva Kynaston (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Emma Brooke Levering (Homewood, Ala.), Lauren Stine (Hagerstown, Md.) and Caroline Tribett (Gainesville, Va.).
NATIONALLY RANKED | REGIONALLY RECOGNIZED
- The Nittany Lions enter the 2026 cross country season with the women ranked No. 10 nationally and No. 2 regionally, following a historic 2025 season, while the men check in at No. 4 in the region.
BIG TEN RUNNER TO WATCH
- Graduate student Charlotte Costich was named a Big Ten Runner to Watch by the conference on Aug. 19 ahead of the 2026 season.
- Costich was a scoring runner in all six meets in which she competed during the 2025 season.
- She helped Penn State record four top-two team finishes, including victories at the Dolan Duals and Spiked Shoe Invitational and runner-up finishes at the Paul Short Run and Big Ten Championships.
- Costich finished as the Nittany Lions’ No. 2 runner in each of her final three races at the Nuttycombe Invitational, Big Ten Championships and NCAA Championships.
- She earned Second-Team All-Big Ten honors after placing eighth at the conference championships, helping Penn State finish second with 78 points.
- Costich capped the season by placing 93rd as Penn State’s No. 2 finisher at the NCAA Championships, contributing to the Nittany Lions’ 10th-place team finish.
ONE FOR THE BOOKS
- During 2025 season, the women recorded five top-three team finishes.
- The women earned their national and regional rankings after finishing 10th at the 2025 NCAA Championships, marking the program’s highest finish since 1994.
- Florence Caron ’25 earned a 14th-place finish, the highest by a Nittany Lion at the NCAA Championships in 25 years.
- Caron also earned back-to-back All-America finishes in 2024 and 2025, marking the first time a Nittany Lion accomplished the feat since the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
- The 2025 NCAA Championships marked the third consecutive season the women qualified for the national meet, the program’s first stretch of at least three consecutive appearances since 2016-19.
- On the men’s side, Nick Sloff finished 132nd at the NCAA Championships, marking the highest finish by a Penn State men’s runner since 2013.
PUTTING THE BIG TEN ON NOTICE
- The women’s team earned a second-place finish at the 2025 Big Ten Championships, its best result since also finishing second in 2016.
- Florence Caron’s career-best fourth-place finish earned her a second consecutive First Team All-Big Ten honor.
- Charlotte Costich and Ada Rand joined Caron in earning All-Big Ten honors, marking the program’s most since 2020. Costich ran 20:11.7 to place eighth and earn the first All-Big Ten First Team honor of her career. Rand rounded out Penn State’s top three finishers, running 20:23.3 to earn All-Big Ten honors for the first time in her career.