I would say that from my experiences with my Garmn 235 forerunner, its the opposite- it tends to frequently under measure most of my runs, to the degree of roughly .1 every 3 miles or so. I had the opportunity to run the course both Friday and Saturday before the men's race and recorded 4.96 and 4.95 for both runs with the only difference being that I didn't finish through the finish line each time but next to it based on the fences the last 100 meters and not wanting to mess with the finish pads. Even with a minuscule margin of error, that still means it wasn't significantly off of an 8k if it was short at all.
Further, two of my colleague WIAC coaches wheeled the 8k and the 6k course and found the 8k to be right on (4.97) whereas the 6k was just a tad short 3.72. Take it for what you will.
Being an observer and coach for one of the institutions, my average athlete PR'd by 43 seconds so I of course would say it doesn't past the eye test. However, the course was hard, no wind, ran basically like a grass track and was a fast race from the gun which is rare for a Division 3 race, typically it bunches until halfway. There have been plenty of perfect storm days, rarely in cross but much more common in track, where you see great weather and fast races lead to massive PRs and this is one of those days.
Also, for another point of comparison, the race was won by a 29:10 guy and he ran 23:20 which converts cleanly to his 10k PR, showing that the times make sense, even if they don't pass the eye test.