2024 USA XC Preview: Hocker & Teare v the Bor Brothers, Kelati Tries to Keep Rolling
Cooper Teare will run his first race since leaving Bowerman TC
By Jonathan Gault
The 2024 USATF Cross Country Championships will be held this weekend in Mechanicsville, Va., just outside of Richmond. The top six finishers in each race will earn the right to represent the US at this year’s World Cross Country Championships, to be held in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 30.
It’s a busy year as far as global competitions go. There’s the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow from March 1-3 and of course the Olympics in Paris from August 1-11. A number of US athletes will be focusing on qualifying for those meets, starting with the US Olympic Marathon Trials on February 3. But there are still a few notable names among the entries for USA XC.
Cooper Teare and Cole Hocker, both of whom are now training in Virginia after coach Ben Thomas was rehired by Virginia Tech, are the biggest names in the men’s field. Their biggest competition figures to come from reigning USA XC champion Emmanuel Bor, his brother Hillary (a three-time US steeple champ), Anthony Rotich (3rd at ’23 USA XC), NAZ Elite’s Ahmed Muhumed (8th in the 5,000 at 2023 USAs), and Virginia native Drew Hunter.
Weini Kelati, who set the American record in the half marathon in Houston on Sunday, and 2023 USA XC 6th-placer Katie Izzo lead the women’s field, while the women’s U20 race should be very strong as the US chases a second consecutive team medal in that event at Worlds.
It’s going to be a chilly one. The high on Richmond on Sunday? 31 degrees Fahrenheit.
The races will be streamed live on Saturday afternoon by RunnerSpace+ (requires subscription). Here’s what you need to know ahead of time.
What: 2024 USATF Cross Country Championships
When: Saturday, January 20
Where: Pole Green Park, Mechanicsville, Virginia
How to watch: Live on RunnerSpace+
*Entries
Schedule (all times US Eastern)
12:30 p.m. U20 women
1:15 U20 men
2:00 Open women
2:50 Open men
Men’s race: Emmanuel Bor tries to repeat as Teare and Hocker step up
One year ago, Emmanuel Bor dominated this race, leading by as much as 11 seconds at 7k and going on to win by four. Bor has a terrific track record at USA XC — he was also 2nd in 2020 and 2019 — but did not run well over the second half of 2023, finishing 13th in the 5,000 at USAs after taking 5th the year before. At 35 years old, can he regain his prior form?
Hocker and Teare are training partners once again (photo by Mike Scott for Race Results Weekly)
Hillary Bor doesn’t have the cross country pedigree of his older brother (he was 8th last year and 4th in 2019) but is coming off a big year in which he ran 8:11 in the steeple and won US road titles at 15k (43:11) and 10 miles (46:11).
Another runner who had a big 2023 season was Ahmed Muhumed of HOKA NAZ Elite. The 2022 Florida State grad ran pbs of 13:16 and 27:56 last year and was 4th with half a lap to go in the 5,000 at USAs before running out of gas and fading to 8th. In November, he finished 2nd at the US 5k road champs and was the top American (5th overall) at the Sound Running Cross Champs in Austin.
Anthony Rotich (2020 champ, 3rd last year) and Reid Buchanan (7th last year) were also near the front at USA XC in 2023. And Drew Hunter, who was a Foot Locker champion in high school and finished 8th in the 1500 at USAs last year, is an intriguing addition to Saturday’s start list.
Much of the attention in Richmond will focus on former US 1500m champions Cooper Teare and Cole Hocker. The two were teammates at the University of Oregon from 2019-21 and trained together as pros under coach Ben Thomas in 2022 before Teare left to join the Bowerman Track Club. Though Teare ran pbs of 3:32 and 7:34 last year with BTC, he did not make the 1500 final at USAs a year after winning the title and is now reunited with Hocker and Thomas, only now they’re based in Blacksburg, Va., as Thomas is back coaching at Virginia Tech. This will be Teare’s first race since leaving BTC.
While 10k is on the longer side of Teare and Hocker’s range, both have had past XC success. Teare’s most recent cross country race ended up with him crawling across the finish line (LRC post race interview) but he was 6th at NCAA XC as a 20-year-old in 2019 and was an NCAA 5,000m champion on the track in 2021. Hocker was a Foot Locker champ in high school and won the 2022 USATF Club XC champs (though that race featured a loose defintion of “cross country”) before launching into a successful 2023 track season.
Teare and Hocker are talented enough to contend for the win, but it’s unclear whether either will run World XC if selected. Hocker’s agent Ray Flynn told LetsRun he wasn’t sure about Hocker’s plans; Teare’s agent Isaya Okwiya told LetsRun his plans are to run the 2-mile at Millrose followed by USA indoors, with the rest of his winter schedule TBD. It could simply be the case that both men wanted to run USA XC because it’s only a three-hour drive from their training base. Whatever the reason, it’s encouraging to see two of US distance running’s brightest stars running here in a year when many others are skipping out.
Who wins the 2024 USA XC men's title?
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Women’s race: Kelati favored despite quick turnaround from Houston Half
Can we give some props to Weini Kelati? On Sunday in Houston, she set the American record of 66:25 in her debut half marathon. Six days later, she’s running USA XC in Richmond. And her coach Stephen Haas told LetsRun she plans on running World XC if selected and running the Olympic Trials on the track in June.
Last year, Kelati didn’t run for 10 days before USA XC due to injury but made the team in 5th and finished 21st at World XC. This time, we know she’s in fantastic shape. As long as she is recovered from Houston, she’ll cruise onto the team and will be favored to win.
Kevin Morris photo
Trying to run USA XC and World XC does make it a little more complicated for Kelati to pursue a spot on the Olympic team since she still needs the Olympic standard in both the 5,000 (14:52) and 10,000 (30:40). The good news for Kelati is that a strong cross country season can help her in the 10,000. Remember, eight Olympic 10,000 spots are awarded based on cross country rankings and you need three performances from the last 18 months to get a ranking. Kelati already has one performance in the ranking period (World XC last year) and running USA XC and World XC this year would give her two more.
The bad news for Kelati is that the rankings way overvalue certain meets and way undervalue national championships. For example, Katie Izzo received 1220 points for finishing second at the Sound Running Cross Champs in November. The winner of USA XC receives only 1080 points — the same amount awarded to the 12th-place finisher at the Sound Running Cross Champs.
It’s an absurd system, and it means that if Kelati does want to try to make the Olympics off her cross country ranking, she needs to run one of the three remaining World Cross Country Tour Gold meets: the Botswana International on January 27, Sirikwa Classic in Eldoret on February 3, or the Cross Internacional das Amendoeiras em Flor in Portugal on February 25 (there’s also a meet in Belgium but it’s the day after USA XC). The truth is, Kelati may have missed her window to qualify this way as 10 of the 14 Gold level meets for 2023-24 have already been held.
One woman who did not miss her window is Katie Izzo. The 27-year-old, who was 3rd at NCAA XC in 2019 when Kelati won it, is the only American who has made a concerted effort to chase cross country ranking points and she has been rewarded for it. Here’s a video from the most recent one on December 23, where Izzo defeated a shallow 11-person field in Zaragoza, Spain, and earned 1150 points — 70 more than she would get for winning USA XC.
Thanks to that run, her runner-up finish at the Sound Running Cross Champs, and a 3rd-place finish at Venta de Banos in Spain on December 17, Izzo now occupies one of the Olympic qualifying spots for Paris.
Izzo, who was 6th at USA XC and 31st at World XC in 2023, is also running in Richmond on Saturday and will be among the top contenders should Kelati falter. HOKA NAZ Elite’s Abby Nichols (15:09 5k pb), USATF Club Cross champ Amanda Vestri of ZAP Endurance (15:21 5k pb), Portland State alum Katie Camarena (4:08 1500/15:14 5k), and Emma Hurley (2nd at ’23 US 15K champs) will also be in contention to make the team.
Who wins the 2024 USA XC women's title?
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U20 races: US women’s bronze medal team from 2023 looks to run it back
Last year’s US U20 teams enjoyed their most success at World XC for a generation. Both teams finished 3rd in Australia, with the men earning their first team medal since 1982 and the women earning their first team medal ever. Most of the men’s athletes have aged out or are not returning in 2024, but many of the women are running it back.
Four athletes score per team at World XC, and three of the US’s scorers from 2023 will be racing on Saturday to try to make the team again: Ellie Shea (10th at ’23 World XC), Karrie Baloga (13th), and Zariel Macchia (19th). The fourth scorer, Irene Riggs (12th) turns 20 on December 28 of this year, meaning she is four days too old to compete in the U20 race in 2024.
Those aren’t the only top athletes running this weekend. Allie Zealand, who was the US’s #6 runner at World XC last year (34th) has taken a step forward this year and was 2nd at Foot Lockers in December. And we haven’t even mentioned the pre-race favorite: Leah Stephens, who finished 43rd at NCAA XC in November and was the #4 runner on NC State’s title team as a true freshman. Whatever team ends up representing the US in Serbia in March is going to be very strong.
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