The Pitt State men’s and women’s cross-country teams opened their 2025 season on Aug. 23, with the annual Pitt State Alumni Race. In the women’s three-mile run, junior Paige Mullen took first place with a time of 16:50. Mullen, who earned All-MIAA honors in 2023, continues to be one of the Gorillas’ top returners after helping the women capture the MIAA Championship, finish second at Regionals, and place 19th at the NCAA Division II Championships last season. Her strong start at the Alumni Race was a positive sign for a squad looking to defend its conference crown and make another postseason run.
On the men’s side, redshirt junior Dylan Sprecker crossed the line first in the four-mile race with a time of 19:26. Sprecker has already established himself as one of the top runners in the region, earning All-MIAA honors in both 2023 and 2024 along with All-Region recognition in 2024. Last season, he helped the men’s team finish as the MIAA runner-up, third at Regionals, and record a seventh-place team finish at the NCAA Division II Championships. His win at the Alumni Race highlighted his ability to remain a consistent leader as the Gorillas aim to climb even higher this fall.
While the Alumni Race acts more akin to a preseason warmup, the Gorillas face their first race against other teams on Sep. 5, at the Bearcat cross-country Invitational located in Bolivar, MO. Head coach Ben Barrows explained that the Bearcat Invitational is more about building experience for younger athletes who are still adjusting to collegiate distances. “We probably won’t race a whole lot of our top runners there, but just a chance for the younger ones to get some experience competing and continue to adapt to longer races for men, especially when they’re jumping up from 5K in high school to four miles at some early meets to 8K later on.” Barrows said.
The Gorillas enter the new season with expectations to remain among the top programs in the MIAA and the Central Region. Coach Barrows noted that while repeating past success will be difficult, the goals never change. “The goal is always to win the conference championship. Some years it’s harder to do that than others, but we always want to be in a position where we have a chance,” Barrows said. “There are some other very strong programs in the conference, both men and women, that are going to be tough. No matter what, we still always want to try to put ourselves in a position to have a chance to win that.”
Barrows added that both squads will rely on their depth after graduating several standout performers from last year’s rosters. “In the men’s side, it’s a two-team race and on the women’s side, there are multiple teams that have some sort of shot,” he said. “I think we have a very strong top crew in both genders. Even though we lost a lot of firepower from last year’s squad, I think we’ve got some athletes that are ready to fill those shoes.”