The 2026 cross country season opens Friday at Panorama Farms in Charlottesville, Va., where both North Carolina programs will line up for the Virginia Invitational.
The men’s 6k gets the meet rolling at 8:45 a.m. EST, with the women’s 5k set for 9:30 a.m.
EST. Race times can change.
Carolina returns to a course that has already treated the program well. The Tar Heels last ran the Virginia Invitational in 2024, when both the women and men swept the meet.
On the men’s side, Chris Miltenberg is back at the helm. The women will be guided by first-year head coach Ann Dunn. They’ll also have Brodey Hasty on staff after he arrived in Chapel Hill following a year as an assistant cross-country coach at Lipscomb, where he helped the Bisons finish second at the ASUN Championships.
The meet will give both squads an early look at the competition they’ll see in Charlottesville. The Carolina men are scheduled to race against Virginia, William & Mary, Norfolk State, Johns Hopkins and Howard. The women will face ACC foes Wake Forest and Virginia, along with Howard, Johns Hopkins and William & Mary.
This year’s roster brings plenty of fresh faces, and some of them arrive with serious credentials. UNC has nine newcomers overall.
Among them are freshmen Ellie Barada and Joe Martin, both of whom competed at the U20 World Championships in Eugene, Ore. Barada represented the United States in the women’s 800m, while Martin ran the men’s 800m for New Zealand.
Two more newcomers bring eye-catching high school résumés. Brian Burns made headlines on June 4 by running a sub-four-minute mile, clocking 3:59.70 at the HOKA Festival of Miles in St.
Louis, Mo. Caden Leonard, from Southlake, Texas, was named the Texas Gatorade Boys Cross Country Player of the Year during his sophomore year and later earned “Elite Runner” status from Nike in his final high school season.
UNC also added two transfers. Camryn Wennersten began her college cross-country career by making the SoCon All-Freshman team at Furman and picked up several track and field honors there over three seasons. Pia Beaulieu arrives from Princeton, where she spent four seasons as a dual-sport athlete with the women’s soccer team before joining the cross country and track and field program.
The women’s team enters the season with some national recognition already in hand. The Tar Heels were ranked 13th in the USTFCCCA Preseason Poll and third in the Southeast Region. In conference preseason rankings, the women checked in third in the ACC, while the men were picked eighth.
Live results from the race are available.
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