Parker Wolfe runs down Rocky Hansen to win USA XC as favorites Nico Young and Graham Blanks round out Team USA
By Weldon Johnson
Parker Wolfe of Swoosh TC ended his first professional season in the best way possible, pulling away from NCAA runner-up Rocky Hansen over the final kilometer to win the 2025 USATF Cross Country Championships in Portland, Oregon, in 29:16. Hansen led almost the entire race until Wolfe’s final move and finished second in 29:24. The United States will send a strong team to the World Championships next month on home soil in Tallahassee, Florida. HOKA NAZ Elite teammates Wesley Kiptoo and Ahmed Muhumed finished third and fourth which meant the pre-race favorite Nico Young was fifth, and two-time NCAA XC champion and pre-race #2 Graham Blanks finished sixth to complete Team USA.
How the Race Unfolded
Men’s Lead Pack 2025 USATF Cross Country Championships (Izzy Berenson photo)
By 6k, the top six had separated from the rest of the field. Hansen kept applying pressure, which was reflected in how quickly the group pulled away from seventh. Once the pack began to splinter, both Young and Blanks started to fall back. At 7k, Hansen, Kiptoo, and Wolfe were clear of the field, with Hansen slightly ahead. Just before 8k, Kiptoo slipped on a muddy turn and fell. He bounced up quickly, but it shifted the dynamic of the race. Wolfe now had only Hansen in front of him. Soon after 9k, Wolfe caught his former ACC rival. They ran side by side briefly before Wolfe began his push for home. Once he went, it was decisive. Hansen could not respond, and Wolfe powered away for an authoritative win. Results, full analysis, photos, and post race videos from Portland appear below.
Parker Wolfe Wins 2025 USATF Cross Country Championships (Izzy Berenson photo)
LetsRun USA XC Coverage is Brought to You By Aletheia Run
Aletheia Run is a sensor designed to help improve your running formRUN STRONGER. AVOID INJURY. KNOW WHY 30-day trial Use code LETSRUN10 to save 10% off your first year
Start Your Free Trial Men’s 2025 USATF Cross Country Results
| Place | Name | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parker Wolfe | Swoosh TC | 29:16.4 |
| 2 | Rocky Hansen | Wake Forest University | 29:24.8 |
| 3 | Wesley Kiptoo | HOKA NAZ Elite | 29:27.7 |
| 4 | Ahmed Muhumed | HOKA NAZ Elite | 29:33.7 |
| 5 | Nico Young | adidas | 29:41.6 |
| 6 | Graham Blanks | New Balance | 29:45.0 |
| 7 | Liam Murphy | Swoosh TC | 29:59.4 |
| 8 | Paul Chelimo | American Distance Project | 30:14.8 |
| 9 | Morgan Beadlescomb | adidas | 30:15.9 |
| 10 | Robert Liking | HOKA NAZ Elite | 30:16.1 |
| 11 | Camren Todd | Unattached | 30:17.5 |
| 12 | Sean McGorty | Swoosh TC | 30:18.8 |
| 13 | Olin Hacker | HOKA NAZ Elite | 30:32.0 |
| 14 | Dylan Schubert | ASICS | 30:33.9 |
| 15 | Matt Strangio | Brooks Beasts TC | 30:38.7 |
| 16 | Andrew Hunter | ASICS | 30:41.2 |
| 17 | Drew Bosley | Swoosh TC | 30:42.9 |
| 18 | Cooper Teare | Swoosh TC | 30:48.0 |
| 19 | Wil Smith | Hansons Brooks Distance Project | 30:50.7 |
| 20 | Creed Thompson | Brooks | 30:52.6 |
| 21 | Matthew Wilkinson | Dark Sky Distance | 30:53.0 |
| 22 | Andrew Colley | ZAP Endurance | 30:56.8 |
| 23 | Sam Lawler | Unattached | 31:00.9 |
| 24 | Shuaib Aljabalay | Hansons Brooks Distance Project | 31:03.9 |
| 25 | Aidan O’Gorman | Unattached | 31:11.4 |
| 26 | Daniel Michalski | U.S. Air Force | 31:19.6 |
| 27 | Jacob Pyeatt | Unattached | 31:24.0 |
Quick Takes:
Parker Wolfe arrives as a pro
Parker Wolfe had a phenomenal junior year, winning NCAAs in the 5,000 meters and then finishing third at USAs at the Olympic Trials. He didn’t get to go to the Olympics because he didn’t hit the Olympic standard.
Coming into 2025 with high expectations, in some ways he started to be eclipsed by his UNC teammate Ethan Strand. Wolfe was only sixth indoors in the 3,000 at NCAAs and his outdoor NCAA season was cut short with injury. He then turned pro and has joined Mike Smith’s Nike Flagstaff group.
He was sixth at USAs in the 5,000, but this was his first full training block under Smith, and Wolfe smashed it out of the park.
After his three injury setbacks in 2025, Wolfe said he did nothing special in training. The goal was to be consistent: “A lot of it was just base work. I think we had one, maybe two specific workouts all fall and really it was just stacking weeks… I think all I needed was consistency and that’s what we’re looking for this fall and not trying to get greedy with anything.”
Wolfe is excited to make his first Team USA. After that he’ll do an abbreviated indoor season (two races) and see what he can do by staying healthy.
“We’re going to do two races indoors… call it a short season and get ready for outdoors. Just trying to stay consistent and not get greedy with training or racing,” he said.
As noted above, it was a good day for Smith’s Swoosh TC and UNC alums, as Wolfe’s teammate Strand won the 2k race.
Strand’s win might have been expected against a 2k field that was not that strong, but only 2% of LetsRun.com visitors expected Wolfe to win today.
Rocky Hansen impresses
If you weren’t impressed with Rocky Hansen after his second place at NCAAs, hopefully today convinced you he is the real deal. Rocky noted after the race that the NCAA level is absolutely loaded, and that gave him a lot of confidence. “I was uber confident coming off that. The NCAA is the deepest it’s ever been, almost as deep as a world championship. We have so much international talent. We’ve got 26:50 guys in the NCAA. It’s legit. It is so legit.”
Rocky getting second may not have been a total shock considering his form coming in. He ran with total confidence and was not intimidated by the pros. But he said executing is what it’s all about: “It’s just another day. I’ve trained. I’ve prepared. I just need to execute. It’s what I preach to my teammates. It’s what I’ve learned over however many years I’ve been running.”
Rocky said the plan is to punt indoors, focus on outdoors, and hopefully run a European campaign. But he also said he plans to finish his career at Wake Forest before turning pro.
Graham Blanks hung on to make Team USA, but training setbacks caught up to him
Coming in, Graham Blanks was the second favorite behind Nico Young, but both men were dropped by Rocky Hansen and ultimately had to be content with hanging on to secure spots on Team USA. For Blanks, it will be his third U.S. team, and he was genuinely thrilled afterwards, especially because this year’s World Cross Country Championships will be in the South. He’ll be able to drive from his hometown of Athens, Georgia, to Tallahassee for a global championship, something he called “pretty crazy” and incredibly meaningful.
But Blanks also didn’t sugarcoat why he wasn’t in the mix for the win. He admitted his training coming in “had not gone great,” describing a rushed buildup that left him far from his best. As he put it, “Not much confidence… it was a hard turnaround, less than ideal. I wouldn’t want to open up at this point of the year anyways, much less in a US championship high-stakes environment.”
He said he knew he wasn’t fully ready and that the depth of U.S. distance running leaves no room for shortcuts. “Guys like Parker, Rocky, Wesley, Ahmed, Nico — you can’t just show up and expect great things with two months of training. You have to really be ready.”
Ultimately, Blanks got the job done. “Sometimes you have to put the ego aside and take some punches,” he said. That was enough to punch his ticket to Worlds.
Drew Hunter & Cooper Teare non-factors
Pre-race, the LetsRun crew spent a lot of time debating Drew Hunter and Cooper Teare’s chances to make the team. Hunter ended up in 16th place, 56 seconds outside of Team USA, while Teare was two more places and 7 seconds behind Hunter.
Related
