Duke women’s cross country enters 2026 with a different look, but head coach Kevin Jermyn likes what he sees. The Blue Devils are younger than they were a year ago, yet Jermyn believes the overall talent level is as strong as it has been in recent seasons, and the challenge now is guiding that group one step at a time.
“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.”
That youth is a big part of the story, especially after Duke graduated many of its top runners from last year. Even so, the program is coming into the fall with momentum from the spring track season, when several returners took meaningful steps forward, and with a freshman class that brings serious promise.
“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.”
For Jermyn, that means patience has to be part of the plan. He wants the group healthy, engaged and building together rather than forcing the issue too early.
“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 the top returning runner for Duke after a strong 2025 season. She was second for the Blue Devils at the ACC Championships and then third at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships, where she ran 20:14.3 for 6k, shaving three seconds off her previous best that season. She also posted a personal-record 16:03.63 in the 5k at the Raleigh Relays this spring.
Duke also adds BYU transfer Jayce Farmer, who gives the lineup another proven piece. Farmer ran 19:45 for 6k at last year’s Pre-Nationals race, earned a spot in BYU’s Mountain Region Championships lineup and picked up All-America honors in the distance medley relay at the 2026 NCAA Indoor National Championships.
Graduate student Poppy Craig-McFeely, Anna Callahn and Grace Geyer are back as well after being part of last year’s ACC Championship lineup. All three turned in personal bests at the 2025 ACC Championships, with Craig-McFeely dipping under 21 minutes, and each also set career-best track marks during the spring.
The freshman class brings even more depth. Duke added Cassidy Armstrong of Seattle, Washington; Ellie Maddox of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Henriette Radzikowski of Erlenbach, Switzerland; Sophia Szolosi of Athens, Ohio; and Sundara Weber of Sandwich, Illinois.
Each arrived with a decorated scholastic resume. Radzikowski, the only international runner in the group, placed 14th in the Swiss Cross Country Championships 8.1-kilometer race in 32:05.
Maddox, a two-time South Dakota State Champion, owns the group’s fastest 5k at 16:33 from the Augustana Twilight Meet. Szolosi captured back-to-back distance triple crowns - cross country, 1,600 and 3,200 state titles - and was named the Gatorade Ohio Girls Cross Country Athlete of the Year.
Weber won the IHSA State Cross Country Championship as a senior in 15:54.2 for three miles and has a 5k best of 16:58.03, good for third at the NXR Midwest Regional Championship. Armstrong was the runner-up at the WIAA State Cross Country Championships last season and posted a personal best of 16:43.40 as a junior.
Jermyn believes the numbers back up the upside. The roster, he said, features more athletes arriving with faster PRs than the year before, even if the group is younger overall. The focus, though, is on getting them into the right routine and the right mindset.
“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.”
Duke opens its season Sept. 18 at the adidas XC Challenge in Cary, North Carolina, with the top runners set to race the following weekend at the Meadows Challenge hosted by Princeton. Jermyn said the staff will spend much of the year teaching, shaping and helping the athletes become the best version of themselves within the program.
“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.
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