Upcoming Event: Cross Country versus adidas XC Challenge on September 18, 2026 at M: 5:15 p.m./W: 5:55 p.m.
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M: 5:15 p.m./W: 5:55 p.m.
Cross Country
vs adidas XC Challenge
Photo by: Duke Athletics
Previewing Duke Women’s Cross Country 2026
9/10/2026 8:30:00 AM | Cross Country
The Duke women's cross country team may be young on paper, but head coach Kevin Jermyn believes this is the most talented overall group the Blue Devils have had in recent years and it will be up to him to steer the group forward step by step.
"It's going to feel very different in terms of the team," said Jermyn about this year's cross country squad. "The difference with this group is most of our new talent is now freshmen and 17, 18 and 19 years of age. So, our age demographics definitely drastically changed, but our young kids are super talented."
Duke, after graduating many of its top runners from a year ago, is buoyed by the outstanding development of the returning athletes during the spring track season and an incredibly talented freshman class.
"I'm prepared for having to do a lot more coaching and teaching," Jermyn said. "We don't have people who are tied to a certain way of doing things. They're kind of fresh and new. So, it will be a big teaching year. I'd say we have to balance the goal of pushing to make nationals this year with also the mindset of building consistency and stability for the future."
Perhaps in running terms, Jermyn means it's not a sprint, but a marathon with this team. He understands the demands of being a collegiate athlete for the first time can put upon a young athlete and he also understands races aren't won in a week or a month. Sometimes it might even take a year.
"Keep them healthy, keep them happy. Keep them having fun and keep on building," Jermyn said. "And ironically, usually when you have that mindset, you actually end up doing better anyway than when you're pressing, taking risks and trying to be perfect. We're going to kind of let a new team form and grow, keep them healthy, get them experience and have fun racing. Then we'll see where we stack up nationally."
Sophomore Victoria Garces is Duke's top returning runner from last season after running a personal best in the 6k in her first NCAA Southeast Regional Championships. She was second across the line for the Blue Devils in the ACC Championships and third at the regional race, hitting the tape in 20:14.3 – a three-second improvement from her previous best 6k that season. This past spring, Garces covered 5k on the track in a personal record time of 16:03.63 at the Raleigh Relays.
Bolstering the Blue Devil lineup will be BYU transfer Jayce Farmer. She ran a speedy 19:45 6k at last year's Pre-Nationals race and earned a spot in BYU's Mountain Region Championships lineup. On the track, the San Diego, California, native garnered All-America honors in the distance medley relay at the 2026 NCAA Indoor National Championships.
Also back from last year's ACC Championship lineup are graduate student Poppy Craig-McFeely, Anna Callahn and Grace Geyer. Each of them turned in personal-best performances at the 2025 ACC Championships with Craig-McFeely ticking under 21 minutes. All three also clocked their fastest career times on the track this past spring, vaulting them into this fall's racing season.
Jermyn added five freshmen to the roster in Cassidy Armstrong (Seattle, Washington), Ellie Maddox (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Henriette Radzikowski (Erlenbach, Switzerland), Sophia Szolosi (Athens, Ohio) and Sundara Weber (Sandwich, Illinois). Each of them excelled at the scholastic level, breaking school records, winning state championships among other honors. Radzikowski, the lone international runner of the group, finished 14th in the Swiss Cross Country Championships 8.1-kilometer race. She covered the course in 32:05.
Maddox, a two-time South Dakota State Champion, holds the fastest 5k of the other four, running a 16:33 at the Augustana Twilight Meet. Szolosi won back-to-back distance triple crowns – cross country, 1,600 and 3,200 state titles at the respective state championship meets en route to being named the Gatorade Ohio Girls Cross Country Athlete of the Year.
Weber won the IHSA State Cross Country Championship as a senior with a three-mile time of 15:54.2 and owns a 5k best of 16:58.03 to finish third at the NXR Midwest Regional Championship. Armstrong was the runner-up at the WIAA State Cross Country Championships last season and hit a personal best as a junior at 16:43.40.
"I do think if you look at the PRs in a team, we have more people coming into this year with faster PRs than we did the year before," Jermyn said. "But we are a bit younger. Most of all, we are trying to help them make the same decisions they would make all summer and make them in a team environment where they're not trying to prove themselves to themselves, to their other teammates, or to me. We are just trying to get them in the headspace where they show up to practice, their body tells them what to do, and they listen to that."
While the Blue Devils focus on themselves and being good teammates, Jermyn and his staff will keep their eyes locked in on fine-tuning the small details necessary to be elite.
The young squad hits the course for the first time Sept. 18 at the adidas XC Challenge in Cary, North Carolina. The top runners will get their first taste of racing the following weekend at the Meadows Challenge hosted by Princeton.
"We're going to spend a lot of the year making sure we're good teachers and teaching them how to be the best version of themselves here," Jermyn said.
Stay tuned for what appears to be a bright future for these Blue Devil harriers.
#GoDuke
"It's going to feel very different in terms of the team," said Jermyn about this year's cross country squad. "The difference with this group is most of our new talent is now freshmen and 17, 18 and 19 years of age. So, our age demographics definitely drastically changed, but our young kids are super talented."
Duke, after graduating many of its top runners from a year ago, is buoyed by the outstanding development of the returning athletes during the spring track season and an incredibly talented freshman class.
"I'm prepared for having to do a lot more coaching and teaching," Jermyn said. "We don't have people who are tied to a certain way of doing things. They're kind of fresh and new. So, it will be a big teaching year. I'd say we have to balance the goal of pushing to make nationals this year with also the mindset of building consistency and stability for the future."
Perhaps in running terms, Jermyn means it's not a sprint, but a marathon with this team. He understands the demands of being a collegiate athlete for the first time can put upon a young athlete and he also understands races aren't won in a week or a month. Sometimes it might even take a year.
"Keep them healthy, keep them happy. Keep them having fun and keep on building," Jermyn said. "And ironically, usually when you have that mindset, you actually end up doing better anyway than when you're pressing, taking risks and trying to be perfect. We're going to kind of let a new team form and grow, keep them healthy, get them experience and have fun racing. Then we'll see where we stack up nationally."
Sophomore Victoria Garces is Duke's top returning runner from last season after running a personal best in the 6k in her first NCAA Southeast Regional Championships. She was second across the line for the Blue Devils in the ACC Championships and third at the regional race, hitting the tape in 20:14.3 – a three-second improvement from her previous best 6k that season. This past spring, Garces covered 5k on the track in a personal record time of 16:03.63 at the Raleigh Relays.
Bolstering the Blue Devil lineup will be BYU transfer Jayce Farmer. She ran a speedy 19:45 6k at last year's Pre-Nationals race and earned a spot in BYU's Mountain Region Championships lineup. On the track, the San Diego, California, native garnered All-America honors in the distance medley relay at the 2026 NCAA Indoor National Championships.
Also back from last year's ACC Championship lineup are graduate student Poppy Craig-McFeely, Anna Callahn and Grace Geyer. Each of them turned in personal-best performances at the 2025 ACC Championships with Craig-McFeely ticking under 21 minutes. All three also clocked their fastest career times on the track this past spring, vaulting them into this fall's racing season.
Jermyn added five freshmen to the roster in Cassidy Armstrong (Seattle, Washington), Ellie Maddox (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Henriette Radzikowski (Erlenbach, Switzerland), Sophia Szolosi (Athens, Ohio) and Sundara Weber (Sandwich, Illinois). Each of them excelled at the scholastic level, breaking school records, winning state championships among other honors. Radzikowski, the lone international runner of the group, finished 14th in the Swiss Cross Country Championships 8.1-kilometer race. She covered the course in 32:05.
Maddox, a two-time South Dakota State Champion, holds the fastest 5k of the other four, running a 16:33 at the Augustana Twilight Meet. Szolosi won back-to-back distance triple crowns – cross country, 1,600 and 3,200 state titles at the respective state championship meets en route to being named the Gatorade Ohio Girls Cross Country Athlete of the Year.
Weber won the IHSA State Cross Country Championship as a senior with a three-mile time of 15:54.2 and owns a 5k best of 16:58.03 to finish third at the NXR Midwest Regional Championship. Armstrong was the runner-up at the WIAA State Cross Country Championships last season and hit a personal best as a junior at 16:43.40.
"I do think if you look at the PRs in a team, we have more people coming into this year with faster PRs than we did the year before," Jermyn said. "But we are a bit younger. Most of all, we are trying to help them make the same decisions they would make all summer and make them in a team environment where they're not trying to prove themselves to themselves, to their other teammates, or to me. We are just trying to get them in the headspace where they show up to practice, their body tells them what to do, and they listen to that."
While the Blue Devils focus on themselves and being good teammates, Jermyn and his staff will keep their eyes locked in on fine-tuning the small details necessary to be elite.
The young squad hits the course for the first time Sept. 18 at the adidas XC Challenge in Cary, North Carolina. The top runners will get their first taste of racing the following weekend at the Meadows Challenge hosted by Princeton.
"We're going to spend a lot of the year making sure we're good teachers and teaching them how to be the best version of themselves here," Jermyn said.
Stay tuned for what appears to be a bright future for these Blue Devil harriers.
#GoDuke
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